Hawaii Hams Muster to Help Forecasters Track Tropical Storm - TopicsExpress



          

Hawaii Hams Muster to Help Forecasters Track Tropical Storm Flossie - 08/03/2013 Amateur Radio operators kept National Weather Service meteorologists and state and local emergency operations centers up to date on changing conditions as Tropical Storm Flossie passed over the Island State July 29-30. The NWS had earlier notified residents to prepare for heavy rains, high winds and flooding. Clem Jung, KH7HO, opened a SKYWARN net from the NWS Honolulu office ham station the evening of July 29 to establish an operational plan. The net reconvened the next morning on the AllStar Link repeater system and on 7.088 MHz. ARES and RACES members also participated. Over its 12 hours of activation, the net recorded 67 check-ins and reports from hams in all four Hawaii counties. Net control stations received reports from throughout the state via Amateur Radio as well as by cell phones and even social media. All reports were shared with meteorologists in the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC). Harvey Monomura, AH6JA, and others on East Hawaii provided ground observations of rain and lightning conditions to supplement what forecasters were seeing via radar and infrared satellite imaging. The state EOC and all county EOCs monitored the SKYWARN reports. As the storm moved west, stations on Maui, Lanai and Oahu provided reports. With Flossie continuing toward the Big Island, the mass of the Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa volcanoes, with summits towering above 13,600 feet, combined with upper-level shear from the northwest, causing the storm to split in two. One portion moved south around the Big Island, and the other headed northwest toward Maui. “Combined with the mass of a third volcano, Mount Haleakala on Maui, the tall volcanoes affected the circular motion of Flossie, causing it to further downgrade to a tropical disturbance,” Ron Hashiro, AH6RH, explained. The volcanoes also caused Flossie’s moist air to deflect upward and raise the tops of the thunderclouds to heights approaching 60,000 feet above Maui. The vertical motion caused more ice and static electricity, resulting in increased lightning activity over Maui, and reports started coming in of considerable lightning and rain, and even small hail, coupled with power outages in Maui. As the storm diminished, the CPHC gave the okay to close the SKYWARN NET late on July 30. “This cooperation between the SKYWARN net control stations and the NWS was fantastic,” said Jung. “This success was possible because emergency coordinators had worked previously with the Amateur Radio community that participated in this net.” In August 2007, Hurricane Flossie, a powerful South Pacific cyclone, brought squalls and caused light damage in Hawaii.
Posted on: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 12:07:08 +0000

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