The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1873-03-08
Rainfall for February.
NUUANU VALLEY, March ]

NUUANU VALLEY, March 1st, 1873.
To the Editor of the Pacific Commercial AdUertiser q:
SIR.-February, now numbered with the past,
stands prominent on my records for the amount OF
rain during the month, but more particularly as
affording two days in succession with n lower temper
ature at midday, than any when have observed
the temperature during the last twenty-six years.
| hand you the facts as possibly of interest to your
readers, and as contrasting f~avorably Ito my feelings
at least) with late reports from the Northwestern
States of America, where the snow was piled to the
tops of telegraph poles, ard the mercury down to
300 to 6Oo below zero, and hundreds frozen to death.
For the information of distant readers, and those
who may note the difference between my reports of
rain and those of Capt. Smith, let me say that my
abs FEET above ~tide-water at Honolulu; aud about
midway of the length, breadth, and height Of this
valley, while his are made some two miles south
easterly from Honolulu, and but a few feet above
tide-water, about midway of a beach or PLAIN, a mile
or more in width between the ocean and foot of high
hills, (Which help to form this and other Valleys
and whose cool SUBMITS arrest the passing clouds,
condense their vapors and furnish rain to the valleys,
probably more than o hundred times a year, when
not a drop falls at Capt. Smiths location.
The amount of rain at Captain Smiths residence
probably is not far from that falling in the city,
proper, of Honolulu; (where no notes have been
taken of late years) but you are aware that the
amount given at either, or both those places, would
afford no approximate idea of rain in the immediate
vicinity, say ut this place, or a mile and a half
further up the valley where the amount is undoubt-
edly more than 100 per cent. greater than here, and,
is icithin The Efmiis Of Honolulu.
We had, here last month, FIVE days without rain;
six with s~prinkles, but not enough to be indicated by
a rain-guage-eight with less than an inch each
and nine with from one to nearly four inches per
day, making q total for the month of twenty-one
inches and twenty-five hundredths as per margir-
In Feb, 1872, there fell here but 2 SO, with twenty
days without rain, six with sprinkles too slight to
note, and three with rain; Feb. 1871, 1861; Feb,
1870, TAI; Feb, 1869, 3 So; Feb, 1868, 1882, the
last eight days of Feb 1867, 10 81. The past month
was the greatest, there having fell 21.25.
Every locality with which | am personally &C.
quainted, has its cold days, and "cold snaps" as
the almanack says, though l think 1 have heard some
of my older natives allude TO a remarkable exception,
but this tropical valley is not one, as l have never
observed the temperature here above $50 or below
$50 F., as indicated by II reliable thermometer; but
on Wednesday and Thursday, the 10Th and 10th, of
last month. it got down to $50 at daybreak, and
failed to get above $50 during the warmest part of
the day, though Wednesday was a very clear, bright
sunny day, wind due north and fresh; and Thursday
o fair day, though somewhat cloudy; wind s~outherly
and light. l have seen the mercury at $50, once or
twice before, at d~aybreak, but never before below
10, between one and two p. NJ.
Yours truly, J. ii. WOOD.
The rainfall at Kaalaea Plantation, Koolau, dur
ing the month of February, was 8.73 inches.