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Hurricane Pali was the earliest-forming
Pacific hurricane A Pacific hurricane is a mature tropical cyclone that develops within the northeastern and central Pacific Ocean to the east of 180°W, north of the equator. For tropical cyclone warning purposes, the northern Pacific is divided into three regio ...
on record, and the first Pacific hurricane to occur in January since
Hurricane Ekeka Hurricane Ekeka was the most intense off-season tropical cyclone on record in the northeastern Pacific basin. The first storm of the 1992 Pacific hurricane season, Ekeka developed on January 28 well to the south of Hawaii. It gradually intensifie ...
in
1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...
. The first
tropical cyclone A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...
of the
2016 Pacific hurricane season The 2016 Pacific hurricane season was tied as the fifth-most active season on record, alongside the 2014 season. Throughout the course of the year, a total of 22 named storms, 13 hurricanes and six major hurricanes were observed within the basin. ...
, Pali originated as an
area of low pressure In meteorology, a low-pressure area, low area or low is a region where the atmospheric pressure is lower than that of surrounding locations. Low-pressure areas are commonly associated with inclement weather (such as cloudy, windy, with possible ...
within a persistent
trough Trough may refer to: In science * Trough (geology), a long depression less steep than a trench * Trough (meteorology), an elongated region of low atmospheric pressure * Trough (physics), the lowest point on a wave * Trough level (medicine), the l ...
, near the
equator The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can als ...
on January 6, 2016. Deep
convection Convection is single or multiphase fluid flow that occurs spontaneously due to the combined effects of material property heterogeneity and body forces on a fluid, most commonly density and gravity (see buoyancy). When the cause of the convec ...
gradually built up around the center of the disturbance as the system curved northward, before it organized into a tropical depression on the next day, making the system the earliest recorded
tropical cyclone A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...
in the Pacific hurricane basin. The system quickly reached
tropical storm A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...
status and was named ''Pali''. For the next couple of days, Pali slowly moved northward, while slowly curving towards the west, and the storm strengthened somewhat before weakening, due to the presence of wind shear. On January 10, Pali slowly turned eastward and proceeded to re-strengthen, as wind shear diminished. On January 12, Pali strengthened further into a Category1 hurricane on the
Saffir–Simpson scale The Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale (SSHWS) classifies hurricanes—which in the Western Hemisphere are tropical cyclones that exceed the intensities of tropical depressions and tropical storms—into five categories distinguished by ...
(SSWHS), while curving towards the south. On January 13, Pali reached its peak intensity as a Category 2 hurricane, with 1-minute
maximum sustained wind The maximum sustained wind associated with a tropical cyclone is a common indicator of the intensity of the storm. Within a mature tropical cyclone, it is found within the eyewall at a distance defined as the radius of maximum wind, or RMW. Unl ...
s of 100mph (155km/h) and a minimum central pressure of 978
mbar The bar is a metric unit of pressure, but not part of the International System of Units (SI). It is defined as exactly equal to 100,000  Pa (100 kPa), or slightly less than the current average atmospheric pressure on Earth at sea leve ...
(
hPa HPA may refer to: Organizations * Harry Potter Alliance, a charity * Halifax Port Authority, Canada * Hamburg Port Authority, Germany * Hawaii Preparatory Academy, a school in Hawaii, US * Health Protection Agency, UK * Heerespersonalamt, the Ger ...
; 28.88
inHg Inch of mercury (inHg and ″Hg) is a non- SI unit of measurement for pressure. It is used for barometric pressure in weather reports, refrigeration and aviation in the United States. It is the pressure exerted by a column of mercury in heigh ...
). Afterward, Pali quickly began to weaken, as the storm encountered stronger wind shear, with the storm falling to Category 1 intensity several hours later, before weakening into a tropical storm later that day. On January 14, Pali weakened into a tropical depression, before degenerating into a remnant low by January 15, as conditions became increasingly hostile. Later that day, Pali's remnants dissipated, near the same location where the storm had formed roughly a week ago. Pali formed and tracked near the equator, forming at a latitude of 3.3°N and tracking as low as 2.3°N as a tropical depression. This made Pali the second-lowest latitude tropical cyclone on record in the
Western Hemisphere The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Politically, the term We ...
, which was extremely unusual, given the unfavorable conditions that are usually in place around the equator. Pali had severe impacts in
Kiribati Kiribati (), officially the Republic of Kiribati ( gil, ibaberikiKiribati),Kiribati
''The Wor ...
, grounding a cargo ship and killing four people, in addition to causing major
coastal flooding Coastal flooding normally occurs when dry and low-lying land is submerged by seawater. The range of a coastal flooding is a result of the elevation of floodwater that penetrates the inland which is controlled by the topography of the coastal land ...
, though the amount of damage caused by the storm was not specified in the island nation's report to the
World Meteorological Organisation The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for promoting international cooperation on atmospheric science, climatology, hydrology and geophysics. The WMO originated from the Internatio ...
(WMO).


Background and records

As currently defined, the
Pacific hurricane season A Pacific hurricane is a mature tropical cyclone that develops within the northeastern and central Pacific Ocean to the east of 180°W, north of the equator. For tropical cyclone warning purposes, the northern Pacific is divided into three regio ...
lasts from May 15 to November 30, the period in which tropical cyclones are most likely to develop across the basin. Occasionally, systems develop outside these seasons, most frequently in May or December, though some off-season storms also develop in January. Activity in January is extremely rare; only two systems other than Pali have been recorded since 1949: Tropical Storm Winona in 1989 and Hurricane Ekeka in 1992, which became a Category 3 major hurricane. Pali was the earliest tropical cyclone recorded in the Central Pacific basin, forming on January 7, beating Tropical Storm Winona by six days. Pali was also the earliest recorded Central Pacific hurricane, reaching hurricane intensity on January 12, beating the previous record-holder, Hurricane Ekeka, by 19 days. Pali also formed and tracked closer to the equator than any other storm recorded in the Pacific hurricane basin. Pali became a tropical depression near 3.3°N. During its final days as a tropical cyclone, Pali reached a minimum latitude of 2.3°N as a tropical depression, making it the second-lowest latitude tropical cyclone on record in the Western Hemisphere, just behind Tropical Depression Nine-C, which attained a minimum latitude of 2.2°N just two weeks prior; no other tropical cyclone in the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...
(NOAA)'s records in the Central Pacific had ever ventured that close to the equator, dating back to 1842. Tropical cyclones usually do not develop that close to the equator, due to the strength of the
Coriolis force In physics, the Coriolis force is an inertial or fictitious force that acts on objects in motion within a frame of reference that rotates with respect to an inertial frame. In a reference frame with clockwise rotation, the force acts to the ...
at those
latitudes In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...
, which is too weak to induce the spin necessary to form tropical cyclones. Prior to the storm's dissipation, when Pali curved back towards the south, some meteorologists speculated that Pali could cross over the equator into the Southern Hemisphere, given the steering currents in place, which would have been an extremely rare occurrence had the storm done so. Unrelated to Pali, the formation of Hurricane Alex over the
North Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe and ...
in mid-January coincided with Pali's development over the Central Pacific. This marked the first occurrence of simultaneous January tropical cyclones between these two basins.


Meteorological history

In late December 2015, a long-lived and powerful
westerly wind burst A westerly wind burst is a phenomenon commonly associated with El Niño events, whereby the typical east-to-west trade winds across the equatorial Pacific shift to west-to-east. A westerly wind burst is defined by Harrison and Vecchi (1997) as sus ...
—a feature commonly associated with strong
El Niño El Niño (; ; ) is the warm phase of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and is associated with a band of warm ocean water that develops in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific (approximately between the International Date L ...
events—triggered the formation of Tropical Depression Nine-C in the central North Pacific, along with its twin, Tropical Cyclone Ula, in the central South Pacific. Tropical Depression Nine-C quickly dissipated by the start of 2016, leaving behind a large area of moisture across the equatorial Pacific. The persistent, powerful westerly wind burst spurred
cyclogenesis Cyclogenesis is the development or strengthening of cyclonic circulation in the atmosphere (a low-pressure area). Cyclogenesis is an umbrella term for at least three different processes, all of which result in the development of some sort of cyc ...
within a persistent, low-latitude, west-to-east-oriented surface trough that spanned between 1.0°N and 3.0°N latitude as far east as 155.0°W longitude, resulting in the formation of a weak
area of low pressure In meteorology, a low-pressure area, low area or low is a region where the atmospheric pressure is lower than that of surrounding locations. Low-pressure areas are commonly associated with inclement weather (such as cloudy, windy, with possible ...
on January 6, at the extremely low latitude of 1.9°N. The disturbance developed in an area of high
wind shear Wind shear (or windshear), sometimes referred to as wind gradient, is a difference in wind speed and/or direction over a relatively short distance in the atmosphere. Atmospheric wind shear is normally described as either vertical or horizontal ...
, which kept the system from quickly organizing. The low and the trough drifted northward, as the
subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Geographical z ...
ridge A ridge or a mountain ridge is a geographical feature consisting of a chain of mountains or hills that form a continuous elevated crest for an extended distance. The sides of the ridge slope away from the narrow top on either side. The line ...
spanning the region was significantly weakened by a passing
extratropical storm Extratropical cyclones, sometimes called mid-latitude cyclones or wave cyclones, are low-pressure areas which, along with the anticyclones of high-pressure areas, drive the weather over much of the Earth. Extratropical cyclones are capable of ...
in the North Pacific. Deep
convection Convection is single or multiphase fluid flow that occurs spontaneously due to the combined effects of material property heterogeneity and body forces on a fluid, most commonly density and gravity (see buoyancy). When the cause of the convec ...
then developed near the low and also along a broad portion of the trough; however,
thunderstorm A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm or a lightning storm, is a storm characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere, known as thunder. Relatively weak thunderstorms are someti ...
s failed to concentrate around the center of the disturbance. Fueled by unusually high
sea surface temperature Sea surface temperature (SST), or ocean surface temperature, is the ocean temperature close to the surface. The exact meaning of ''surface'' varies according to the measurement method used, but it is between and below the sea surface. Air mass ...
s, estimated at , deep convection increased and gradually organized around the low, and the system gradually coalesced into a tropical depression by 06:00 UTC on January 7, at a latitude of 3.3°N. This marked the earliest formation of a tropical cyclone on record in the Central Pacific, surpassing 1989's Tropical Storm Winona by six days. A ridge aloft centered directly above the system enhanced its poleward
anticyclonic An anticyclone is a weather phenomenon defined as a large-scale circulation of winds around a central region of high atmospheric pressure, clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from abov ...
outflow Outflow may refer to: *Capital outflow, the capital leaving a particular economy *Bipolar outflow, in astronomy, two continuous flows of gas from the poles of a star *Outflow (hydrology), the discharge of a lake or other reservoir system * Outflow ...
, enabling the development of deep convection around its center, and soon afterward, the system strengthened into a tropical storm, which received the name ''Pali'', becoming the earliest tropical cyclone recorded in the northeastern Pacific. Pali continued intensifying through the first half of January 8 and nearly reached Category 1 hurricane strength, with maximum 1-minute sustained winds reaching 70 mph (110 km/h), but easterly vertical wind shear caused by the ridge aloft increased and disrupted its center, causing the storm to start weakening and curve northwestward. Steady weakening continued through January 9, as Pali's deep convection was displaced to the west of its low-level circulation center and intermittently pulsed, later leading to a sharp decrease in the storm's intensity. By the end of that day, Pali barely maintained tropical storm strength, with the storm's 1-minute sustained winds registering at 40 mph (65 km/h). The lack of persistent deep convection resulted in Pali being a weaker system, but this permitted the storm to be more resistant to the easterly wind shear, causing its forward motion to decrease significantly. The ridge of high pressure weakened and retreated southward on January 10, which caused the vertical wind shear to gradually diminish. Afterward, Pali started re-intensifying, with persistent deep convection redeveloping near its center and within the storm's western quadrant. This shift in steering currents also caused Pali to slowly turn eastward. Pali almost completely stalled during this time, due to the absence of significant steering currents. On January 11, the ridge of high pressure moved directly over Pali, leading to the reestablishment of poleward outflow above the storm and the eventual development of southwesterly flow aloft, enabling the storm's convection to slowly increase in coverage and organization within all quadrants, and also establishing a northeastward movement. At 00:00 UTC on January 12, light vertical wind shear and high sea surface temperatures enabled Pali to strengthen into a Category 1 hurricane, becoming the earliest hurricane on record in the northeast Pacific basin, beating the previous record set by
Hurricane Ekeka Hurricane Ekeka was the most intense off-season tropical cyclone on record in the northeastern Pacific basin. The first storm of the 1992 Pacific hurricane season, Ekeka developed on January 28 well to the south of Hawaii. It gradually intensifie ...
in 1992, by 19 days. Around the same time, the storm began curving towards the southeast, as a deep ridge developed to the north. The storm also displayed a well-defined
eye Eyes are organs of the visual system. They provide living organisms with vision, the ability to receive and process visual detail, as well as enabling several photo response functions that are independent of vision. Eyes detect light and conv ...
by 18:00 UTC that day. Pali continued strengthening while travelling southward, and early on January 13, Pali reached its peak intensity as a Category 2 hurricane, with maximum 1-minute sustained winds of 100 mph (155 km/h) and a minimum central pressure of . During the next few days, Pali rapidly weakened while turning back towards the south-southwest, due to steady increases in southerly vertical wind shear and the loss of Coriolis force. The storm's weakening trend began on January 13 and accelerated through the next day, as Pali moved back towards the area from where it had formed. The storm's eye became indistinguishable by 06:00 UTC on January 13, as the system continued to weaken. Vertical wind shear exceeded 25 mph (40 km/h) by early January 14. Further decay in the organization of the storm's deep convection caused Pali to be downgraded into a remnant low late on January 14, with the system barely being distinguishable within the surface trough where it had spent its entire life, and the storm's center dissipated by 00:00 UTC on January 15. However, Pali's remnants continued to persist for a while, before dissipating later that day. Pali completed a broad and looping track, dissipating approximately from where it had initially developed. While weakening, Pali reached a minimum latitude of 2.3°N, making it the second-lowest latitude tropical cyclone on record in the Western Hemisphere, behind Tropical Depression Nine-C, which attained a minimum latitude of 2.2°N just two weeks prior.


Impacts

In the 19th session of the
World Meteorological Organisation The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for promoting international cooperation on atmospheric science, climatology, hydrology and geophysics. The WMO originated from the Internatio ...
(WMO)'s Tropical Cyclone Committee, in July 2021, Kiribati reported that Hurricane Pali had severe impacts in Kiribati. While Pali caused a significant amount of property damage, the exact amount of damage was not given in the report to the WMO. Pali caused a cargo ship to run aground on the coast of Kiribati, killing four people. Additionally, Pali's
storm surge A storm surge, storm flood, tidal surge, or storm tide is a coastal flood or tsunami-like phenomenon of rising water commonly associated with low-pressure weather systems, such as cyclones. It is measured as the rise in water level above the n ...
combined with the
Spring Tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables ca ...
and the El Niño-induced above-average sea level, producing major coastal flooding in Kiribati, which caused significant damage to the island nation's coastal infrastructure.


See also

* Weather of 2016 *
Tropical cyclones in 2016 During 2016, tropical cyclones formed within seven different tropical cyclone basins, located within various parts of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. During the year, 140 tropical cyclones formed in bodies of water known as tropical ...
*
List of Category 2 Pacific hurricanes Category 2 is the fourth-highest classification on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane wind scale, and categorizes tropical cyclones with 1-minute maximum sustained winds between . Tropical cyclones that strengthen to Category 2 status and make ...
*
List of off-season Pacific hurricanes There have been 26 recorded tropical and subtropical cyclones in the North-eastern Pacific basin outside the official Pacific hurricane season. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) monitors the area from North America westward to 140°W, wh ...
*
Hurricane Nina (1957) Hurricane Nina was the final tropical storm and hurricane of the 1957 Pacific hurricane season and the last storm to form during the active Central Pacific hurricane season this year. This storm was named "Nina" because during this time, hurrica ...
 – A late-season Pacific hurricane that came close to striking
Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
in December *
Tropical Storm Omeka Tropical Storm Omeka was the latest forming Eastern Pacific named storm since reliable records began in the 1960s. The storm was part of the 2010 Pacific typhoon and hurricane season. On December 18, 2010, the Central Pacific Hurricane C ...
(2010) – Another off-season tropical cyclone in the Central Pacific


Notes


References


External links

* Th
NHC's archive on 2016 Tropical Cyclones

Hurricane Pali Storm Activity
– Weather Underground {{DEFAULTSORT:Pali (2016)
Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or ''Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravāda'' Buddhism ...
Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or ''Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravāda'' Buddhism ...
Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or ''Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravāda'' Buddhism ...
January 2016 events
Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or ''Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravāda'' Buddhism ...