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Isles register
record-low rainfall

UH rain gauge readings
indicate it's 'the driest it's
been in the last 35 years'

---

By Janine Tully
Star-Bulletin

Farmers hoping for a repeat of November's drenching that soaked parched lands on the Leeward side of the Big Island and Maui were disappointed in December, as most islands had rainfall levels much lower than normal.

Farmers have been coping with a drought that has dried their pastures for three years.

Sumner Erdman, president of Ulupalakua Ranch on Maui, is still using a drought management program despite light rains that fell on his ranch last week. "Unless we see two or three heavy rains, like we saw in November, I won't go out of that management," Erdman said.

Last week's rainfall was barely more than 1 inch, not enough to really soak the soil, he said.

"The grass looks green, but it's not very thick or strong and dries up quickly." With luck, he said, he will have pasture for another two months.

Kevin Kodama, senior hydrologist for the National Weather Service, said that Kapapala, where 37 inches of rain fell in November in just one day, had less than 1 inch in December. Most of the islands were way below their rainfall norm last month, he said.

As a whole, last year was drier than 1999, according to Kodama.

Some of the driest areas were Hanapepe on Kauai, with 11.5 inches of rain, or 38 percent of the region's normal rainfall; Waianae on Oahu, with 3.7 inches, at 17 percent of the norm; Ulupalakua, with 14.3 inches, at 40 percent; and Kahua on the Big Island, with 26.4 inches, at 33 percent.

Hilo and Kapapala on the Big Island recorded the highest amount of rain for the year, slightly above the norm, with 144 inches and 67.9 inches, respectively.

Corky Bryan, vice president of livestock for Parker Ranch at Waimea, said the 2- to 7-inch rainfall the ranch received in November "was a good soaking rain," enough to take them into the summer. "It made a big difference."

Tom Schroeder, a University of Hawaii meteorologist, believes Hawaii is still in a dry-spell cycle. "In November it looked like we were going to break out of it, but we lapsed back in it in December."

But he cautioned against making assumptions about the winter months ahead. "There is no correlation between the total rainfall in December and January because of changes in large-scale weather patterns," Schroeder said.

But if readings from a rain gauge installed outside the UH geophysics building are an indication, the outlook is not promising. "The gauge is the driest it's been in the last 35 years," he said.

Dean Okimoto, vice president of the Hawaii Farm Bureau, said farmers could use a little more rain during the winter months.

"It's still not a normal winter," said Okimoto, who grows vegetables and herbs in Waimanalo. "With El Nino and Nina gone, we thought it would be a normal winter, and it hasn't been so far. We've had beautiful weather in January so far."

The November rains dumped more rain than orchard growers needed -- about 9 inches, Okimoto said. If there's too much rain, the greens are wiped out, he said. Ideally, he would like to see less than an inch of rain fall on his crop three times a week.

Longtime Kahaluu taro grower Leonard Wong is recycling the water that seeps out of the fields to irrigate his taro patches. Wong said he uses "every bit of water" to irrigate his 40 acres. "There's been little rain," he said.