‘Exceptional’ Drought in Hawaii Worsens

Hawaii's ‘exceptional’ drought conditions have gone from bad to worst, sparking fears that ranchers and farmers on the Big Island could lose their livelihoods. "From livestock to coffee, macadamia nuts, avocados, ornamentals - it's covering all bases in terms of the agriculture side,” said National Weather Service hydrologist Kevin Kodama. “Certainly it's not getting better, it's growing in coverage,” Kodama said about the lack of rain. “We have the worst drought conditions in the country right now,” said Kodama. Hawaii gets a majority of its precipitation during the rainy season, from the beginning of October through the end of April. However rainfall the past two seasons has been well below normal, in part because of the El Nino weather pattern. “With El Nino the statewide drought kicked in and so we never really got the winter rains that we needed,” explains Kodama. “As we've gone into summer it's just persisted and gotten worst.”...more