You may have read about her striking Hawaii this past week as a category 4 with sustained winds of 140 MPH. There she was with a distinct eye looking at us from 300 miles SE of the Big Island and we being the most southern island in Hawaii. She apparently liked what she saw in us, traveling a fairly direct path toward us.

Living on the eastern seaboard of the United States, I always believed there was only one naming system for hurricanes. Well, there are three. The entire Atlantic Ocean has one list with the eastern and western Pacific having one list each. In the past 50 years there have been fifteen "Flossies"

On August 13 a hurricane watch was announced for the Big Island of Hawaiʻi as the storm neared the islands. Holding true to being a paradise, Hawaiʻi has not had a hurricane landfall since Hurricane Iniki of 1992. As Flossie tracked more directly toward the Big Island, it prompted a hurricane warning. Accordingly, the mayor of the Big Island declared a state of emergency. The Governor of the state signed an emergency declaration that activated the Hawaii Army National Guard before the storm's arrival. And Spirit (pictured below) nested more deeply into my wife's arms. Big Island Civil Defense also ordering the closure of all schools, including the University of Hawaii at Hilo and Hawaii Community College, as well as all public parks, as of August 14. The Port of Hilo was also closed.

Spirit, our Cockatoo, hunkering down in the face of Flossie.

Then we watched Flossie evaporate into thin air. She had survived the Intertropical Convergence Zone (Doldrums: detailed in an earlier post) ten days earlier had grown to a category 4 only to deliver sustained winds of only 40 MPH to the beaches of South Point. Where I live further north, sun poked through the overcast skies throughout that day.

Being a climatologist/meteorologist at the Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu must be a thankless job always being teased by hurricanes who dwindle at the sight of the Islands.