PROJECT ALERT NOTICE (HI) Remnants of Hurricane Lane Causing Rain Across Hawaiian Islands (day 3)

Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2018 14:41:05 EDT

Summary: Hurricane Lane rapidly weakened into a tropical storm early yesterday, but not before dumping a lot of rain on Hawaii Island and parts of Maui.

The Hawaiian Islands are currently being impacted by Tropical Storm Lane, a storm with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph. As of 5 AM HST, Lane was located about 110 miles south-southwest of Honolulu and about 165 miles south-southeast of Lihue. It is moving north at around 3 mph. The storm weakened significantly yesterday afternoon, with both wind and rain intensities decreasing. Honolulu and Maui Counties are under a Tropical Storm Warning at this time, and Kauai County is under a Tropical Storm Watch. Lane is expected to continue moving slowly northward this morning, followed by a turn to the west with an increase in forward speed starting later today or tonight. This forecast track takes it south of Kauai and Niihau later today and tonight. Flooding is still possible on all of the Islands, as outer bands of the storm extend beyond the state in all directions.

As of 8 AM HST on Saturday, no USGS streamgages in the state were above National Weather Service Flood Stage. Three streamgages on Maui and one on Hawaii Island exceeded NWS Flood Stages on Friday, all with what the Weather Service classified as “Minor Flooding”. That brings the total to 6 gages in the state exceeding flood stage at some point during the storm. Two of the gages on Maui (Hanawi Stream near Nahiku, and Honopou Stream near Huelo) had their second highest peaks ever, with nearly 100 years of record at both sites.
The heaviest rainfall of the event has been on Hawaii Island. The USGS Quarry Rain Gage at Saddle Road, located about 15 miles west of Hilo, has recorded about 44 inches of rainfall during this storm.

No gages have been damaged or destroyed, and all real-time gages are currently transmitting.

Pacific Islands Water Science Center Staff are assessing the situation, and will be sending crews out Sunday or Monday to measure flows and highwater marks.