I woke up this morning, and was initially confused as to why. It took my sleep-befuddled mind a few seconds to realize it was because my alarm was going off, because it was almost muffled by an equally loud, but initially unfamiliar sound: pouring rain.
This October was the driest October on record in Hawaii, with most of the state in moderate to severe drought and multiple rain gauges around the state breaking records for lowest recorded rainfall. Needless to say it's been quite dry the last several months, so it was with a sense of relief that I woke up to pouring rain this morning from the Kona low hanging out to the west of islands.
With the sudden and steep onset of rain, I took an opportunity to drive up to Waiʻale Falls today. Just after midnight yesterday, the flow was about 12 cubic feet per second. It doubled to about 24 cfps from the first light showers from the approaching system yesterday, then this morning shot up to around 7,950 cfps when I got there to take this photo:
It's always pretty impressive to see the Wailuku in flood. This front also brought the first snow of the season to the mauna peaks, and will hopefully go some way to alleviating the drought. I'm still sorting through photos and videos from my Arizona trip, but I thought I'd celebrate the rains' return in a quick post. Oh, and the post title? It's an ancient Hawaiian proverb, “uē ka lani, ola ka honua”: the heavens weep, the earth lives. A hui hou!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Think I said something interesting or insightful? Let me know what you thought! Or even just drop in and say "hi" once in a while - I always enjoy reading comments.