State weather records for August fall like raindrops
Jey Jones, the University of Hawaii football team nurse, sought shelter in a dugout at Aloha Stadium as rain poured at the start of practice Thursday. The team held its second practice at the stadium in preparation for its Sept. 3 home opener against Colorado.
August, normally the driest month of the year in Hawaii, was the wettest on record for Honolulu, Lihue and Kahului, but the rains did not set a monthly record in Hilo. Several monthly heat records also fell in August.
According to the National Weather Service, the monthly rainfall of 7.6 inches in Honolulu, nearly 9.9 inches in Lihue, and 2.3 inches in Kahului set records for August. But in Hilo, the 17.2 inches of rain did not beat the record of 26.9 inches set in 1991.
The temperature at the Honolulu Airport hit 93 degrees three times in August, tying the record for the hottest daily temperature for that month. Honolulu also tied the daily high temperature twice last month.
In Lihue, the airport thermometer did hit 90 degrees on Aug. 23, tying the record for the warmest August day. It was the hottest August on record at the Kahului Airport, where the average monthly temperature of 91.3 degrees set a record.
Kahului also set records for the wettest day in August when 1.46 inches of rain fell on Aug. 24.
In Hilo, the 2.74 inches of rain that fell on Aug. 17, fell well short of the record of Aug. 3, 1991, when Hilo had 9.64 inches. But Hilo did set a record for the hottest August with an average high temperature of 86.6 degrees.
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Statewide, 37 daily records for temperature and rainfall were tied or broken in August, a month of unusually extreme weather produced in part by the passing of four hurricanes.
Hilo in particular suffered through some of the worst late-summer weather in memory, with 17 high-temperature records for the date tied or broken. Thanks to Tropical Depression Hilda, Hilo also recorded two daily records for maximum rainfall on Aug. 13 and 14 (1.88 inches and 2.42 inches, respectively).
Some of the records matched or broken during the last two weeks went back several decades, according to the weather service. On Aug. 21, Kahului recorded a high temperature of 94 degree, matching the old record set on the date in 1951. Three days later, 1.46 inches of rain fell on Kahului, shattering the old record for the date of 0.13 inches set in 1957. On Aug. 27, Honolulu recorded 1.93 inches of rainfall, breaking the old record of 0.27 set on that date in 1947.
