Barbara to swipe Hawaii with rain, rough seas early this week
While Barbara is no longer a hurricane or tropical storm, showers and thunderstorms associated with the diminished system are forecast to impact Hawaii early this week.
Barbara was once a 155-mph Category 4 hurricane. However, even though the tropical cyclone will continue to head toward Hawaii in the coming days, it has weakened. The compact area of heavy rain and high winds will spread out and diminish.
Barbara was downgraded to a tropical storm early Friday morning, local time, and then a tropical rainstorm early Saturday.
"Barbara will bring locally heavy rain and create rough seas and surf around Hawaii as it continues to drift westward into Tuesday," according to AccuWeather Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski.
Enough rain can fall to lead to localized incidents of flash and urban flooding. There is the potential for locally severe thunderstorms with gusty winds, especially on the east- and northeast-facing slopes initially.
There is also the potential that a couple of downpours occur in areas that typically do not get rainfall during a northeast trade wind setup. How much of that occurs will depend on the orientation of the remaining shell of the once powerful hurricane.
Since the swath of showers and thunderstorms will be more spread out with a weak feature, the center of the rainstorm may not have to pass directly over the islands for downpours and locally gusty winds.
Honolulu was hit by heavy rain during the last week in June as a non-tropical storm created a southerly flow of moisture. More than 5.50 inches of rain fell on the city.
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"Even with Barbara passing through as a tropical rainstorm, much less rain is likely to fall on Honolulu with this setup compared to the rain from June 25-26," according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brian Thompson.
"It's possible Honolulu receives only a small amount of rain, while other areas are drenched as Barbara passes by," Thompson said.
The heaviest rain associated with Barbara is expected to soak the windward areas of the Big Island.
As the system approaches, seas are expected to build from west to east.
"Large swells created by Barbara will bring higher surf, especially to the east-facing coastal areas with exposure to the open ocean into Tuesday," Kottlowski said.
Like some of the rain showers, these conditions may shift to the south-facing shores for a time as Barbara moves by to the west.
"We are expecting an active hurricane season for the Eastern and Central Pacific this year," Kottlowski said.
More threats are likely as the season progresses.
Cosme developed as a tropical storm well to the southwest of Mexico on Saturday morning and has since weakened to a tropical depression on Sunday evening.
Cosme dissipated over the open waters of the East Pacific on Monday.
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