Hurricane Lane

By Scott Bachmeier • 22 August 2018

NOAA-20 VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images [click to enlarge]

NOAA-20 VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images (above; courtesy of William Straka, CIMSS) showed the eye of Hurricane Lane in the central Pacific Ocean at 1208 UTC on 22 August 2018, a few hours after it reached Category 5 intensity (SATCON). Surface mesovortices were evident within the eye, and storm-top gravity waves were seen propagating west-southwestward away from the eyewall.

A rare and sobering sight tonight in the Central Pacific, as Hurricane #Lane becomes only the 6th recorded Category 5 hurricane in this part of the Pacific, and the nearest to #Hawaii a Cat 5 hurricane has ever been observed. #hiwx pic.twitter.com/d8zLbVKjad

— Michael Lowry (@MichaelRLowry) August 22, 2018

GOES-15 (GOES-West) Infrared Window (10.7 µm) images (below) revealed a significant amount of trochoidal motion as Lane moved northwestward during the 21 August – 22 August period. The storm weakened somewhat to Category 4 intensity as of 15 UTC on 22 August.

GOES-15 Infrared Window (10.7 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

Hurricane Lane was near the limb of the Full Disk view of both Himawari-8 and GOES-17, as seen in a comparison of “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images from the two satellittes (below).

* GOES-17 images shown here are preliminary and non-operational *

“Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images from Himawari-8 (left) and GOES-17 (right) [click to play animation | MP4]

DMSP-16/17 SSMIS Microwave (85 GHz) images from the CIMSS Tropical Cyclones site are shown below.

DMSP-16 SSMIS Microwave (85 GHz) image at 1411 UTC [click to enlarge]

DMSP-17 SSMIS Microwave (85 GHz) image at 1717 UTC [click to enlarge]

Since forming as Tropical Depression 14E on 14 August. Lane had been moving westward over water having only modest Ocean Heat Content but Sea Surface Temperature values of 27-28ºC (below).

Track of Hurricane Lane, with maps of Ocean Heat Content and Sea Surface Temperature [click to enlarge]

===== 23 August Update =====

NOAA-20 VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images at 1150 UTC [click to enlarge]

Hurricane Lane remained at Category 4 intensity during the early hours of 23 August — however, the satellite presentation began to deteriorate as the eye became cloud-filled as seen in toggles between VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images from NOAA-20 at 1150 UTC (above) and Suomi NPP at 1240 UTC (below). An interesting narrow “warm trench” signature became very pronounced within the northwestern quadrant of Lane on the later Suomi NPP Infrared image.

Suomi NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images at 1240 UTC [click to enlarge]

GOES-15 Visible (0.63 µm, left) and Infrared Window (10.7 µm, right) images, with hourly plots of data from Buoy 51002 [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-15 Visible (0.63 µm) and Infrared Window (10.7 µm) images after sunrise (above) showed that the eye of Lane moved over Buoy 51002 — located about 200 miles southwest of the Big Island of Hawai’i — just after 19 UTC (below). The peak wind gust measured by the buoy was 93 knots or 107 mph ay 1830 UTC; the lowest wind and air pressure values were recorded while in the eye from 1930-2110 UTC.

Plot of wind speed/gust and air pressure data from Buoy 51002

At 1703 UTC Buoy 51002 was located just west of the eye, beneath strong convection of the eyewall as seen on a DMSP-17 SSMIS Microwave (85 GHz) image (below).

DMSP-17 SSMIS Microwave (85 GHz) image at 1703 UTC, with and without plots of buoy data [click to enlarge]

A Suomi NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) image at 2334 UTC or 1:34 pm HST on 23 August is shown below.

Suomi NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) image [click to enlarge]

===== 24 August Update =====

Suomi NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) image [click to enlarge]

A Suomi NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) image (above) showed Category 3 Hurricane Lane at 1211 UTC or 2:11 am HST on 24 August. Thin tendrils of high-altitude transverse banding can be seen along the western and northern periphery of the storm.

GOES-15 Infrared Window (10.7 µm) images (below) showed the development of the transverse banding as Lane eventually weakened to a Category 1 storm during the course of the day; a rapid warming of the cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures began around 2100 UTC. Even though the Ocean Heat Content and Sea Surface Temperature in the waters immediately west of Hawai’i were still fairly high, the hurricane was moving into an environment of increasingly unfavorable deep-layer wind shear which acted to decouple the low-level and mid-level circulations and hasten the weakening process.

GOES-15 Infrared Window (10.7 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-15 Visible (0.63 µm) images (below) provided a slightly closer look at the storm during the daylight hours.

GOES-15 Visible (0.63 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

A dramatic difference was seen between Suomi NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band images at 1211 UTC and 2315 UTC (below), as Lane weakened from a Category 3 to a Category 1 hurricane in this 11-hour period.In spite of the rapid weakening, very heavy rainfall continued across much of the State, with 24-hour amounts exceeding 20 inches at some locations on the Big Island of Hawai’i. Note that the Low-Level Circulation Center (LLCC) of Lane had become exposed on the later 2315 UTC image (in spite of a thin veil of cirrus overhead), and was located to the southwest of the rapidly-dissipating convection that was closer to the islands.

Suomi NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) images [click to enlarge]

===== 25 August Update =====

On the islands, the highest wind gust associated with Lane was 74 mph — and storm total rainfall amounts greater than 50 inches were recorded, with Hilo setting a record 3-day accumulation of 31.85 inches and a record 4-day accumulation of 36.76 inches. Rainfall rates on the Big Island exceeded 19 inches in 24 hours on 23 July.

Time series of surface reports from Hilo, Hawai’i [click to enlarge]

Hourly images of the MIMIC Total Precipitable Water (TPW) product during the period 22-25 August (below) showed the circulation of Lane transporting high amounts of moisture across the Hawaiian Islands. TPW values of 60 mm (2.4 inches) or more were also seen in rawinsonde data from Hilo on many of these days.

MIMIC Total Precipitable Water product during 22-25 August [click to play animation | MP4]

A toggle between Suomi NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band images from 24 August / 2315 UTC and 25 August / 1152 UTC (below) showed a slow north/northwestward motion of the exposed LLCC of what had further weakened to Tropical Storm Lane.

Suomi NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) images [click to enlarge]

Categories: DMSP, GOES-15, GOES-17, Heavy rain / flooding, Himawari-8, Microwave, NOAA-20, Satellite winds, Suomi NPP, Tropical cyclones, VIIRS

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CIMSS Satellite Blog

Hurricane Lane