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Phoenix666 writes:

Hurricanes, heavy rains are critical for Hawai'i's groundwater supply:

Dores and a team of scientists from SOEST and the Hawai'i Department of Health collected rainfall around the island of Oahu and analyzed the stable isotopes of rainwater, chemical signatures in the water molecules. They compared the chemical signatures in rainwater to those of groundwater to determine the source of water in the aquifers—event-based rainfall or trade wind-related rain.

"Because windward and mauka showers are so common, it is easy to assume that is the main source of our drinking water," said Dores. "Also, large rainfall events such as Kona storms[*] result in significant runoff into the oceans. However, our research found that a lot of the rain from Kona storms makes it into our groundwater aquifers and is an important source of our drinking water."

[*] Kona Storms:

Kona storms (also called Kona lows) are a type of seasonal cyclone in the Hawaiian Islands, usually formed in the winter from winds coming from the westerly "kona" (normally leeward) direction. They are mainly cold core cyclones, which places them in the extratropical cyclone rather than the subtropical cyclone category. Hawaii typically experiences two to three annually, which can affect the state for a week or more. Among their hazards are heavy rain, hailstorms, flash floods and their associated landslides, high elevation snow, high winds which result in large surf and swells, and waterspouts.

In Hawaii, the rain must fall heavily upon the plain.

[Ed Note - For those who don't know, Hawaiʻi is the largest island located in the U.S. state of Hawaii.]

Journal Reference:
Daniel Dores, Craig R. Glenn, Giuseppe Torri, et al. Implications for groundwater recharge from stable isotopic composition of precipitation in Hawai'i during the 2017–2018 La Niña, Hydrological Processes (DOI: 10.1002/hyp.13907)

Original Submission