Wailuku River Heights Raise In Recent Rains, But Not Near Hurricane Lane Levels

With the recent heavy rains on the east side of Hawaii Island there can expected for the river heights to rise in Hilo, the question is how much? Yesterday, a day prior to the heavier rains, the height of Wailuku river measured at the USGS monitoring station at Piihonua was just over 2 feet in depth. Overnight the water level rose to just over 14 ft with 5.66 inches of rain in 24 hours. The river level’s peak height was 4 feet below the height that the National Weather Service considers a "Flood Stage" (18ft), with "Severe Flooding" classified at 24.4'. The river height overnight was not even the highest level recorded in the last few months, with the Wailuku reaching 15.03 feet on November 22, 2020. For additional context, the peak historical height of the Wailuku was seen just a couple years ago during Hurricane Lane in August 2018, where the river reached 23.75 ft at the same monitoring station. Since the peak height at 7:45am HST of 14.13ft this morning, the river has begun to drop, down to 12.55ft at the time of writing (1:45pm).