Updated at 2:30 p.m., Saturday, July 21, 2007
Cosme gives Big Island some much-needed rain
Associated Press
A tropical depression bypassed the Big Island early today, bringing a few inches of rain to the parched island but no major problems."There was some nuisance flooding. Nothing out of the ordinary," said Wes Browning, director of operations for the National Weather Service.
"The core of the system never moved anywhere close to the island. It was just the peripheral bands of showers," he said.
The depression, which was this year's first Pacific tropical cyclone named Cosme before it weakened earlier this week, dumped 3 to 5 inches of rain over six hours as it moved in late Friday night. Winds briefly gusted to 30 to 40 mph.
However, the storm had passed by the state's southernmost landmass at about midnight. By early this morning, it was about 350 miles southwest of Hilo and moving away at about 20 mph, Browning said.
The rainfall was needed, he added.
"We've had a pretty severe drought," he said. "Some areas have only received about 20 percent of normal yearly rainfall."
Sunday's weather was forecast to be partly cloudy and breezy with isolated showers, he said.
Cosme was a tropical storm Monday when it was upgraded to hurricane status as its winds intensified to 75 to 80 mph. But it was downgraded to a tropical storm the next morning after its winds dropped below 74 mph. It further weakened to a tropical depression.
