Hawaii is Going All Extreme Weather On Us All Of A Sudden

Snow on the ground at an elevation of only 6,200 feet in Maui,
Hawaii last weekend. 

Ah, Hawaii:

Warm sunshine, pleasant tropical breezes gently swaying the palm trees, sandy beaches, the views of Waikiki. What's not to love?

Lately, enough. Apparently, the weather in Hawaii in recent days, months and the past year hasn't been going according to script.

Meteorology seems to be conspiring to ruin Hawaii's reputation as the ultimate place of lovely weather.

KONA STORM SLASHES RECORDS

This past weekend was the piece de resistance. Arguably the most intenst Kona storm on record caused, well, some incredible weather records to fall in Hawaii. The records included snow, bone-chilling code and incredible wind speeds.

Kona storms in Hawaii are winter storms that approach from  the northwest. The jet stream is much further south in the winter than in the summer. The types of dips in the jet stream that cause winter storms in places like Vermont and the rest of the mid-latitudes sometimes come far enough south to barely brush the Hawaiian Islands.

This time, a cold upper level low came down from the North Pacific and came much closer than normal to Hawaii than most Kona storms. This one was also particularly strong. (Video of the snow, waves and wind are at the bottom of this post.)

The result was some decidedly un-Hawaiian weather. The wind atop Mauna Kea volcano gusted to 191 mph, which is probably the highest wind gust on record in Hawaii. Sustained winds up there were 125 mph.

There's no way to prove that this was the highest wind on record for Hawaii, because they don't really keep track of such things. But longtime observers say that's easily the highest wind they've seen.

The summit of Mauna Kea is at 13.803 elevations, so high winds, blizzards and frigid temperatures are pretty common there in winter. But not like this.

The coldest temperature on record in Hawaii is, or at least was, 12 degrees on the summit of Mauna Kea, on May 17, 1979. It looks like the temperature got down to somewhere between 8 and 11 degrees on Mauna Kea during last weekend's storm, but that reading will have to be verified before they become official.

On Maui, snow fell at an elevation as low as 6,200 feet, the lowest elevation at which snow was seen on record.  Snow has been seen atop 10,000 foot Haleakala on Maui, but never this low. People flocked to the Polipoli State Park in Maui last weekend so they could say they played in the snow in Hawaii.

A second storm today is bringing more snow to Haleakala on Maui and the high volcano peaks on the Big Island of Hawaii, but the snow won't get to as low an elevation as it did a few days ago.

OTHER RECORDS

In other Hawaiian extremes, a storm that hit the state last April was just in the past couple of days verified as producing a United States record for the most rain in a 24 hour period.

In the 24 hours ending at 12:45 p.m. April 15, 2018, a total of 49.69 inches fell on Waipa Gardens, Hawaii. That breaks the previous national record of 43 inches in 24 hours, set on  July 25-26, 1979 in Alvin, Texas.

For perspective, there have only been three entire years in Burlington, Vermont on record that had more rain than what fell in 24 hours on that April day last year in Hawaii.

Also, last August, Hurricane Lane dumped 52 inches of rain on one town in Hawaii. That's the second highest rainfall of any hurricane or tropical storm in known United States history. Only the Texas Hurricane Harvey in 2017 poured more rain down.

Here's some videos:

A snowy drive in Maui, Hawaii, this past Sunday:



Video of high waves from the storm on Oahu:

Bizarro Story From Infowars On Hurricane Lane

These nutjobs on Infowars tell us that John Kerry fired an energy
beam from Antarctica that split Hurricane Lane in two.
Credit them for imagination! 

An energy beam fired from Antarctica, probably by John Kerry, split Hurricane Lane in two while it was near Hawaii last week.

Obviously, that isn't true, but the nutjobs at Infowars obviously think it happened. Infowars, for the unitiated, is a strange conspiracy theory "news" site run by performance artist/crazy man Alex Jones.

Even more strangely, lots of people believe this garbage. Hate to say it, but it appears most of the people who believe in this garbage are Trump partisans.

Here's how I think they came up with this energy beam theory. At one point, a large blob of thunderstorms developed just to the east of Hurricane Lane. On satellite photos, it looked like there were suddently two powerful storms near Hawaii.

The Infowars guys in their video showed what appeared to be an infared satellite image of moisture flow around the world. There briefly appears to be some moisture, or a lack of it, coming out of Antarctica. I'm not sure if it was a glitch, or just air flow coming up from Antarctica northbound near Chile, but there you go.

An energy beam!

Well, actually, it was just the natural flow of moisture in the atmosphere, but that's not exciting enough for the Infowar guys.

After some verbiage concerning China and its aggressions in the South China Sea or something like that, the two people on Infowars conclude former Secretary of State John Kerry is somehow behind it.

Kerry visited Antarctica two years ago. That's a true fact. Somehow, these people in Infowars said that because Kerry once visited Antarctica, he returned and fired that energy beam.

The fact that Kerry visited Antarctica very soon after the 2016 elections somehow makes everything suspicious. How the hell do they come up with this crap?  Anyway, this is what the Infowars host Owen Shroyer said:

"Yeah, why is John Kerry going down to Antarctica just a week after the election to discuss climate hange and then you have energy beams coming out of Antarctica splitting hurricanes?"

How Shroyer connects these two things I'll never know.

"What is John Kerry doing down there? That's awfully suspicious to me," Shroyer said. Never mind there's no indication Kerry visited Antarctica this week. But never mind. Shroyer informs us that the FBI should be investigated this instead of Trump collusion investigation.

That, Shroyer thinks, is a way, way over the top conspiracy theory. OK, whatever.

For his part, Kerry tweeted: "The secret's out - busted."

Oh, that Tweet will send the Infowars nutjobs into a tizzy!

In a reply to Kerry someone jokingly tweeted: "I always said don't trust @JohnKerry some day he's going to split a giant hurricane that's threatening Hawaii in two using some sort of beam fired from Antarctica and everyone laughed at me. Who's laughing now though?"

Another tweet scolded Kerry:

"John, I thought we agreed that you would stop doing that. I fear it's becoming more than a habit - its on the verge of an addiction. Have you considered Giant Laserbeam Zappers Anonymous?"

We'll just have to watch and see. More hurricanes will form in the coming weeks. Will John Kerry zap those, too? We'll have to wait and see.

Another New England Round Of Heat, Humidity

I heard a few people in past week say they're relieved summer heat and humidity in Vermont and surrounding areas is finally over.

Um, no.

We've got at least one more round of oppressive weather to go. You'll notice it will generally get hotter and more humid during the course of the weekend.

Today won't be all that bad. Most places will get into the 80s, but the humidity will be moderate. It won't make you wilt.

Tomorrow might actually be a couple degrees cooler, but it will be more humid so it will feel worse. A weather disturbance will zip by to our north in the afternoon and evening, so that will probably trigger sone scattered showers and thunderstorms, especially north of Route 2.

Then the real heat hits. Expect hot weather and high humidity Monday through Wednesday. At this point, Tuesday looks to be the worst day. Many valley locations could reach 90 degrees, and the humidity will be high.

Wednesday looks hot and humid, too. This spell of hot weather might put Burlington, Vermont over the edge enough to make this August the hottest on record. That's iffy, but it's worth watching.

By Wednesday afternoon,  a cold front will be approaching. More scattered showers and thunderstorms look like a good bet.

Cold fronts in late August often have a little more oomph than ones earlier in the summer, and it could be the case with this one.

If all works according to plan, the humidity will be swept away by Thursday and temperatures will cool down into the upper 60s to mid 70s by day. There's a good chance quite a few places away from Lake Champlain could get into the 40s Thursday night.

Heading into September, we might not be done with summer yet. There are signs it could turn hot and humid again during the first week of the month.

HURRICANE LANE UPDATE
Just a quicky here: Strong upper level winds tore Hurricane Lane apart very quickly in the past 24 hours. It's down to a tropical storm, if that, frankly. The remains of Lane are still dumping torrential rains on Hawaii and severe flooding is ongoing in some places, especially the Big Island and Maui.

A few weather stations reported have reported more than 40 inches of rain so far from the storm, which really is incredible

Hurricane Lane Updates And More Smoke Attacks

Hurricane Lane continued to batter Hawaii overnight and this morning, and it's going to be a long day on the island chain.

This chart supplied by NOAA shows air pressure falling
dramatically, and winds increasing, then suddenly stopping,
then picking up again as the eye of Hurricane Lane
passed over a weather monitoring buoy south of Hawaii

Meanwhile, smoke from wildfires continues to make life unpleasant or worse in many parts of the world.

HURRICANE LANE

At last check, Hurricane Lane was a Category 3 storm with winds of up to 120 mph. It was grinding slowly northward toward Maui and Oahu.  Wind shear is slowly weakening the storm and these strong upper level winds will influence the path of the storm and the degree of destruction in Hawaii.

If the wind shear weakens Hurricane Lane relatively quickly, its northward path will abruptly shift toward the west, sparing much of the state the worst of the hurricane's effects.

If Hurricane Lane weakens a little more slowly than expected, the center of the storm will come close to or even possibly over the islands before turning west, which of course would make things much much worse.

The betting now is that the westward turn will come before Hurricane Lane reaches the islands. Still, it's already close enough to cause a lot of problems and that will just get worse today.

Already, more than 18 inches of rain has fallen on the Big Island of Hawaii, and there's been lots of flash flooding. One town has picked up 26 inches of rain so far. (For comparison's sake, here in Vermont, Burlington has had 22 inches of precipitation so far this year. So we've had less rain in eight months than that town in Hawaii had in a couple of days. )

The flooding will get worse as the hurricane slowly makes its way past Hawaii. Some places could get up to 40 inches of rain.

Wind and battering surf will be bring problems with Hurricane Lane, but the worst of it will be the flooding. Seems like that's a trend.

Oddly, in one are of Maui, it hasn't rained much yet and the wind is picking up. That's spreading a brush fire of all things that has forced the evacuation of a storm emergency shelter.

Speaking of wildfires...….

LOTS OF SMOKE, STILL

A recent hazy sunset in St. Albans this morning, created
by smoke from western wildfires overhead. The haze
has gained and ebbed, and was fairly thick this
morning, at least aloft.

When I got up this morning in St. Albans, Vermont the sky, which should have been blue, was covered with a milky haze.

That's wildfire smoke blowing overhead. It is hazy at ground level, too, but it's not that bad. Most of the polllution here is high overhead, so as of this morning, the air isn't terribly unhealthy. 

Not so in many other places as wildfires continue to burn in large swaths of forest in the Northern Hemisphere during this long, hot summer.

We talked the other day about how awful it was in Seattle, but a wind shift off the ocean is greatly improving air quality there.

Inland, though, it's a different story. Air quality alerts remain in place for a large area of the northern Rocky Mountains.

In Germany, smoke choked Berlin because of a nearby forest fire. Worse, the area where the fire was burning has unexploded bombs left over from World War II, Reuters reports.  How's that for a fire fighting hazard?

According to Climate Central, the increase in the number of wildfire smoke days threatens to undo the progress made under the 1970 Clean Air Act. Emissions from factories and cars are cleaner than they used to be, but the rising trend in wildfires and wildfire smoke is working against that progress.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is seeking to relax Clean Air Act rules.

Sigh.

Hurricane Lane Nears Hawaii And The Islands Are Screwed

A view of Hurricane Lane from the International Space Station. Photo
by astronaut Ricky Arnold, @astro_ricky

Hurricane Lane is beginning to affect Hawaii and it's going to be a rough couple of days on the island chain.

Hurricane warnings are up for much of Hawaii, including Honolulu, which had gone 26 years without such a warning. It's rare for a hurricane to affect Hawaii this much, rarer still for such a storm to take a track that affects the whole state.

The eye of the hurricane probably won't even come ashore on any of the islands. You'd think that's good news, and it is. The core of the highest winds will miss. But the hurricane is coming close enough, and it's large enough to engulf most of the island in at least tropical force if not hurricane force winds.

How bad things get depends largely on whether an expected shift in its path to the north is strong or lame. A strong northward turn will really make things bad.  A less sharp turn will help keep the worst of the weather offshore.

Regardless on what happens with Hurricane Lane's track, storm surges and battering waves are a huge threat. Even worse, the island chain is mostly mountainous. Heavy rains will cause flash floods that will rush down slopes, carrying away everything in their path.

The flood risk is the worst part of this storm. The hurricane warning for Hawaii says the flood impacts have the potential to be "devastating to catastrophic."

The hurricane warning continues with a dire picture of Hawaiians might face with the flooding:
"Flood waters can enter numerous structures within multiple communities, some structures becoming uninhabitable or washed away. Numerous places where flood waters may cover escape routes. Streets and parking lots become rivers of raging water with underpasses submerged."

And that part doesn't get into the high risk of destructive mud and landslides.

As I mentioned, hurricanes don't often hit Hawaii, so they're not as prepared as say, Florida. Many houses might not be able to withstand the high winds. It will take awhile for relief supplies to get everywhere, too. Most food and other goods come into Hawaii via ship. If ports are damaged, this flow of goods might slow down.

"Be prepared to shelter in place with 14 days of food supplies and water and any other necessities," Hawaii Gov. David Inge said Friday.

Huge crowds Wednesday at Hawaii grocery stores.

Good luck with that. Residents had already cleared store shelfs of water and nonperishable food. If anyone needs more, too bad at this point, unfortunately.

The first island to get hit is the Big Island, where Hilo is located. Up to eight inches of rain had already been reported there as of Wednesday night, and some places could get 30 inches.

 Flash flooding was already occurring this morning in Hilo and much of the the Big Island. A good chunk of the island will get tropical storm force winds, which are between 39 and 73 mph

Stormy weather will continue to advance northwestward along the island chain as Hurricane Lane itself heads in that direction. Things will deteriorate today across the Hawaii. The worst of the storm will reach the Big Island by the evening and around Honolulu Friday or Friday night.

Yesterday, Hurricane Lane was a dangerous Category 5 storm, the worst you can get. It's slowly weakening as high upper level winds begin to suck the life out of the storm. But that process is very slow, and it's still a major hurricane. Even if the hurricane is a low end Category 1 off the coast of Honolulu  - nearly the best case scenario at this point -  it could still cause dangerous rains, surges and wind.  

Now, it's mostly a waiting game to see how bad things get in Hawaii.

On the brighter side, the Atlantic Ocean, unlike last year, is very quiet. Ocean temperatures are cooler than last year in the prime breeding ground for hurricanes. Plus, upper level winds that tend to squelch wannabe hurricanes are stronger this year than last.

Still, we haven't hit the peak of hurricane season yet and there's no reason to believe a destructive Atlantic hurricane can't still develop.  A weather disturbance is about to come off the west coast of Africa and could develop into something next week.

Stay tuned.

Madison Flood, Seattle Smoke and Hawaii Hurricane?

 .

EDITOR'S NOTE:
A photo of the Madison flood that originally appeared in this post was removed, as photo credit was not given and I could not prove it was Madison flood. I regret the error.

Spots of nasty weather keep popping up in different places in the nation. Areas around Madison, Wisconsin were inundated by up to a foot of rain, smoke is choking some areas of the west, including Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia. And Hawaii is under threat from a hurricane.

MADISON FLOOD

Around a foot of rain fell in and around Madison, Wisconsin yesterday and last night, creating some of the worst flooding some areas around there have seen in decades. 

Many roads were closed, with city officials warning people not to drive through certain sections of Madison this morning. Many people had to be rescued from stranded cars, and water flowed into a number of homes and businesses. One person has been reported missing due to the floods.

Video of the flooding is at the bottom of this post.

This was all part of a slow moving storm that also caused serious flash flooding earlier in the day around Omaha, Nebraska and Council Bluffs, Iowa, among other places. Homes and apartment buildings in Council Bluffs flooded. 

The storm system also spun off a few tornadoes and caused quite a few damaging thunderstorms.

The storm will affect us here in Vermont tonight and tomorrow, but no severe thunderstorms or flooding will happen.

SMOKE ATTACK

Skyline of Seattle, Washington obscured by smoke Monday. Image form
KIRO, Seattle

Wildfires continue to rage from California to British Columbia with pretty much no relief in sight. The fires aren't only affecting people right near the fires.

Millions of people are coughing in heavy smoke settling into populated areas, including Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Air quality in British Columbia over the past few days has often been the worst in the world, even worse than the epic smog attacks that sometimes engulf Beijing, China. Ironically, Beijing reported its best, cleanest air quality in a decade this past week.

All this smoke is obviously unhealthy. KIRO-TV reported the smoke in Seattle Monday was as unhealthy as smoking seven cigarettes. Authorities were warning people not to go outdoors if at all possible, and also not to bring pets outside either. Which would be difficult, I think.

In British Columbia, the smoke was so thick that flights around Vancouver were delayed, and activities at some soccer camps were postponed.

The smoke keeps making its way eastward. There have been occasional air quality alerts in places like Minnesota. Here in Vermont, we have seen periods of hazy skies occasionally over the past week due to the western smoke.

HAWAII HURRICANE?

Powerful Hurricane Lane was spinning southeast of Hawaii this morning with top sustained winds of 140 mph. Current projections indicated it could come close to, or even over some of the Hawaiian islands later this week.

Hurricane Lane could strike Hawaii later this week

It's still a bit uncertain if that will happen, but people are being told to start preparing, just in case.

Even if Hurricane Lane hits Hawaii, it will weaken a bit by the time it gets there. It would still be a powerful, dangerous storm, so  it's probably a good idea if residents start at least thinking about it.

Destructive hurricanes are rare in Hawaii but they do happen. In 1992, Hurricane Iniki hit Kauai, killing six people, injuring 1,000, destroying 1,500 homes and damaging countless other. Total estimated damages were at $1.8 billion dollars.

Here's a video of the flash flooding breaking a small retaining wall and surging into an understandably frightened woman's house: