This breadth of rain names are specific, descriptive and highly nuanced—a reminder of how keenly and thoughtfully ancient Hawaiians observed and were connected to their environment. With these words they distinguished Hawaii’s rains in a multitude of ways: by color, intensity, duration, at what times they would arrive, the angles or paths they’d fall in, how a certain rain is linked to a place or area throughout the Islands.

There’s the kili noe, a fine, light rain, but it’s not to be mistaken for the kili ʻohu, which was even finer and lighter. Depending where you lived on Oʻahu, when the rain fell in a shape that would circle your home, that was a pōʻaihale rain. The island of Niʻihau has a special rain, the kulu pākakahi, which appears in November.

What’s amazing is how nothing about these names are arbitrary.

There’s a rain named called Hukiheʻenehu, given to a Hilo rain for when the nehu fish was running. When this misty rain fell off the south-east coast of Hawaii Island, Hawaiians knew it meant to pull up their nets and catch them.

Rain names like hoʻopala ʻōhiʻa indicated when the native ʻōhiʻa would ripen, and the Hoʻopuluhīnano indicated where on Kauaʻi the hīnano grew.

The kuāua is a name given to a rain without wind extending over a small area. The ʻuala (Hawaiian sweet potato) farmer would count this rain to help determine when it was time to plant.

In addition to recognizing how integral rains are to survival, Hawaiians are also informed spiritually and emotionally by them. Apo pue kahi is a name given to a rain that’s felt after a loved one passes.

“Our kūpuna (ancestors) were so attuned to their environment that they assigned individual names to the multitude of winds and rains occurring throughout the archipelago,” says Collette Leimomi Akana, author of “Hānau Ka Ua – Hawaiian Rain Names,” the most comprehensive record of its kind that compiles this extensive part of Hawaiian’s vocabulary, sourcing its oral tradition, mele (song), oli (chants), moʻolelo (stories), ʻōlelo noʻeau (proverbs) and written literature. “I believe they named each wind and rain because they encountered them almost daily and felt a kinship with them.