A Wet August For Kona Coffee Farmers, Dry Elsewhere
From: westhawaiitoday.com
It was a drier-than-average August in East Hawaii, while rainfall totals in the Kona coffee belt, which experiences its rainy season in the summer, were above average for the month.
That’s according to the monthly precipitation summary prepared by Kevin Kodama, senior service hydrologist at the National Weather Service in Honolulu.
Kodama said that most Big Island gauges “logged mostly below average rainfall totals for the month of August,” but noted “pockets of near-to-above-normal amounts, moist notably along the slopes of the North and South Kona districts and the windward slopes of the Kohala Mountains.”
Hilo International Airport reported its lowest August total since 2008, with 4.25 inches, 43% of its August norm of 9.85 inches. However, Hilo’s 74.64 inches of rainfall is 93% of its yearly norm of 79.94 inches for the first eight months of the year.
