Damage minor | Areas affected Oahu, Lanai | |
On the morning of March 9, 2012, a particularly devastating and long-lived hailstorm hit the Hawaiian islands of Oahu and Lanai, during a severe supercell thunderstorm. This event produced the largest hailstone ever recorded in Hawaii since records began in 1950. The hailstone was measured at 4.5 inches long, 2.25 inches tall, and 2 inches wide. National Weather Service meteorologist Tom Birchard stated that the event was "unprecedented."
In addition to spectacular early-morning lightning storms and flooding from the four feet (3.3 meters) of rainfall received, a tornadic waterspout formed off the coast of Oahu during the morning of March 9, 2012. Non-supercullar waterspouts are not uncommon (the State of Hawaii records an average of one waterspout/tornado per year), this mesocyclone-induced waterspout tracked inland for 1.5 miles, becoming an EF0 tornado that caused minor damage to the Enchanted Lakes subdivision of Kailua at 7:10 am Hawaiian-Aleutian Time.