By JOHN BURNETT Hawaii Tribune-Herald
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February is the shortest month of the year, but this month has been long on rainfall in East Hawaii.

As of 8 a.m. Thursday, Hilo International Airport received 8.45 inches of rain for the month, closing in on its normal February average of 10 inches.

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That’s in stark contrast to drought-stricken February 2025, when the airport received just 0.75 inches for the entire month.

On Feb. 9, the rainiest day of this month, a record was set for the date at the airport, with 3.11 inches of rain, breaking the old mark of 2.3 inches set on Feb. 9, 1972.

Also on Feb. 9, Laupahoehoe recorded 22.28 inches, more than half of its total so far this month of 40.91 inches.

Other month-to-date totals as of Thursday morning include: Honokaa, 25.46 inches; Glenwood, 19.37 inches; Mountain View, 16.25 inches; and Waimea, 9.77 inches.

It’s been raining nearly daily in East Hawaii since the deluge on Feb. 8 and 9.

Tina Stall, hydrologist for the National Weather Service in Honolulu, attributed the wet weather in East Hawaii to trade wind weather that disappeared for most of the two-year drought period.

“We’ve been having trade winds for quite some time now. It was just some good moisture embedded in the trades,” Stall told the Tribune-Herald on Thursday. Stall said the rainfall totals have been “a significant improvement along those upslope coastal areas in the Hilo and Hamakua districts.”

For the first time in months, a small portion of the Big Island, 1.76%, has been declared drought-free by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center in College Park, Md. That means that 98.24% of the island remains in some level of drought.

“It’s going to take more than one or two rain events to get the island out of drought, but this has been really good,” Stall noted.

The forecast for Friday night through the weekend calls for heavy rain and scattered showers in East Hawaii.

West Hawaii has not shared in the bounty, however. For example, Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport in Keahole has received only 0.29 inches of rain, just about 25% of its normal February total.

The dryness on the leeward side continues from January, when no west-side gauges came within hailing distance of normal rainfall totals for the month. Coming closest was the Kona airport, with 0.94 inches, or 70% of its usual January total.

For some East Hawaii locations, the road to rainfall started in January, as the year opened with moderate trades and enhanced windward showers from a dissipating front.

Hilo airport set a new daily rainfall record on the Jan. 3 with 3.24 inches as a result of that front. Almost immediately afterward, a kona low pressure system moved in on Jan. 4 and 5, with areas between Hilo and Ka‘u receiving the heaviest showers.

The airport received 9.07 inches for the month, 115% of its normal January total. Piihonua, uphill from Hilo, reported 19.71 inches, or 150% of its average January rainfall.

Pahala and both Kapapala Ranch gauges measured more than 10 inches of rain, well above their January averages.

And Kealakomo, the site of a former Hawaiian coastal village in southern Puna, recorded 11.62 inches in January, 158% of its norm for the month and its wettest January since the NWS installed a remote automatic weather station there in 2010.

Stall was reluctant to predict an end to the drought, saying that’s the kuleana of the Climate Prediction Center, and NWS Honolulu forecasters focus on now through the next 10 days.

She added, however, “The monthly and seasonal rainfall forecast from the Climate Prediction Center (is) still calling for above-normal precipitation, or a greater chance of above-normal precipitation.”

Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.