Saturday, November 28, 2009

Epic Thunderstorms for Hawaii?

Today the National Weather Service Forecast Office out of Honolulu issued their area forecast discussion for the state ,which reports, in part, a reference to a fast moving cold front approaching the islands from the north:

“If the cold pool follows the more southerly track favored by some (computer model) solutions, then some truly epic thunderstorms could develop around the state from Sunday afternoon into Monday morning.” --- sounds exciting! This disturbance is expected to move across and beyond the state rather quickly, retuning Hawaii to a normal Trade Wind situation by early next week.

The broad view of the northwest pacific water vapor loop shows this cold front pushing towards the island chain. (These satellite imagery loops open a little slow and also are constantly updating and therefore only correspond to my posts on the day posted)

Spectators who made the trek out the trail to the coastal viewing area are still reporting visual lava pouring off the ocean entry pali, as seen in the opening photo of this post from the 23rd. , and a strong plume that revealed an undulating orange-red glow after dark. The more distant, and most recent ocean entry points to the west of Waikupanaha have slowed down their volume of lava reaching the sea. I could not see any surface flows or hot spots across the coastal plains or mauka (inland).

... Speaking of epic, surf on some of the islands north shores was huge this past week, as this video of Waimea Bay on November 25th shows.

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