A tropical storm watch for the Big Island was lifted Wednesday afternoon as Tropical Storm Hilda picked up a little speed after drifting along far to the south. The storm is steadily being shredded by wind shear at speeds that
A tropical storm watch for the Big Island was lifted Wednesday afternoon as Tropical Storm Hilda picked up a little speed after drifting along far to the south. The storm is steadily being shredded by wind shear at speeds that are close to the cyclone’s own wind speeds.
Rainfall of 6 to 12 inches is still possible Thursday on east and south slopes, and up to 18 inches may fall in some upper windward elevations.
The storm, moving west at 9 mph, is forecast to pass well south of the island Thursday as a tropical depression circulating 35 mph winds and weakening to a remnant low Thursday night. However, the track of Hilda has wandered a great deal and the storm didn’t have a very definable direction on Wednesday afternoon, prompting forecasters with the Central Pacific Hurricane Center to maintain a tropical storm watch for Hawaii Island until late afternoon.
A flash flood watch remains in effect for Hawaii County until Saturday morning, with landslides and debris possible in the gulches and flooding on roadways creating the potential for hazardous driving. The worst of the high surf peaked Tuesday with 10- to 16-foot faces reported at Isaac Hale Beach Park. Surf was set to be 8-feet and above but waning through 6 a.m. Thursday.
Late Wednesday afternoon, Hilda was being ripped apart by 45 mph westerly vertical wind shear. Thursday morning, the cyclone was 210 miles east-southeast of the Big Island, circulating 40 mph sustained winds, and tropical storm force winds extended 60 miles from the center.
The cyclone’s drift to the northwest was expected to pick up speed Wednesday night and Thursday, coupled with a turn more to the west as the increasingly shallow storm falls more under the influence of the northeast trade winds.
But the cyclone’s own winds aren’t expected to affect the island. Enhanced trade winds on the edges of the storm could kick up to 25 mph on exposed headlands and could be enhanced here and there by terrain, said NWS forecaster Matt Foster.
In all, it hasn’t been easy to gauge where Hilda will go.
“It’s just kind of meandering at this point,” Foster said.
