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What’s The Weather Like in Hawaii?Whenever I am speaking to someone in the mainland they always ask me, “So, how’s the weather in Hawaii?” Of course, I feel a little bad and say, “Well, it’s a beautiful and sunny day”.
I don’t need to bundle up in below 30 degree weather. I am currently not experiencing a blizzard and hail like condition, neither am I worried about the slick road home after work. Nope, it’s sunny today and people always respond by saying, “Wow, you’re lucky to be living in Hawaii.” To those people I say, thank you for reminding me about my life and the things I need to be grateful for.
Where I live, I’d have to say that it is sunny 355 days out of the year. When it rains, I am dancing in it and if it happens to rain hard then it floods since the ground is not used to the quick out pouring of rain. Many of us don’t know how to act when it rains. We just rejoice and thank God the rain can fill our water tables. Every island depends on the water (link to H2O site coming soon!) That answer to, “what’s the weather like?”, also depends upon what part of the island you live in. It might be hot where I live, since I live on the south side of the island, but my mother lives 12 miles from me and she gets rain when I get none. It rains in her part of the island about 45% of the year. Not all day though, sometimes a little sprinkle here and there, a down pour and then nothing all in one day. Not too much to worry about. That is the unique beauty of Hawaii, one minute you may be in cool, foggy like conditions and in 20 minutes you can be in hot dry like conditions near the beach. Beaches are no more than 30 minutes away. For me, 10 minutes tops. Again, factors determining that are what island, what part of the island, and traffic conditions. For the past 6 years we have seen lush, green winters. Years prior to that have been drought like conditions. No complaints there too since places in Texas and other dessert environments have livestock dying over for lack of water. But for us, it hasn’t been quite as harsh. We are reminded to, “‘E malama ‘I ka wai”, take care of our water, water means life. About 2 years ago, floods was life threatening. On the island of Kauai, the Koloku(check) dam broke and rushed down the hills sweeping away the homes in it’s path, leaving no survivors. People who’s bodies have still not been found. At certain parts of the islands, especially in coastal and low lands, flooding in homes are prevalent during rainy season. Rivers overflow for lack of maintenance and blocking of river mouths for it to flow out into the ocean. Many homes that are nearby are always flooded into. Also, a year ago, University of Hawaii experienced flooding in its Manoa Library and science lab costing millions of dollars in damage. Yes, we have our share of problems, but still “lucky we live in Hawaii”. The last big storm we had was back in 1992 during Hurricane Iniki. I wouldn’t say that we will not see another one, but I’d just say we have not seen one yet.
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