Garden Isle sees little rain in the month of February

Rainfall totals for the month of February were below average at most of the gages on Kauaʻi.

The exceptions were along the west and southwest sides of the island which received the bulk of the rainfall during the Feb. 16 heavy rain event, according to the National Weather Service monthly rain summary report. One of these exceptions was the State Department of Land and Natural Resources rain gauge at Puʻu ʻŌpae, which had the island’s highest monthly total of 6.19 inches (175% of average).

The U.S. Geological Survey’s Mount Waiʻaleʻale rain gauge had the highest daily total of 4.72 inches on Feb. 16, which narrowly beat Puʻu ʻŌpae’s 4.71 inches on the same day. The difference between the two daily totals is within the margin of error for both sites.

The Kapahi monthly total of 1.27 inches (17% of average) was its lowest February value since 2000.

All of the gauges on Kauaʻi had near- to below-average rainfall totals for 2025 through the end of February. The U.S. Geological Survey’s Kilohana rain gauge had the highest year-to-date total of 26.59 inches (90% of average), though this ranking will likely be yielded to Mount Waiʻaleʻale at some point over the next few months.

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.