Drought conditions are becoming \u201ca crisis\u201d in some areas of Hawaii Island.<\/p>\n
Tina Stall, a National Weather Service hydrologist in Honolulu, said the driest areas are in the Ka\u2018u and Hamakua districts, as well as the leeward lower elevations of Kohala.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really a lot of the same,\u201d said Stall, comparing July\u2019s rainfall and the first week of August to June. \u201cThere\u2019s not much improvement for most areas, and the Hamakua and Ka\u2018u areas are still in pretty bad shape.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hilo International Airport, with 3.75 inches of rain, and Waiakea Experimental Station, with 4.7 inches, had their driest July since 2010, while Hakalau, at 1.26 inches, experienced its driest July since 2011.<\/p>\n
Kealakomo, at 0.4 inches, had its second-driest July on record, as did Waimea, at 1.4 inches.<\/p>\n
Conditions on the island range from abnormally dry to extreme drought, and the absence of rain has left many areas quite dry and prone to wildfires.<\/p>\n
The Big Island has had several red flag warning days in the past month, the same conditions where abnormally arid and windy conditions lead to increased fire hazards. <\/p>\n
Those were the conditions in effect when Maui had the catastrophic fires two years ago that left more than 100 people dead. West Hawaii had wind-driven wildfires, as well, without the loss of life, but with seven structures destroyed or damaged.<\/p>\n
A brush fire on parched pastureland near Paauilo on Thursday blackened about 150 acres, requiring both county helicopters to make water drops and bulldozers to cut fire breaks. Another brush fire was reported in the area mid-afternoon Friday, causing a road closure on Highway 19 between the 36 and 39 mile markers and advisories to residents near Old Mill Road in Paauilo to be prepared for evacuation.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, there was a small fire near the 21-mile marker of Highway 19 on the Hamakua Coast that led to the temporary closure of the Hilo-bound lane. <\/p>\n
A nearby rain gauge in Honokaa received just 2.28 inches for July, 31% of its usual total for the month, and 19.38 inches for the first seven months of the year, 32% of average.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re about halfway through the dry season, so we\u2019ve got a ways to go yet,\u201d said Talmadge Magno, Hawaii County Civil Defense administrator. \u201cWe knew we were going to have an issue coming out of the wet season this past winter, because rainfall was below average already.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was talking \u2026 to the National Weather Service (on Thursday), and we\u2019re probably about 50% under what we\u2019re supposed to have,\u201d Magno continued. \u201cIt\u2019s contributing to fires, and you have some folks on catchment, so we\u2019re monitoring that to make sure the Department of Water Supply has enough spigots out for folks, enough for the water haulers so they can provide for the folks who are on catchment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re also encouraging people to order water early, before they run out, basically.\u201d<\/p>\n
State Sen. Tim Richards of Waimea, a large-animal veterinarian who grew up on Kahua Ranch, said the drought in some areas \u2014 including Waimea, Kohala and Hamakua \u2014 \u201cis absolutely a crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause of our tropical grasses, most of our livestock get almost half of their water through grazing,\u201d Richards said. \u201cBut when it\u2019s really dry, the demand for water almost doubles because the livestock gets water from the grass itself. And that\u2019s where it really strains our watering system.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe water systems are being put to the test. The Hamakua ranchers are running out of stock water. We just got permission to tap into the Waimea water system that (the state Department of Agriculture) runs to allow us to pull water for emergency services for livestock. We\u2019re short of feed right now, but more pressing than that is the shortage of drinking water.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd of course, the crops, everything that relies upon rain, everything\u2019s being impacted by that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drought conditions are becoming \u201ca crisis\u201d in some areas of Hawaii Island. Tina Stall, a National Weather Service…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[3802,192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-73109","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-editors-picks","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}