A high wind warning is expected to continue for portions of all the Hawaiian islands through 6 tonight, with gusts of up to 60 mph.
“The winds are really howling out there right now,” Jon Jelsema, National Weather Service
senior forecaster, said Friday night.
All the islands were experiencing high winds in some areas Friday night.
“It’s windy everywhere right now, but in some areas the trades are really blasting,” he said. “I think we’re going to see some damage … with downed trees, power lines and outages.”
He said Oahu probably will experience the high winds through this morning.
On Hawaii island Friday, Kohala Ranch had one gust as high as 57 mph, and Kamuela had sustained winds as high as 39 mph.
The threshold for severe storms is 58 mph, which is the speed at which trees and power lines start coming down, and outages begin
occurring. Those things could occur at lower speeds, but that’s when damage occurs more frequently, Jelsema said.
Kalaupapa, Molokai, had gusts of 44 mph with sustained winds at 29 mph. Maalaea Bay, Maui, had 47 mph gusts, and sustained winds of
31 mph.
Jelsema said areas such as Maalaea Bay have strong winds due to funneling between the West Maui Mountains and Haleakala.
“You’re more likely to see the wind warning levels where the terrain funnels the wind most effectively such as at Kaena Point on Oahu,” he said. It’s extremely windy because the winds are accelerated down the North Shore coast of Oahu and they’re squeezed between the ocean and the mountain.”
The other areas with the strongest winds are immediately downslope of the mountains.
A downed tree was reported on the Pali Highway Friday night.
The city took precautions by closing the Honolulu City Lights Christmas displays starting at 4:30 p.m. Friday.
The city will issue a news release once the decision is made to reopen the city lights displays. A decision will be made this morning on the “Christmas with the Animals” event at the Honolulu Zoo, which is scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m. and features zoo animals opening wrapped presents.
Jelsema said that as of 7 p.m. Friday the Weather Service had not received reports of any damage.
