This is a bit of a belated post, but the other day while it was raining in Hilo (and had been for about a full 24 hours), a group of us took an impromptu trip back to Rainbow Falls with our TA, Katie, to see how the rain changed the flow of the river. When we got there, it was crazy to see how much faster the water was flowing than it had been the first time we visited. The color of it had also drastically changed – instead of being a greenish blue color, it looked almost like chocolate milk! Katie explained that this is because the faster-moving water picks up a lot more sediments from the riverbed and carries them in the current.
We also got to see an ephemeral stream, which is a stream that only has water flowing through it sometimes, such as when it’s been raining for a while. It was really neat, especially because it hadn’t had any water flowing through it the first time we visited. All in all, even though I got soaked (apparently my raincoat isn’t meant to withstand anything more than a sprinkle), it was a super fun excursion and it was so cool to see how the rain changed the waterfall’s behavior!
– Caroline
