Hurricane Lane
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]
* 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]
![Track of Hurricane Lane, with maps of Ocean Heat Content and Sea Surface Temperature [click to enlarge]](https://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/satellite-blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2018/08/180822_ohc_sst_track_Lane_anim.gif)
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]](https://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/satellite-blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2018/08/180823_1150utc_noaa20_viirs_DayNightBand_InfraredWindow_Hurricane_Lane_anim.gif)
NOAA-20 VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images at 1150 UTC [click to enlarge]
![Suomi NPP VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm) and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images at 1240 UTC [click to enlarge]](https://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/satellite-blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2018/08/180823_1240utc_suomi_npp_viirs_DayNightBand_InfraredWindow_Hurricane_Lane_anim.gif)
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]
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]](https://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/satellite-blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2018/08/180823_1703utc_dmsp17_ssmis_microwave_buoy_Lane_anim.gif)
DMSP-17 SSMIS Microwave (85 GHz) image at 1703 UTC, with and without plots of buoy data [click to enlarge]
===== 24 August Update =====
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 [click to play animation | MP4]
===== 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.
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]](https://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/satellite-blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2018/08/comp20180823.170000_tpw.png)
MIMIC Total Precipitable Water product during 22-25 August [click to play animation | MP4]