Hawaii..waves crash over top of two story condos

[Demovictory9]

Hawaii
Monster waves 'completely wipe out' condos in Hawaii amid 'historic' swell

Monster waves pounded the south-facing shores of the Hawaii Islands over the weekend amid a surge that the National Weather Service called "historic." Hawaii's Department of Land and Natural Resources, which closed multiple state beach parks along south-facing shores, said it was the largest swell in over a decade with waves up to 24 feet.

The dangerous waves are forecast to persist into Monday with some low-lying areas of the islands likely to be inundated by water, the weather service said.

Water crashed over the rooftops of condo complexes in Keauhou on Hawaii Island on Saturday.

"The current and waves got really big around 4 to 5 p.m. and didn’t calm down until around 10:45 p.m.,” Isabella Sloan told Hawaii News Now. “My condo was hit the first time and flooded everything. Condos down the way from mine were completely wiped out and damaged really badly.

https://www.sfgate.com/hawaii/article/Huge-waves-crash-through-wedding-in-Hawaii-17312036.php

https://m.

[orleans]

1. wowza -- & that wedding video--that was freaky too when that wave rolled in nt

[Violet_Crumble]

2. I'm geo-blocked from watching the video, but 24 foot doesn't seem that massive...

It's only a 7 metre wave. It's big and something I wouldn't want to try surfing, and I get that a bunch of waves like that isn't going to bode well for the future of some beachfront properties. But the article talks about waves crashing over the top of condos. If a condo is only 7 metres high, that's a bit of micro-condo situation lol

[Hekate]

3. I'm not sure where you live, but that might affect how you see this. I think the "swell" is the base

… of the wave, and 24 ft is above that? The story says the swells were “massive” — and as you could see for yourself if you were ‘t blocked, they were indeed massive and went over a 2 story building. I don’t know what you think is lol about that.

That’s terrifying.

[Hekate]

4. Seems to be associated with some hurricane far off. The article was pretty sketchy about cause...

On O’ahu, the really monster waves are generally off the North Shore, not from the South Shore. People build things closer to the beach in areas known to be calmer, as you would expect.

I would want more info than the article gives — such as wtf kind of weather systems are building in other parts of the Pacific Ocean.

I’m so sorry for the folks experiencing this.

[Hekate]

5. There's a more complete article in LBN from the AP...

https://apnews.com/article/climate-hawaii-honolulu-rising-sea-levels-kailua-kona-ff51e9e5b4a73de5a72f253a9f69e845


Chris Brenchley, the meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service office in Honolulu, said several factors came together to create such huge waves.
“Waves over 12 or 15 feet (3.66 or 4.57 meters), those become extremely big and really rare to have,” he said. “It’s the largest it’s been in several decades.”

Brenchley said the swell was produced in the South Pacific, where it’s currently the winter season. “They had a particularly strong winter storm where the winds were focused directly towards places like Samoa and then further on to the north into Hawaii,” he said.
******

While singular events like this hard to pin directly to climate change, Brenchley said the warming planet is playing a role.
“The most direct type of impact that we can use with climate change is the sea level rise. Any time you add just even small amounts of water, you raise that sea level just a little bit,” he said. “And now those impacts will be exacerbated whenever we have a large storm event or a ... high, high tide.”

Most large summer swells that come from the south are no bigger than about 10 feet (3 meters), which would trigger a high surf advisory.
“We had some waves that were reaching 20 feet (6 meters), 20 feet-plus even,” Brenchley said. “That’s getting on the level of historic.”
Hawaii’s north shores, where professional surfers often compete, usually get much larger waves than other parts of the islands…...