The Hilo weather report always makes me laugh. A typical weather report in the Herald Tribune Hawaii would be:

Today

A brief shower or two.

Tonight

A few showers this evening.

Thursday

Variable clouds with showers.

Friday

Partly sunny with showers.

Saturday

Cloudy with a shower or two.

Sunday

Mostly cloudy with showers.

Or

Partial sun; passing showers.

Partly cloudy; passing showers.

Partly sunny; a quick shower.

A shower or two; limited sun.

Mostly cloudy with showers.

Limited sun; showers around.

Mostly cloudy; showers around.

Clouds and sun, a few showers.

A stray shower, partly sunny.

A passing shower, mainly early.

An AM shower, partly sunny.

A stray shower late.

A spotty shower some sunshine.

And so on.

HILO CLIMATE

Hilo is in the climate zone “tropical, continuously wet” as opposed to, say, “tropical, winter dry” or “tropical, monsoon”, three climate zones of the eight that can be encountered on the Big Island. The climate in Hilo is determined by the tropical latitude, the trade winds, and sea breeze. The Mountains prevent the rain from travelling over to the Kona-side.

BIG ISLAND HAS ALMOST ALL OF THE WORLD’S CLIMATE ZONES

There are 13 climate zones altogether. These zones were defined by the scientist Wladimir Peter Köppen around 1900 and published 1918. There are other models, but this one is the most widely in use. And in case you were wondering, the missing climate zones are “winter dry (temperate climate)”, “winter dry (continental climate)”, “summer dry (continental climate)”, “continuously wet (continental climate)”, and “polar ice caps (polar climate)”. In any case, Big Island’s climate is highly varied.

THE UPSIDE OF TROPICAL RAIN

In Hilo it’s raining almost every day, but rarely all day and night. The rain is warm, so not unpleasant, though you will get drenched once it gets going.

On the upside it creates an interesting light and makes for marvellous cloudscapes reflected in the ocean. And, of course, it creates an unusual amount of rainbows. Like any coastal area on the Big Island, Hilo can be very hot, but clouds, wind and rain make the heat more bearable.

SUNBURN IN HILO

Be careful though, the UV light passes right through the cloud cover and it’s intense near the equator. Many unsuspecting visitors get sunburned in Hilo.

A CERTAIN FUTILITY

It might have dawned on you, there is certain futility of reading weather reports like that. Firstly, you’ll always get the same mixed bag. Secondly, there is a high chance it plays out differently. Kudos to the meteorologists though for effort!