The forecast says it's going to rain everyday for the next 10 days in the Big Island, I'm leaving next Wednesday. This is so depressing. How bad is the rain usually? Does it rain non stop and cloudy all day? Is there sun any time of the day?

The forecast looked the same prior to our trip to Big Island last January. We had abundant sunshine; just one day with rain, on a day trip to North Kohala.

My husband and I just returned from a one week stay on the Big Island--11/8 to 11/15. The forecast was for rain or showers everyday we were to be there. During our week we had a light shower on Friday evening and several showers on Wednesday, the day we left. My feeling is that everyday there is rain somewhere on the Big Island--and some areas are more apt to get them than others. But the showers are usually short-lived.
Check out www.hawaiiweathertoday.com for a more accurate forecast.

No worries!. Forecast is always for showers. But they are mostly for mountains & Hilo side.

Map of annual rainfall:

http://www.lindasplacehawaii.com/AnnualRainfall.htm

The good thing about cloud cover is it is easier to take pictures of flowers and of things in the water like green sea turtles and urchins in the tide pools.

We had the same kind of forecast for our stay. We came home on Thanksgiving...and I'm happy to report that the forecast was all wrong. We had very little rain, even during the two days we spent in the Hilo area. Have a wonderful vacation!

Ditto for us on Maui last week! Forecast told of rain nearly every day, with pouring rain and wind on Thanksgiving (our final day).

It was sunny and gorgeous every single day, except one day when it rained on the part of the island where we stayed, but we did the road to Hana that day so it didn't affect us. The day they predicted to be so ugly was actually the most gorgeous!!

You just never know. Have fun!

Dusty: Thanks for the great rainfall map. I'd been looking for one like that for months.

kalunchi: As others have mentioned, rainfall forecasts for entire Hawaiian islands don't mean much. You have to get forecasts for specific areas of the island(s) you're visiting. In Hawaii, windward (north and east) coasts are very rainy and lush while the leeward sides (west and south) are much, *much* drier. Dusty's map illustrates this very well.

I had a heck of a time trying to find pinpoint forecasts for the Big Island, and finally I found one:

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/hnl/pages/ZFP.php

Phrases like "isolated showers" don't mean much, since these rarely affect the major tourist centers (Kona and Kohala Districts) on the BI. Although Kailua-Kona sometimes gets evening/nighttime rain from clouds that come off Mauna Loa mountain.