Hawaii residents rattled by the onslaught of destructive summer storms and near-misses will likely see calmer days ahead, according to the National Weather Service’s outlook for the wet season, which runs from October to April.

Although above-average rainfall is probable in the coming weeks, Friday’s report forecasts drier weather with below-average rainfall to take hold in December and persist into spring.

The isles’ May-to-September dry season this year was anything but, as Hurricane Lane, Tropical Storm Olivia and other tropical cyclones and low-pressure weather systems dumped record-­breaking rainfall and caused millions of dollars in property damage.

In fact, it was the second-wettest dry season in the past 30 years, said Kevin Kodama, senior service hydrologist with the National Weather Service’s Honolulu Forecast Office and hurricane forecaster with the Central Pacific Hurricane Center.

“We forecast wetter-than-average conditions in windward areas but what was an added bonus was the wet conditions in leeward areas. We weren’t expecting that,” Kodama said.

The 2018 dry season started with drought conditions developing in Maui County and in leeward areas of Hawaii island and Oahu. The lack of rainfall led to severe drought levels in South Kohala and North Kona on Hawaii island and on the lower leeward slopes of West Maui that mainly affected ranching operations and increased brush fires, the Weather Service report said.

Then the storms rolled in, one after another.

Hurricane Lane’s leisurely passage south of the islands from Aug. 22-28 saw several sites in East Hawaii record over 40 inches of rainfall. And on its way out, Lane dropped nearly 35 inches of rain on Kauai’s Mount Waialeale.

On the Big Island alone, the hurricane damaged at least 100 homes and caused $20 million in damage to public infrastructure. Storm impacts also were reported on Maui, Kauai and Oahu, with one fatality when a Kauai man died after jumping into a rain-swollen stream to save his dog.

The following month, on Sept. 12, Tropical Storm Olivia made landfall on Maui County, with the worst flooding occurring in the northwestern part of the island.

With all the rain statewide, vegetation flourished and by the end of the dry season, any drought was eliminated, the report said.

But maybe not for long.

NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center shows a 70 percent to 75 percent chance the current El Nino/Southern Oscillation-neutral conditions will transition to an El Nino state in the coming months.

El Nino brings abnormally warm sea-surface temperatures near the equator that cause a shift in large-scale weather patterns across the Pacific. For Hawaii, El Nino means drier, more stable weather patterns.

The latest climate models favor a weak El Nino forming in the latter half of the wet season and persisting until spring, when conditions may slip back to a neutral state.

The outlook said below-average rainfall can be expected statewide this winter, with drought conditions developing by the end of February and smaller areas of severe drought on lower leeward slopes. Most affected will be farmers and residents with water catchment systems.

But it shouldn’t be as dry as the 2009-2010 season, the report said, when El Nino conditions and a low number of winter storms left 40 percent of the state gripped by severe, extreme or exceptional drought conditions.

And Kodama noted a weaker El Nino could allow for random episodes of rainfall.

“So we expect some dryness … but we can sometimes get rain events that sneak through with a little bit of heavy or moderate rain,” he said.

It’s worth pointing out that Hawaii’s hurricane season continues into November, so the state is not in the clear yet.

So far this year, six tropical cyclones have threatened Hawaii, which experiences an average of four to five per season, according to Kodama. He noted the Central Pacific Hurricane Center’s preseason outlook called for three to six such events in 2018.

“Always be prepared. We’re not done yet,” he cautioned. “Even though we’re looking at a weak El Nino, we may still have heavy rain here and there.”