During the day on Friday, Lane rapidly weakened from hurricane to tropical storm as the storm encountered increased wind shear as it approached the Hawaiian Islands. In addition to weakening the storm, these shearing winds will steer the storm westward over the weekend. You can look at the 5 p.m. HST forecast track for more information. Hawaiians, especially on the windward sides of the mountains, are not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination. Heavy rainfall will continue to fall for at least the next 24 to 48 hours as the storm makes its turn and continues to weaken to a tropical depression. As I poked around looking for interesting information on this storm, I came across the NOAA Twitter feed, which included some really cool footage of a hurricane hunter aircraft entering the eye of then-Hurricane Lane (at Category 5 intensity) on August 22.
Time lapse of the landing as #NOAA42 made a safe returned from Hurricane #Lane. Next mission is scheduled to take off in 2.5 hour! pic.twitter.com/yZSrsDxEmp
— HRD/AOML/NOAA (@HRD_AOML_NOAA) August 20, 2018
As I mentioned in my previous post, Lane has me reliving some meteorological memories. The video above made me think of my friend, Buzz Bernard. Buzz used to be a forecaster at The Weather Channel, and I would speak to him frequently when I was working at USA TODAY (The Weather Channel provided the data for our full-color weather map). After Buzz retired, he took up writing full-time. His first novel? Eyewall It’s a thriller that involves a hurricane hunter aircraft damaged on its way into a tremendously strong hurricane — the question is, will the crew be able to fly the wounded craft out of the storm? If you are inclined to pick up a copy (it really is a good read), you may notice a character named Robbie McSwanson. Wonder where Buzz got the name for him?
- My Brush With Natural History - November 19, 2018
- Spring Tides For a Fall Hurricane - October 11, 2018
- She Comes In Colors - September 25, 2018