If current forecasts hold, the 2016 hurricane season in the Pacific will end on a quiet note Wednesday.
While hurricanes and other tropical cyclones can form at any point during the year, the official hurricane season, which lasts from June 1 until Nov. 30, marks the period when such storms are most likely to develop.
Six major tropical cyclones passed through Hawaii waters this year, slightly above average for a typical hurricane season and affirming predictions made at the start of the season by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Central Pacific Hurricane Center.
The 2016 season was far less active than the previous year, when the CPHC recorded 16 tropical cyclones, including eight hurricanes. Higher ocean temperatures are believed to have played a role in the spike in cyclone formations in 2015.
The season got off to a relatively late start with the passage of Tropical Storm Celia from the eastern Pacific on July 15. The weakening storm brought wind and rain as it passed to the north of the island chain.
Celia was followed closely by Tropical Storm Darby, which made landfall on the Kau Coast of Hawaii island July 23. Bearing 40 mph wind, the storm flooded roads, downed trees and knocked out power as it passed Hawaii island and Maui.
The storm also brought heavy rain to Oahu, prompting the closing of Dillingham Boulevard and stranding cars on School Street. Storm gauges around the island recorded rain falling at a rate of 2 to 4 inches per hour.
Tropical Depression Ivette brought days of increased humidity and a few heavy showers in early August before passing harmlessly to the southwest of the state.
Hawaii island was again on high alert Aug. 31 with the arrival of Tropical Storm Madeline, which entered the Central Pacific as a hurricane a day earlier.
The storm dumped an estimated 8 inches of rain on the island and knocked out electrical service to thousands of residents during its brief but intense pass. Madeline also flooded roads and stranded residents in the Kapoho area.
Madeline was followed closely by Hurricane Lester.
In preparation for Lester, all public schools on Maui plus University of Hawaii Maui College and all other UH facilities in Maui County were closed. Government offices, parks and other facilities also closed for the day, and scores of public events were canceled in anticipation of the storm.
Lester ultimately passed to the north of the state with relatively little impact save some large surf.
The sixth cyclone, Tropical Storm Ulika, entered the Central Pacific on Sept. 29 and dissipated Sept. 30 far from the islands.
The CPHC’s initial forecast anticipated that El Nino conditions would give way to a La Nina cycle at some point during the hurricane season.
According to the CPHC, La Nina is typically accompanied by below-average sea surface temperatures, higher wind shear and an irregular sinking motion in the atmosphere, which serve to prevent storms from forming and intensifying.
A relatively weak La Nina finally arrived in the Pacific in early November, much later than expected, and is expected to linger through the new year.
As of Sunday evening the center was holding to its prediction that no tropical cyclones would form in the Central Pacific through Wednesday, when the final tropical weather outlook of the season is scheduled to be released.
Outlooks will resume June 1.
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Correction:
>> The Central Pacific saw six tropical cyclones during the just-ended 2016 hurricane season not five as reported in an earlier version of this story and in Sunday’s print edition. The sixth cyclone, Tropical Storm Ulika, had been omitted from the story.