Doras winds brought most damage of hurricane season | News, Sports, Jobs

July 28, 2024

Wailuku residents Charlie and Christelle Bumagat head home with son Cadence after a visit to Four Sisters Bakery on Vineyard Street on July 19 with weakening tropical storm Calvin passing through Maui County. Calvin was the first tropical cyclone of the Central Pacific hurricane season, which ends Thursday. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

Four tropical cyclones passed through the Central Pacific during the 2023 hurricane season, with Calvin coming the closest but distant Hurricane Dora doing the most damage, with high winds that helped fuel the devastating Aug. 8 wildfires.

The hurricane season, which began June 1 and ends Thursday, was expected to be near or above normal, with four to seven storms predicted. An average year usually brings four to five tropical cyclones, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s hurricane season summary released Tuesday.

Tropical Storm Calvin was the first storm of the season, moving into the Central Pacific basin from the east on July 17 and passing within 80 miles of Hawaii island’s South Point on July 19. At its peak the storm packed maximum winds of 60 mph. Calvin weakened as it approached Maui County but still dumped 7 inches of rain on East Maui and about 6.5 inches of rain on the West Maui Mountains in one 24-hour period, according to rainfall records at the time. The county saw no major damage from the storm.

The one that followed, Hurricane Dora, was the first major hurricane in the Central Pacific since 2020 and the most damaging of the season despite the fact that it traveled hundreds of miles south of the islands. Dora moved into the basin on Aug. 6 as a Category 4 hurricane and maintained its strength, hitting 140 mph at its peak, according to NOAA. The hurricane passed more than 500 miles south of the state at its closest point on Aug. 8, when multiple wildfires broke out Upcountry, in Lahaina and in the Pulehu area.

Maui was under a red flag warning at the time, with high winds, dry conditions and low humidity increasing the risk of fire. Dora’s approach to the islands created a strong gradient and sinking air between high pressure to the north and the hurricane far to the south that led to damaging winds and dry air across the state on Aug. 7-8, NOAA explained. The winds contributed to the fast-moving fire as it consumed dry brush and thousands of homes across Lahaina town, killing at least 100 people.

A map shows the routes of the four tropical cyclones that passed through the Central Pacific during the 2023 hurricane season, including Calvin (labeled storm No. 1) from July 17-19, Dora (No. 2) from Aug. 6-12, Greg (No. 3) from Aug. 14-17 and Twelve-E (No. 4) from Sept. 16-18. NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE graphic

Even after it passed Hawaii, Dora still maintained hurricane strength, passing more than 300 miles south of Johnston Island on Aug. 10 and crossing the International Date Line into the Western Pacific basin on Aug. 12 as a Category 2 hurricane. This made Dora the second tropical cyclone on record to maintain hurricane strength through the Eastern, Central and Western Pacific basins, according to NOAA. The first was Hurricane John in 1994.

Other storms during this year’s hurricane season were less powerful and less destructive. On Aug. 14, Tropical Storm Greg moved into the Central Pacific basin from the east, bringing winds of 50 mph at its peak. But by the time it passed about 500 miles south of Hawaii island on Aug. 17, it had weakened to a remnant low.

Tropical Depression Twelve-E followed the next month but was declared a remnant low shortly after crossing into the Central Pacific basin on Sept. 16. With thunderstorms still pulsing near the low, the Central Pacific Hurricane Center extended the duration of the storm through Sept. 18 in the postseason reanalysis. At its peak, the storm packed winds of 35 mph.

NOAA said in May that a key factor influencing its forecast for the season was the predicted arrival of El Nino, which typically brings warmer surface waters and contributes to more storms in the Pacific.

Hurricane seasons during three straight years of La Nina weather patterns produced a total of two storms in 2020, one storm in 2021 and one storm in 2022.

In the Atlantic, a strong El Nino and record-warm sea surface temperatures spurred an above-normal hurricane season of 20 named storms, the fourth-highest total in a year since 1950, NOAA said in a news release Tuesday. Seven storms were hurricanes and three intensified to major hurricanes. Hurricane Idalia was the only one to make landfall in the U.S. in 2023, coming ashore as a Category 3 hurricane on Aug. 30 near Keaton Beach, Fla., and causing high storm surge and widespread rainfall.

* Managing Editor Colleen Uechi can be reached at cuechi@mauinews.com.

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