000 AXHW70 PHFO 051727 DGTHFO HIC001-003-007-009-062200- DROUGHT INFORMATION STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HONOLULU HI 730 AM HST THU DEC 5 2013 ...DROUGHT ELIMINATED ON KAUAI AND OAHU... SYNOPSIS... A PAIR OF LOW PRESSURE SYSTEMS BROUGHT HEAVY RAINFALL TO PORTIONS OF THE STATE OF HAWAII DURING THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER. HOWEVER...THE HIGHEST AMOUNTS OCCURRED MAINLY OVER THE WEST HALF OF THE ISLAND CHAIN WHICH HAS BEEN LEAST AFFECTED BY DROUGHT. SMALL AREAS OF MODERATE DROUGHT...OR THE D1 CATEGORY ON THE U.S. DROUGHT MONITOR MAP...ON THE LEEWARD SLOPES OF KAUAI AND OAHU WERE FINALLY ELIMINATED. UNFORTUNATELY...RAINFALL WAS MUCH MORE LIMITED OVER THE EAST HALF OF THE STATE AND THERE WERE ONLY MODEST IMPROVEMENTS IN A FEW AREAS. AREAS OF EXTREME DROUGHT...OR THE D3 CATEGORY...REMAINED FIRMLY IN PLACE OVER MAUI COUNTY AND THE BIG ISLAND. FOR MAUI COUNTY THIS INCLUDES THE LOWER SOUTHWESTERN SLOPE OF HALEAKALA NEAR KIHEI AND PORTIONS OF WEST MOLOKAI SERVICED BY THE KUALAPUU RESERVOIR. THE AREA OF SEVERE DROUGHT...OR D2 CONDITIONS...WAS REDUCED OVER THE UPCOUNTRY AREA AS MID-NOVEMBER RAINFALL OVER THE WINDWARD HALEAKALA SLOPES HELPED RAISE WATER LEVELS IN THE DITCHES FEEDING RESERVOIRS. ON THE BIG ISLAND...D3 CONDITIONS REMAINED OVER THE POHAKULOA REGION OF THE HAMAKUA DISTRICT AND OVER A SMALL SECTION OF LEEWARD NORTH KOHALA SOUTH OF HAWI. OCCASIONAL RAINFALL OVER THE SOUTHERN KAU DISTRICT DURING THE PAST SEVERAL WEEKS HAS HELPED DRIVE D2 CONDITIONS...OR SEVERE DROUGHT...DOWN TO THE D1 LEVEL FROM SOUTH POINT TO PUNALUU. SUMMARY OF IMPACTS... KAUAI. THERE ARE NO DROUGHT IMPACTS TO REPORT. OAHU. THERE ARE NO DROUGHT IMPACTS TO REPORT. MOLOKAI. AFTER A SMALL RISE IN EARLY NOVEMBER...THE WATER LEVEL IN THE KUALAPUU RESERVOIR HAS STARTED DROPPING AGAIN AND IS VERY LOW. THE STATE OF HAWAII DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE HAS CONTINUED ITS MANDATORY 30 PERCENT REDUCTION IN IRRIGATION WATER USE FOR THIS RESERVOIR SYSTEM. LANAI. SATELLITE-BASED DATA SHOWED CONTINUED STRESS ON VEGETATION HEALTH AND THAT THERE HAS BEEN NO SIGNIFICANT CHANGES DURING THE PAST MONTH. THIS IS CONSISTENT WITH THE BELOW AVERAGE NOVEMBER RAINFALL TOTAL RECORDED BY A RAIN GAGE ON THE ISLAND. MAUI. A MID-NOVEMBER RAIN EVENT HELPED RESTORE WATER LEVELS IN UPCOUNTRY RESERVOIRS. THIS ALLOWED THE MAUI COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF WATER SUPPLY TO CANCEL THEIR REQUEST FOR A VOLUNTARY 20 PERCENT CUTBACK IN WATER USE BY UPCOUNTRY RESIDENTS. THE DEPARTMENT CONTINUES TO MAINTAIN ITS LONG STANDING REQUEST FOR CENTRAL AND SOUTH MAUI RESIDENTS TO VOLUNTARILY REDUCE CONSUMPTION BY 10 PERCENT. BIG ISLAND. VEGETATION CONDITIONS REMAIN DRY OVER THE HAMAKUA SLOPES FROM LAUPAHOEHOE TO HONOKAA. RANCHERS OPERATING IN THE AREA HAVE BEEN BUYING SUPPLEMENTAL FEED AND HAULING WATER. SEVERAL BRUSH FIRES HAVE OCCURRED IN RECENT WEEKS ALONG THE SLOPES OF THE SOUTH KOHALA AND NORTH KONA DISTRICTS. WHILE ARSON IS SUSPECTED AS THE CAUSE...IT IS ALSO INDICATIVE OF THE DRY VEGETATION CONDITIONS IN THOSE AREAS. CLIMATE SUMMARY... ACCORDING TO THE NOAA CLIMATE PREDICTION CENTER...ENSO-NEUTRAL CONDITIONS REMAIN IN PLACE AND PROBABILITIES FAVOR PERSISTENCE THROUGH THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE SPRING SEASON. PRECIPITATION/TEMPERATURE OUTLOOK... THE LONG-LEAD HAWAIIAN ISLANDS OUTLOOK ISSUED ON NOVEMBER 21 BY THE NOAA CLIMATE PREDICTION CENTER INDICATED THAT PROBABILITIES FAVOR ABOVE MEDIAN PRECIPITATION THROUGH LATE WINTER. THE NEXT LONG-LEAD OUTLOOK WILL BE ISSUED BY THE CLIMATE PREDICTION CENTER ON DECEMBER 19. HYDROLOGIC SUMMARY AND OUTLOOK... DATA FROM THE U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY INDICATED THAT MOST OF THE MONITORED STREAMS ON KAUAI AND OAHU HAD FLOW AVERAGES FOR NOVEMBER IN THE NORMAL TO ABOVE NORMAL RANGE. FLOW AVERAGES FOR ALL OF THE MONITORED STREAMS IN MAUI COUNTY WERE IN THE NORMAL RANGE WHILE STREAMS ON THE BIG ISLAND WERE IN THE BELOW NORMAL RANGE. BASED ON THE PRECIPITATION OUTLOOK...STREAM FLOW AVERAGES SHOULD INCREASE OVER THE NEXT COUPLE OF MONTHS HEADING INTO THE PEAK OF THE WET SEASON. NEXT ISSUANCE DATE... THE NEXT DROUGHT INFORMATION STATEMENT WILL BE ISSUED ON JANUARY 9 2014 OR SOONER IF NECESSARY IN RESPONSE TO SIGNIFICANT CHANGES IN CONDITIONS. && RELATED WEB SITES... ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON CURRENT DROUGHT CONDITIONS MAY BE FOUND AT THE FOLLOWING WEB ADDRESSES /USE LOWER CASE LETTERS/ U.S. DROUGHT MONITOR...WWW.DROUGHT.UNL.EDU/DM/MONITOR.HTML HAWAII DROUGHT MONITOR...HAWAII.GOV/DLNR/DROUGHT/INDEX.HTML USGS HAWAII - RECENT CONDITIONS...HI.WATER.USGS.GOV/RECENT/INDEX.HTML CLIMATE PREDICTION CENTER LONG-LEAD HAWAII OUTLOOK... WWW.CPC.NCEP.NOAA.GOV/PRODUCTS/PREDICTIONS/90DAY/FXHW40.HTML HAWAII DROUGHT IMPACT REPORTER...HAWAII.DROUGHTREPORTER.UNL.EDU/ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS... INFORMATION FOR THIS PRODUCT WAS COMPILED FROM A NUMBER OF SOURCES INCLUDING THE COUNTY BOARDS AND DEPARTMENTS OF WATER SUPPLY...U.S. AND STATE OF HAWAII AGRICULTURE AGENCIES...THE U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY AND THE MEDIA. QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS... IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS ABOUT THIS DROUGHT INFORMATION STATEMENT...PLEASE CONTACT... KEVIN KODAMA NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE 2525 CORREA RD. SUITE 250 HONOLULU HI 96822 PHONE...808-973-5276 KEVIN.KODAMA@NOAA.GOV $$