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jse
Joined: 17 Apr 1995
Posts: 1460
Location: Maui
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 Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2023 12:50 pm Post subject: |
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| fxop wrote: | | Mike -- can you comment on why the West Maui Mountains did not protect Lahaina from the supercharged trade winds? We've all driven through gale-force winds in Maalaea to find Lahaina relatively calm. What was different this time? |
I am not a meteorologist, but from living here for 7 years I see the patterns repeat themselves. I recall being told as we were settling in to expect power outages in Haiku where we live when Kona (south) winds blow. The reasoning is that the infrastructure was built for and hardened to the prevailing ENE trades and south winds tend to be problematic. In my experience I have not seen that in action. However I will say that the trees suffer from Kona winds much more than strong trades. During the lead up to the firestorm we had very strong east winds but our trees were largely spared. Contrast that to the effect of Kona winds where we live that have destroyed some my bananas, cacao and palm trees. We also live in an area that has many invasive Albizia trees - aka Widowmakers - that grow 150 feet tall and snap like toothpics in high winds but weather the trades just fine and suffer during Konas.
This has parallels to what happened in Lahaina - which means "cruel sun" in Hawaiian. It's sheltered from the prevailing winds and moisture by the west Maui mountains, and is typically 10 degrees hotter than what we experience in Haiku. When the winds are canting more from the north as in NE rather than ENE, you get a wrap that powers some far west Maui sites like S Turns rendering them sailable and foilable. However there is no wind guage or applicable web cam there so the prospect of sailing there is a high risk venture. I hear it's really good when it goes off. Similarly in a NE wind, Kihei becomes sailable where north shore sites struggle.
I will defer to Mike on this point but the presence of the low pressure from Dora and the NPH in just the right place relative to Maui (I've heard this referred to a "squash" from mariners) created gradients that are not seen often, with winds racing down the southwest side of the island due to the specific location of Dora as it passed far to the south. I suspect the same venturi effect that causes the great conditions at Kanaha even when Ho'okipa struggles (we call that Maui Magic) exasperated the situation by forcing the winds to compress and accelerate. These winds were forecast by a local sailor in a post on the Friends of Kanaha FB group, as well as the local weathermen, but I always go with the windsurfer's assessments before the local news. I had written off the days predicted as too windy - yes, in my advancing age I cherry pick my days - but the winds were not unusual at Kanaha, averaging in the 35 MPH range. Still a little too much for me on a foil. As I said, in Haiku the winds did not seem that strong. But when my friend Eddie Garcia posted the above referenced video (FYI: You can see many of his related videos on FB and IG under "Living Earth Systems") I couldn't believe the contrast. Winds on the water at Oluwalu looked like the days I sailed at Tomales where the wind was topping 50 MPH. However those winds did not feature 2 waterspouts shown in Eddie's videos that did not even get mentioned in any of the Lahaina filre coverage.
I am anxious to hear Mikes assessment when it comes.
Steve |
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