CoconutCandy
(User)
Thu Aug 13 2009 08:19 PM
Felicia Remnant Continues to Bring Beneficial Rains to Hawaii

Well, the good news for Hawaii is that the remnant circulation of Ex-Hurricane Felicia, now an open wave, continues to bring beneficial rains to mainly Kauai and Oahu.

The trough has just departed Kauai, moving off slowly to the west, as shown here in an animated visible satellite loop of the Hawaiian Islands.



You can easily see the trough axis 'spinning' just west of Kauai, drawing up copious amounts of moisure-laden air from the deep tropics up and over Kauai and Oahu.

And also notice the large 'blob' of moisture just south of Oahu, coming onshore at this hour and causing heavy rains, primarily over the Koolau mountains to the north of Honolulu.

Flood advisories have been posted, but no flash flooding is occuring at the moment. Last night, there was Flash Flood Warnings over the Koolaus, with some spots picking up a *whopping 10 inches* or more, as estimated by the Doppler Radar based on Molokai.

The trend is for dryer and sunnier weather as we head into the weekend, with our blessed tradewinds pushing their way back into the Islands from the east.

Yay! It's been sooooooooo HOT and MUGGY these past few days. However! It was *really great* to have the much-needed rains for the agricultural areas on Oahu and Kauai, and folks didn't seem to mind the rain too much, as we are just *hugely revlieved* that we had no hurricane or tropical storm. Hawaii dodges the bullet yet again! Whew !!

And Diamond Head is going to be a beautiful GREEN again, which usually only happens during our typical winter 'wet season'.

However, there may be more trouble on the horizon, so to speak. There is the remnant of once TD-9E, which looks to be attempting a shot at regeneration, and is just about to cross into the Central Pacific Basin.



Sometimes a vigorous mid-level circulation remains long after after convection fizzles, due to confluent winds or an unfavorable thermodynamic environment, only to re-develop again when it finds itself in more favorable conditions which tend to foster cyclogenesis. So it seems to be the case today with Ex-TD-9E.

We'll see what the approaching convective max will do for this disturbance tonight. These systems can ramp up in a hurry, as we seen with Felicia recently, going from Disturbance to HURRICANE in about 18 hours! Can you say "explosive intensification"? (I'll re-check this to be sure.)

And Finally ... There is Tropical Storm 'GUILLERMO', soon to become a Hurricane, already displaying a large, partly cloud-filled eye off and on this afternoon, local basin time, on animated visible loops.



TC Guillermo is expected to track *straight* towards the Hawaiian Islands and will be in our 'neck of the woods' sometime mid-next week, but thankfully as a weakening tropical storm.



Maybe more rains? Maybe for Maui & the Big Island this time, which largely missed out on a good drenching from Felicia, as she tracked through the *Middle Islands*, so Maui and the Big Islands' rain totals were much less than what Kauai and Oahu thankfully received.

So it looks to be something of a replay of Felicia. We'll have to see how this one pans out. I'll open a new thread soon for these 2 potential trouble makers.

Until then, wishing you Aloha from Hawaii !!



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