Watch clouds form over the Pacific Ocean and waterfalls pour down Mount Waialeale on the Hawaiian island of Kauai
Learn about rainstorms and waterfalls of Hawaii, U.S.
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Transcript
NARRATOR: The rainfalls that deluge the mountains of Hawaii originate far out in the Pacific. The intense heat of the tropical sun evaporates water from the ocean. The rising moisture billows over the sea in huge cloud caps. Prevailing trade winds carry the clouds to shore.
Here they collect, forming a dense cover that rises up the sides of the mountains.
In the cool upper altitudes the heavy clouds drift apart, showering their rich load of rain on the windward sides of the islands. Plant life thrives, growing in a luxurious tangle of green, nurtured by the warm, abundant rain. Much of the water runs off the mountainsides in streams and waterfalls. Nearly 12,000 millimeters of rain fall each year atop Mount Waialeale on the island of Kauai. After a storm hundreds of sleek, silvery waterfalls run over the mountain’s steep cliffs, some plunging into the sea.
Here they collect, forming a dense cover that rises up the sides of the mountains.
In the cool upper altitudes the heavy clouds drift apart, showering their rich load of rain on the windward sides of the islands. Plant life thrives, growing in a luxurious tangle of green, nurtured by the warm, abundant rain. Much of the water runs off the mountainsides in streams and waterfalls. Nearly 12,000 millimeters of rain fall each year atop Mount Waialeale on the island of Kauai. After a storm hundreds of sleek, silvery waterfalls run over the mountain’s steep cliffs, some plunging into the sea.
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