KAILUA-KONA — Hawaii residents had a reprieve this hurricane season following a record-breaking 2015 season that saw 15 storms impact the Central Pacific.
“It was a very nice break from last year,” Chevy Chevalier, a meteorologist with the Central Pacific Hurricane Center, said Tuesday. “Last year was a record season as far as number of storms in the Central Pacific and Eastern Pacific.”
And technically, this season is in the books.
Just six tropical cyclones either formed or passed through the basin during the 2016 season, which began June 1 and ended Wednesday. That’s in line with what forecasters predicted in May when they said climatic conditions pointed to a near or above normal season with four to seven tropical cyclones — a category that includes depressions, storms and hurricanes.
The basin, which normally sees four to five cyclones, spans an area north of the equator from 140 degrees west longitude to the international date line.
Just one storm made landfall on the Big Island this year. Tropical Storm Darby hit July 23, passing over Mauna Loa’s slopes, bringing several inches of rain to mostly east-side areas, as well as wind and surf. The storm also resulted in power outages and the grounding of the Spirit of Kona vessel near Kukailimoku Lighthouse in Kailua-Kona.
Darby was the first to make landfall since Tropical Storm Iselle, which hit Puna in 2014, knocking out power and causing millions of dollars in damage.
Hurricane Madeline also threatened the Big Island in early September, prompting a hurricane watch, but missed the island altogether. Just a day or so behind Madeline, Hurricane Lester approached the state, also prompting a watch, but the storm tracked north of the Big Island.
The last named storm to impact the basin was Ulika, the only storm to form within the Central Pacific this season. The storm, which formed just on the Hawaii side of 140 degrees west longitude, did not come near Hawaii, but instead headed east into the Eastern Pacific and dissipated Sept. 29 more than 1,000 miles east of Hilo.
Though uncommon, there were two out-of-season storms that impacted the basin in January 2016; however, forecasters are still tying up loose ends to determine if they will be counted as part of the 2015 season or the 2016 season, Chevalier said. The storms included Tropical Depression 9-C, which formed in late December 2015 in the Eastern Pacific and dissipated Jan. 1 in the Central Pacific, and Hurricane Pali, which formed far southwest of Hawaii in the Central Pacific and churned Jan. 7-15.
Chevalier said he doesn’t expect the increased activity post-hurricane season this year thanks to the weather phenomena La Nina, which features cooler waters and historically has produced below-normal hurricane seasons for Hawaii. El Nino features the opposite, warmer waters and less wind shear that can help fuel storms.
“That should reduce the probability of storms forming,” Chevalier said. “This is the time of the year when we don’t expect much at all.”
Email Chelsea Jensen at cjensen@westhawaiitoday.com.
