Fire and Rain: The Legacy of Hurricane Lane in Hawaiʻi

Hurricane Lane (2018) was an impactful event for the Hawaiian Islands and provided a textbook example of the compounding hazards that can be produced from a single storm. Over a 4-day period, the island of Hawaiʻi received an island-wide average of 424 mm (17 in.) of rainfall, with a 4-day single-st...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 2020-06, Vol.101 (6), p.E954-E967
Main Authors: Nugent, Alison D., Longman, Ryan J., Trauernicht, Clay, Lucas, Matthew P., Diaz, Henry F., Giambelluca, Thomas W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antecedent moisture
Atmospheric conditions
Atmospheric precipitations
Coasts
Compounding
Convection
Cyclones
Disasters
Downslope winds
El Nino
Emergency communications systems
Emergency preparedness
Emergency response
Fatalities
Fire hazards
Fires
Flooding
Floods
Forest & brush fires
Hazards
Hurricanes
Islands
Land use
Landslides
Precipitation
Rain
Rainfall
Socioeconomic factors
Storm damage
Storms
Tropical climate
Tropical cyclones
Weather
Winds
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Summary:Hurricane Lane (2018) was an impactful event for the Hawaiian Islands and provided a textbook example of the compounding hazards that can be produced from a single storm. Over a 4-day period, the island of Hawaiʻi received an island-wide average of 424 mm (17 in.) of rainfall, with a 4-day single-station maximum of 1,444 mm (57 in.), making Hurricane Lane the wettest tropical cyclone ever recorded in Hawaiʻi (based on all available quantitative records). Simultaneously, fires on the islands of nearby Maui and Oʻahu burned 1,043 ha (2,577 ac) and 162 ha (400 ac), respectively. Land-use characteristics and antecedent moisture conditions exacerbated fire hazard, and both fire and rain severity were influenced by the storm environment and local topographical features. Broadscale subsidence around the storm periphery and downslope winds resulted in dry and windy conditions conducive to fire, while in a different region of the same storm, preexisting convection, incredibly moist atmospheric conditions, and upslope flow brought intense, long-duration rainfall. The simultaneous occurrence of rain-driven flooding and landslides, high-intensity winds, and multiple fires complicated emergency response. The compounding nature of the hazards produced during the Hurricane Lane event highlights the need to improve anticipation of complex feedback mechanisms among climate- and weather-related phenomena.
ISSN:0003-0007
1520-0477
DOI:10.1175/BAMS-D-19-0104.1