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Kona Storm affects Hawai`i

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-17 Air Mass RGB images [click to play MP4 animation]

An anomalousy deep extratropical storm or “Kona Storm” north of Hawai`i (surface analyses) brought strong winds and heavy rainfall to much of the island chain during the 18-20 December 2022 period. GOES-17 (GOES-West) Air Mass RGB images (above) showed the core of the storm (darker shades of orange-red) as well as widespread thunderstorms along and ahead of the storm’s strong cold front.

GOES-17 Total Precipitable Water and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images (below) depicted the tropical moisture that was drawn northward across the islands, providing fuel for development of the thunderstorms.

GOES-17 Total Precipitable Water and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) images [click to play MP4 animation]

A closer view using GOES-17 Infrared images (below) showed the cold cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures associated with the thunderstorm activity — some of which was responsible for an aircraft encounter with severe turbulence.

GOES-17 “Clean” Infrared Window (10.3 µm) mages [click to play MP4 animation]

On 20 December, a sequence of GOES-17 True Color RGB and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images from the CSPP GeoSphere site (below) showed fresh snow cover on the higher elevations of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. Note the lack of snow cover at the summit of the recent Mauna Loa eruption — this was caused by warm sub-surface lava from that eruption, which melted the snow.

GOES-17 True Color RGB and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images [click to play MP4 animation]

A toggle between GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images at 2251 UTC (below) provided a closer view of the thermal signature at the Mauna Loa summit.

GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images [click to enlarge]

Categories: GOES-17, Heavy rain / flooding, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Winter weather