All you Hawaiian Kossacks keep your guards up as the major Category-4 Hurricane Flossie threatens to bear down on Hawaii over the next few days. Here is more detail from:
Hurricane Flossie in the Eastern Pacific put on an impressive burst of intensification yesterday that put her at Category 4 strength for a full day. This intensification happened despite the presence of waters that were only 27.5 C, with a very limited total heat content (a relatively shallow layer of warm water, instead of the deep layer usually needs for a hurricane to rapidly intensify). Flossie has likey peaked in intensity, and should decay to Category 1 hurricane status by Tuesday, thanks to the twin influences of cooler SSTs and increased wind shear. Waves along the southeast coast of the Big Island of Hawaii will build to 12 feet by Tuesday morning, and Flossie is expected to make her closest approach to the island Wednesday morning. This morning's model runs have come into better agreement, giving support to the official forecast calling for Flossie's passage 50-100 miles south of the Big Island. Sustained winds of 40 mph currently extend out about 90 miles from the center of Flossie, so the Big Island could experience some damaging winds. Heavy rains and flash flooding are also likely on the Big Island. Right now, it doesn't appear that the Hilo airport on the northeast end of the island will need to close, but the Kona airport on the west side may be forced to close on Wednesday when Flossie passes the island and the winds become more onshore.
