HONOLULU (AP) -- The dry, hot weather of the past few weeks has firefighters worried about what is in store this summer.
Firefighters Saturday continued to battle brush fires on Oahu that have already consumed thousands of acres. Fires also raged this weekend on Maui and the Big Island.
The brush fire season, which usually lasts until September, has started earlier than usual this year.
More than 90 firefighters were called late Saturday to try to put out a burst of flames on the leeward side of Oahu. The fire has burned on and off since Tuesday and charred more than 2,000 acres. There were no reports of damage to homes. But paramedics did treat one person for smoke inhalation.
Nine-hundred acres in South Point have burned in a fire that began Thursday on the Big Island. No one was injured and no homes were threatened.
Tradewinds blew a brushfire away from homes on Maui. The fire near the Maui Lani golf course burned eight acres before it was brought under control.
And forecasters say the weather is unlikely to provide any relief for the islands with temperatures 2 to 4 degrees above average forecast through the summer.
Eight high temperature records have been either tied or broken at the Honolulu Airport over the last 10 days. On Friday temperatures reached 84 degrees in Lihue, one degree short of the city's record high of 85 degrees.
The high temperatures can be blamed in part on warmer water temperatures and dry air masses, according to the National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center in Washington.
''It has been unusually dry with bright sunshine,'' said Robert Ballard, a forecaster for the weather service.
That weather is helping to dry out the ground, which has firefighters worried because the islands' wet winter encouraged the growth of more brush.
''Of course we're concerned,'' said Honolulu Fire Department spokesman Capt. Emmit Kane regarding the dry forecast.
The jump in several degrees is also keenly felt by residents of Hawaii, which usually boasts a temperate and constant weather pattern.
''People can be a little more sensitive to smaller changes in the temperature here,'' Ballard said.
Information from: Honolulu Star-Bulletin
