02-19-2015, 09:52 AM
1voyager1 asks "What is the official reason given as the cause of Puna's latest wind storm?"
If you go here this is where the forecaster talk about approaching and departing storms, look at the AFD or area forecast discussion, going down the page there is much more varying amounts of info;
http://www.prh.noaa.gov/data/HFO/
There is a delay here but usually it comes out early the following month;
http://www.weather.gov/peac/Hawaii_Regional_Summary
And if you're real patient in a few months more details will emerge here- the Dec. 2014 edition covers April thru August 2014;
http://www.vos.noaa.gov/MWL/201412/toc.shtml
Look under marine weather review for your area of interest. When I was a kid this was the paper that got me really interested in the weather. I used to collect them all and read them over and over.
Another place-there are hundreds I'm just giving you the better ones is here-covers Jan. 1950 to Oct. 2014 so there is a lag time for details;
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/
Although this is not official, a simple explanation of what caused our Valentine's Day wind storm is cold air plunging South across the ocean which creates a counter flow of warm air moving North. Weather seeks a balance. You can tell where you are in either air mass (cold plunging South,warm moving North) by the wind direction.
The higher the wind the closer the 2 disagreeing air masses are to each other. Air mass temperature differential determines the strength of the storm. The cold/warm air masses associated with the storm passing by late this week do not have as strong a temperature differential so the winds should be much lighter but will flow in much the same way.
What complicates things are the rotation of the Earth (Coriolis Effect)and imagine a giant block of cold air sliding South across the ocean disrupting all the air in it's path. The air and sea temperatures are modifying the air mass constantly and in different layers (atmospheric heights) -soon it looks like Swiss cheese. Layers of different cold or warm air create the veering wind speeds and directions (unstable) and of course, the topography of the land mass has tremendous effect. In weather circles it's known as Small Islands, Big Wake;
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Wake/
Although the article only talks about trade winds, all winds would encounter similar effects here.
As you can sense I could go on and on but I'll spare you, I hope some of this helps your understanding of weather processes!
If you go here this is where the forecaster talk about approaching and departing storms, look at the AFD or area forecast discussion, going down the page there is much more varying amounts of info;
http://www.prh.noaa.gov/data/HFO/
There is a delay here but usually it comes out early the following month;
http://www.weather.gov/peac/Hawaii_Regional_Summary
And if you're real patient in a few months more details will emerge here- the Dec. 2014 edition covers April thru August 2014;
http://www.vos.noaa.gov/MWL/201412/toc.shtml
Look under marine weather review for your area of interest. When I was a kid this was the paper that got me really interested in the weather. I used to collect them all and read them over and over.
Another place-there are hundreds I'm just giving you the better ones is here-covers Jan. 1950 to Oct. 2014 so there is a lag time for details;
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/stormevents/
Although this is not official, a simple explanation of what caused our Valentine's Day wind storm is cold air plunging South across the ocean which creates a counter flow of warm air moving North. Weather seeks a balance. You can tell where you are in either air mass (cold plunging South,warm moving North) by the wind direction.
The higher the wind the closer the 2 disagreeing air masses are to each other. Air mass temperature differential determines the strength of the storm. The cold/warm air masses associated with the storm passing by late this week do not have as strong a temperature differential so the winds should be much lighter but will flow in much the same way.
What complicates things are the rotation of the Earth (Coriolis Effect)and imagine a giant block of cold air sliding South across the ocean disrupting all the air in it's path. The air and sea temperatures are modifying the air mass constantly and in different layers (atmospheric heights) -soon it looks like Swiss cheese. Layers of different cold or warm air create the veering wind speeds and directions (unstable) and of course, the topography of the land mass has tremendous effect. In weather circles it's known as Small Islands, Big Wake;
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Wake/
Although the article only talks about trade winds, all winds would encounter similar effects here.
As you can sense I could go on and on but I'll spare you, I hope some of this helps your understanding of weather processes!