You don't have to tell Jeff Alexander that it's been hot. A thermometer that hangs in the shade at his 'Ewa Beach home registered temperatures in the 90s in May, he said.

"It got hotter quicker this year," Alexander said. "It's usually like this in July, and it was only May.

"It got to be summer a lot quicker this year," said Alexander, who has increased his lawn watering from every three days to every other day.

A little more than two months after daily, unusually heavy rains caused flooding over much of O'ahu, lawns are turning brown and air conditioners are humming.

The weather reflects the absence of trade winds, said Jonathan Hoag, a National Weather Service forecaster. "We'll see trade winds forming by next week. This week will be hot and dry, a bit humid, with weak winds."

Even on typically wet Kaua'i, most of the rain gauges in May recorded below-normal rainfall for the second month in a row, the National Weather Service said. Gauges at Wailua, Kapahi, Wainiha and Koke'e were the only sites at or above normal rainfall totals.

Despite the dry weather for May, cumulative rainfall for the first five months of 2006 has been above normal. More than 23 inches of rain has fallen at Honolulu Airport, which typically sees about 8.9 inches of rain during that period.

Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com.