Where is all the rain?

Maybe it’s global warming. Maybe it’s just the cyclical nature of nature. Whatever it is, it doesn’t rain in Hawaii like it used to.

Hawaii needs an abundance of fresh water each day because humans here are so wasteful of the resource. The state’s population exceeds 1.3-million, the majority of whom live on Oahu. That population uses water faster than nature provides it.

Even if there was a balance between water usage and replenishment, which there is not, replenishment seems to be a thought from the distant past. It just doesn’t rain as much as it used to. We have less water on Oahu than we used to.

Remarkably, weather on each island is a bit different. The Kona side of the Big Island is dry and warm. The Hilo side is wet and humid. Upcountry Maui is in the midst of a decades old draught. Kauai seems to have an abundance of water and a shortage of people using it.

Oahu is in danger of drying up, despite the 40 Days and Nights of Rain a year or so ago. The slopes of Diamond Head stayed green until July that year. It was wet over all the islands; even causing a damaging flood and dam break on Kauai.

Regarding rain, my first fall semester at the University of Hawaii, Manoa was eventful and memorable. The first day was sunny and pleasant. I picked up all my books and made each class and looked forward to basking in the tropic breezes between classes.

The next day it rained. Not just rain, but rain, and rain, and rain on top of rain. Manoa rain. Did I mention the wind? Whatever is two levels beyond completely soaked is where I was before classes ended that day. Did I mention that I didn’t have an umbrella (not that it would do that much good when it rains sideways in Manoa)?

My third day at UH found me carrying a light jacket and an umbrella between classes, both of which became close friends over the next few years.

I don’t think it rains that way anymore in Hawaii, certainly not near Honolulu, Koolau clouds notwithstanding. Where is the rain? Global warming? Cycles of nature? Is Hawaii destined to be a hot rock in the rising tides of the Pacific?

There is a problem with comparing global warming trends as influenced by mankind’s presence on the planet, to a simple cycle of nature that will turn back to whatever it once was if we wait long enough. If we fix the former, does that affect the latter? If we wait for the latter to fix itself, will we end up with the former and not be able to undo the damage?

Meanwhile, it’s not raining as much as it used to.