Hurricane Nolo brushed Hawaiʻi Island in late September — an honest look at how the leeward Kohala Coast and Waikoloa Village came through, and why a month-long stay gives you room to plan around weather.
If you've been following the news this week, you saw the headlines: Hurricane Nolo tracked toward Hawaiʻi Island in late September, strengthening offshore before making a sharp turn to the west and pulling away from the island over the weekend. Our thoughts are with the communities on the south and southeast side of the island — Kaʻū, South Kona, and parts of Puna — who took the brunt of the rain and wind, with flooding and water-system damage that will take time to repair. When a large storm brushes an island this size, though, the experience is wildly different depending on where you stand. We want to give prospective guests an honest picture of how our corner came through, and why.
Nolo approached from the south as a strengthening system and, at its closest pass, stayed offshore before curving away to the west. The heaviest impacts landed on the windward and southern slopes: flood advisories over the southeast, standing water on Highway 11 near Waiʻōhinu, and water-conservation notices in South Kona. High winds also prompted temporary closures on exposed upcountry roads such as the Kohala Mountain Road (Highway 250). By Sunday, county operations had resumed, shelters had closed, and most parks and beaches were reopening. As after any storm, a few spots were still clearing fallen trees and debris, so anyone traveling in the days right afterward should check current conditions before heading out.
This is the part worth understanding if you're weighing a Big Island stay. Our home sits in Waikoloa Village on the island's leeward (western) side, about 800 feet up, tucked in the rain shadow of Mauna Kea and Hualālai. Those mountains are tall enough to wring most of the moisture out of incoming weather before it reaches us, which is exactly why the Kohala Coast is the island's sunny, dry resort side in ordinary times — and why it tends to be spared the worst of windward storms. That geography held true with Nolo: the wettest, most disruptive weather stayed on the far side of the island. It's the same pattern we described after Tropical Storm Lala earlier this season.
Our corner of the island came through in good shape, and Hale Akaʻula is ready for arriving and upcoming guests. We keep a close eye on the house between stays, and if a weather system is ever in the forecast during your month with us, we'll be in touch directly with anything you need to know. We would never gloss over a real problem — in this case, there simply wasn't one here.
One quiet advantage of a monthly stay is flexibility. Hawaiʻi's hurricane season runs roughly June through November, and the vast majority of it passes without incident, but the occasional system does swing by. On a week-long trip, a single stormy day can feel like it swallows the whole vacation. Over a month, a rainy stretch is just that — a stretch. You reshuffle: a beach day becomes a reading day on the lanai, a drive becomes a slow morning with coffee and the ocean out the window, and the sun is usually back before long. Long stays turn weather from a crisis into a footnote.
We love this island honestly — sunny days and storm season alike — and we'd rather you arrive with clear eyes than a sales pitch. If you have questions about weather, timing, or what a month here really looks like, just ask. Hale Akaʻula is a whole-home rental in Waikoloa Village, three bedrooms sleeping up to eight, with a west-facing covered lanai that has hosted a great many uneventful, spectacular sunsets. We host monthly stays only (31-night minimum) and book directly with no platform fees. Take a look at the gallery, review our monthly rates, or reach out with any questions — we're always happy to talk it through.
