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Developed by the University of Hawaii’s Hawaii Climate Data Portal, the new Monthly Climate Summary tool will launch July 1 to provide the public with current rainfall, temperature or drought information for areas across the state.
People can sign up for free, personalized climate updates arriving on the first of each month that translate scientific jargon into localized, easy-to-understand updates on areas defined by divisions such as moku, ahupuaʻa, climate or watershed.
Ranchers monitoring drought conditions, water managers tracking watershed health, teachers seeking real-world data for classroom use and residents wanting to keep eyes on a favorite coastline can utilize the tool, according to a news release.
"Not everyone understands how much rainfall typically falls in their area of interest," said Ryan Longman, director of HCDP and Pacific Islands Climate Adaptation Science Center (PI-CASC) University Consortium program director at UH Sea Grant College Program (Hawaii Sea Grant), in the release. "But if you let them know that it was 50% below normal, or that it was the third driest month in the last century; that’s the type of information that anyone can understand."
Visit the HCDP Climate Summary page and select an area of interest on the interactive map. Customize your requested summaries by selecting moku, ahupuaʻa, climate or watershed, then enter an email address. Users can subscribe to multiple locations. Every month, localized climate overviews with access to an online dashboard will arrive in the email inbox.
“In the two Kona Low storms that happened in March, we saw areas get 70 inches versus three inches of rain, said Cherryle Heu, HCDP climate data analyst and lead climate summary developer. “(So) Statewide summaries and averages may not necessarily represent those wide ranges. So with this climate summary tool, you’re able to look into and narrow down into very specific locations to pinpoint your exact weather condition.
“We offer both scientific as well as culturally significant boundaries and locations to choose from. We have ahupuaʻas and mokus that people who may have cultural ties and significance in their work or in their lives can choose that and get information for them.”
The development of the Monthly Climate Summary tool was initially funded by NOAA’s National Integrated Drought Information System until the grant was axed in Dec. 2025, according to the release.
"We were too far along to stop," Longman said. That’s when help from various agencies and organizations arrived. The Department of Land and Natural Resources Commission on Water Resource Management supported the completion of the tool; a grant from PI-CASC supported outreach efforts; and the NSF EPSCoR Change Hawaii project provided the cyber infrastructure foundation that makes it run.
“We’re heading into potentially a super El Niño and really keeping an eye on what’s happening in terms of rainfall and temperature can protect livelihoods, protect infrastructure, protect natural resources. There’s a lot of reasons to understand what’s going on with the climate,” said Longman.
“So if you’re looking at a forecast, it’s telling you what’s happening in the future. This tool’s allowing you to look at where we are in terms of the climate, how hot it is, how dry was it, how wet was it. And it kind of just gives you some really local connection to that information.”
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