What to expect for Hawaii’s 2023’s hurricane season

HONOLULU (KHON2) — Hawaii’s wet season included gusty winds, kona lows and flooding. This hurricane season is set to see “near or above normal” tropical cyclone activity with the possibility of four to seven tropical cyclones forming.

El Niño

This year is expected to be an El Niño year, which can bring more storm systems.

According to Nexstar, El Niño has arrived early, “In the past decade, El Niños have started in late summer or early fall. Its early appearance “gives it room to grow,” Climate Prediction Center meteorologist Michelle L’Heureux, told the Associated Press.”

Hawaii has had cooler equatorial conditions, otherwise known as La Nina, over the last few seasons.

Officials are predicting that this hurricane season will be very active, similar to 2015, which was the most active hurricane seasons on record.

Get Prepared

Mike Mazzone, of Statewide General Contracting & Construction, said hurricane clips can help immensely for construction that was built before hurricane clips became part of the building code, such as single wall construction.

Mazzone said hurricane clips are relatively easy and quick to install. They can be installed by the homeowner, or you can have the professionals do it. It’s important to remember that hurricane clips must installed on all beams and from the roof to the rafter tail.

According to Mazzone, many homes in Hawaii are single wall construction, particularly in older neighborhoods. This means that there are many homes that may need to be reinforced.

Hurricane Names

Names are very important in Hawaii, explained Kamaka Pili. Names are chosen with great consideration as they have meanings such as carrying a history or a prophecy or describe a place or to honor a loved one.

It was after hurricanes Iniki and Iwa that people began asking about how the names are chosen for the storms. Not all the Hawaiian names used were appropriate since many names have multiple meanings. This led to an overhaul of how names are chosen.

So, why are some topical cyclones given Hawaiian names and others not?

When a storm forms in the central Pacific Basin; so, when it forms within our boundaries, it gets a Hawaiian name. When it forms in the East Pacific, they do not. There is much more activity in the East Pacific with most storms remaining over open water and dissipating.

There are four to five tropical cyclones that form in the Central Pacific. For naming these cyclones, there are four different lists of Hawaiian names created. Each have 12 names that are proper names that do not necessarily have a meaning.

The names are cycled through one to the next until the process needs to begin again with the first list, retiring names of particularly devastating impacts. To date, only a few have been retired; Iniki and Iwa being two of them.