Nate’s Adventures: Dry Wet Season in Hawaiʻi

by Nate Yuen | Reading time: 1.5 minutes

Dry Wet Season in Hawaiʻi

We have been experiencing a dry wet season. While hiking above Honolulu, I noticed many sections of the Puʻu Pia, Kolowalu, and Waʻahila Trails that should be really muddy -- a virtual mud swamp -- are dry.

There are mauka showers keeping the vegetation green but not enough to saturate the ground. The wettest parts of the trails are dry which indicates the land is getting less rainfall that it normally does.

While this section is wet, it used to be a muddy morass which is why the ladder was placed at this location. Having the wettest parts of the trails dry is an indication of less rainfall in the area.

There are also stagnant pools in the drainage which indicates not enough rain fell to flush out the stream bed. Which means our aquifer is not being replenished.

Hāmākua Marsh is suffering from drought during the rainy season. There was one big rain event back in December 2021 but since then Koʻolaupoko has received considerably less rainfall than in previous winters. The ʻakekeke -- ruddy turnstones -- are able to fly away and forage elsewhere but not all creatures can escape the ravages of drought.

On March 17, 2022 -- at the height of the rainy season -- there was no water in Mānoa Falls. I have seen Mānoa Falls like this at height of the dry season, when the water in the drainage becomes depleted. But I have never seen Mānoa Falls like this during the wet season.

November through March is the wet season -- the time of year our aquifers need to be recharged – to sustain us through the dry summer months. But we have not been having the rains needed to soak into the ground to replenish our aquifer. This does not bode well for us as we enter the summer months.