Big Island sees little rain in February

Big Island rainfall totals for the month of February were below average at nearly all of the gauges, with most totals at less than 50% of the average, according to the National Weather Service monthly rain summary.

The highest monthly total among the automated sites came from the U.S. Geological Survey’s rain gauge at Honoliʻi Stream with 3.87 inches (27% of average), according to the summary. However, the highest overall total came from a manually observed CoCoRaHS network gauge in Leilani Estates in lower Puna.

This station recorded 8.69 inches in February, including 3.60 inches logged on the morning of Feb. 1. According to the monthly summary, most of this daily total likely occurred on Jan. 31 since this area caught the tail end of the heavy rain event that hit the rest of the state on Jan. 30 and 31.

Even without the Feb. 1 total, this location still had a higher total than any of the other automated sites for the month. Records for the lowest February rainfall were broken at the Kamuela and Kamuela Upper gauges.

Honokaʻa, Hilo Airport, Kahuā Ranch, ʻUpolu Airport, and Waiākea Uka had their lowest February totals since 2000.

On the Kona slopes, the Waiʻaha Stream rain gauge had its lowest February total since 2003.

Mostly stable atmospheric conditions and lower than normal frequency of trade winds characterized the weather last month. However, the islands did see heavy rain events that occurred on Feb. 5 and on Feb. 16-17.

A majority of the days during the month had light to moderate winds from an east-southeasterly through southerly direction.

Rainfall totals for 2025 through the end of February were near to above average over the northwest half of the Big Island and near to below average on the southeast half. The Pāhoa rain gauge had the highest year-to-date total of 14.05 inches (66% of average).

According to the monthly summary, this ranking for Pāhoa will likely not last too long and will likely shift to a normally wetter spot.