The Hawaiian gazette., 1904-02-16
SOME OF HONOLULU'S BIG
STORMS ARE REMEMBERED

Editor Advertiser: Having had a
statement of the months of heaviest
and lightest rains. perhaps n compare
son of heaviest rains may be interest
ing.
My weather record goes back only
twenty years but personal recollection
recalls the great kona storm of Decem-
Der, 1858. Before sunrise, incessant
lightning and a continuous rumble of
thunder with dense black clouds rolling
up from the SOUTH betokened a storm
of unusual violence. About seven
o'clock the rain came, with an increase
of TIE electric tempest. Nothing dur
ing the past week has equalled that
historic storm. 1t was practically over
by two o'clock, but several houses had
been struck by lightning, an animal or
two killed, most of the bridges in Ho-
nolulu were carried away, all of the
lower part of town and along the va
rious streams out of the several val
leys, floods had destroyed crops and
houses and a good deal of suffering
resulted. Twelve to fifteen inches must
have fallen in the six hours of rain.
February 18th, 1859, the King signed
an act imposing special taxes on the
people and property of the district to
repair roads and rebuild bridges.
Beginning with my meteorological
record, in 1885, at the time of Queen
Emma's funeral, May 1O-11, ten inches
fell in eighteen hours. indicating the
greatness of the deceased queen, so the
old Hawaiians thought.
December 23d, 1886, from 4 to $50 a.
m. a torrent measuring 2.31 inches fell,
flooding the streets and tearing them
up badly
In November 1887, 10.1S inches fell on
the 18th, 18th and 18TH in about forty
eight hours. In the following February,
to mark leap year perhaps. 10.11 inches
fell on the two last days of the month.
The night of May Sd, 1892 during a
heavy thunder storm, between 9 and
II, 4.61 inches flooded the town.
Sunday, Nov. -, 1873, as preliminary
for the bursting upon Hawaii of
Blounts report with Cleveland's cool
proposition to restore the queen, came
violent electric and rainstorm which
left 500 inches of rainfall racing down
our streets.
December HIP. 1895, introduced a
downpour of IA inches, during a kona
storm, and 1896 went out in deluge
of rain and southerly gales, during
which $40 inches fell in about thirty-six
hours of sharp showers with intermit-
tent sunshine.
About 10 a. m. March "a. 1898, sud-
den downpour with cool northerly winds
deluged the town; 251 inches was the |
record for an hour, but in the valleys it !
must have far exceeded this amount, |
for Leleo and Aala We're literally afioat |
and much damage was done. At p. m. |
the thermometer registered Go deg. On |
other parts of Oahu, particularly in
Waialua, the flood must have been lit |
orally a cloud-burst or worse. Consid- |
cradle sections of grass lands at Ka- .
wailoa were scooped out as if pits were |
being eXcavated and the bridges were
all carried away.
October 16, 1900, a sudden downpour
deposited 2.1S inches of water in our |
streets, which was followed in Novem-
Der on the 25th and Goth in about
twenty hours with 6.72 inches.
Christmas, 1901, as everybody will re-
member, was ushered in with tremen-
dous rains which with north to east
winds, dropped 6.3S inches on our luck ,
less shoppers in about fifteen hours.
The shower of December 22d, or rath-
er of the night of the 2lst, which gave
us PSI inches in about three hours, is
also worthy of record. !,
But nothing in all of these years can
equal the record of the present storm.
1t began to rain on the afternoon of
the 9th and by midnight of the 7th