The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-02-16
SOME OF HONOLULUS BIG
STORMS ARE REMEMBERED

Editor Advertiser: Having had a
statement of the months of heaviest
and highest rains, perhaps a 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 Decen1-
Der, 1858. Before sunrise. incessant
lightning and a continuous rumble of
thunder with dense black clouds rolling
up from the south. betokened 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 We're 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 good deal of suffering
resulted. Twelve to fifteen inches must
have fallen in the six hours of rain.
February 14th, 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
in
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 to $50 a.
m. a torrent measuring 2.31 inches fell,
flooding the streets and tearing them
up badly.
In November, 1887, lois 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 and
II, 4.61 inches flooded the town
Sunday, Nov. 10, Is g. as a preliminary
for the bursting upon Hawaii of
Blount's report with Cleveland's cool
to restore the queen, came
a violent electric and rainstorm which
left seq inches of rainfall racing down
our streets.
December Hip. 1895, introduced a |
iownpour of IA inches, during a kona |
storm, and 1896 went out in a deluge |
Of rain and southerly gales. during |
which $40 inches fell in about thirty-six |
hours of sharp showers with intermit-
ent sunshine.
About 10 a m. March q, 1898. sud-
len downpour with cool northerly winds
leluged the town; Isl inches was the
ecord for an hour. but in the valleys it
must have far exceeded this amount
or Leleo and Aala were literally af1oat
nd much damage was done. At 1 p. m.
he thermometer registered 65 deg, On
ther parts of Oahu, particularly in
Vaialua, the flood must have been lit
rally a cloud burst or worse. Consid-
rable sections of grass lands at Ka-
7ailoa We're scooped out as if pits were
eing excavated and the bridges were
II carried away.
October 16, 1900, sudden downpour
eposited 2.1S inches of water in our
treets which was followed in Novem-
er on the 25th and 26th in about
venty hours with 6.72 inches
Christmas, 1901 as everybody will re-
lember, was .ushered in with tremen-
Gus rains which with north to east
inds, dropped 6.3S inches on our luck
IS shoppers in about fifteen hours.
The shower of December 22d, or rath-
of the night of the 21st, which gave
5 PSF inches in about three hours, is
so worthy of record.
But nothing in all of these years can
lual the record of the present storm.
began to rain on the afternoon of
e 9Th and by midnight of the eth