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TROPICAL STORM NEKI ADVISORY NUMBER 22…CORRECTED
NWS CENTRAL PACIFIC HURRICANE CENTER HONOLULU HI CP032009
500 PM HST FRI OCT 23 2009

…CENTER OF NEKI PASSING BETWEEN NECKER ISLAND AND FRENCH FRIGATE SHOALS…

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING CONTINUES FOR THE PAPAHANAUMOKUAKEA NATIONAL MONUMENT FROM NIHOA ISLAND TO FRENCH FRIGATE SHOALS TO MARO REEF.

AT 500 PM HST…0300 UTC…THE CENTER OF TROPICAL STORM NEKI WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 23.4 NORTH…LONGITUDE 165.2 WEST OR ABOUT 380 MILES WEST-NORTHWEST OF LIHUE HAWAII AND ABOUT 80 MILES EAST- SOUTHEAST OF FRENCH FRIGATE SHOALS.

NEKI IS MOVING SLOWLY TOWARD THE NORTH-NORTHEAST NEAR 5 MPH…AND THIS MOTION IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE THROUGH SUNDAY.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 65 MPH WITH HIGHER GUSTS. GRADUAL WEAKENING IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE THROUGH SUNDAY.

TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 175 MILES FROM THE CENTER.

ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE IS 998 MB…29.47 INCHES.

HEAVY RAINS OF 6 TO 10 INCHES…ROUGH SEAS OF UP TO 20 FEET…AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS WILL CONTINUE TONIGHT NEAR FRENCH FRIGATE SHOALS AND NECKER ISLAND. CONDITIIONS WILL BEGIN GRADUALLY IMPROVING ON SATURDAY AS NEKI SLOWLY MOVES AWAY.

…SUMMARY OF 500 PM HST INFORMATION…
LOCATION…23.4N 165.2W
MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS…65 MPH
PRESENT MOVEMENT…NORTH-NORTHEAST OR 25 DEGREES AT 5 MPH
MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE…998 MB

AN INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED BY THE CENTRAL PACIFIC HURRICANE CENTER AT 800 PM HST FOLLOWED BY THE NEXT COMPLETE ADVISORY AT 1100 PM HST.

More info at the Central Pacific Hurricane Center

Central Pacific Infrared Images

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BULLETIN
HURRICANE NEKI ADVISORY NUMBER 17
NWS CENTRAL PACIFIC HURRICANE CENTER HONOLULU HI CP032009
1100 AM HST THU OCT 22 2009

…DANGEROUS HURRICANE NEKI CONTINUES MOVING NORTHWARD…

THE HURRICANE WARNING CONTINUES FOR THE PAPAHANAUMOKUAKEA NATIONAL MONUMENT FROM NIHOA ISLAND TO FRENCH FRIGATE SHOALS TO MARO REEF. A HURRICANE WARNING MEANS HURRICANE CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED IN THE WARNING AREA WITHIN 36 HOURS.

AT 1100 AM HST…2100 UTC…THE CENTER OF HURRICANE NEKI WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 20.8 NORTH…LONGITUDE 166.3 WEST OR ABOUT 545 MILES WEST OF HONOLULU HAWAII AND ABOUT 215 MILES SOUTH OF FRENCH FRIGATE SHOALS.

NEKI IS MOVING TOWARD THE NORTH-NORTHEAST NEAR 9 MPH AND THIS MOTION IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE FOR THE NEXT 12 TO 24 HOURS. NEKI IS EXPECTED TO INCREASE ITS FORWARD WITH A GRADUAL TURN TOWARD THE NORTHEAST THEREAFTER. ON THIS TRACK…TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED TO BEGIN ACROSS PORTIONS OF THE WARNING AREA THIS AFTERNOON WITH HURRICANE CONDITIONS EXPECTED TONIGHT.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 105 MPH WITH HIGHER GUSTS. NEKI IS A CATEGORY TWO HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON SCALE. GRADUAL WEAKENING IS FORECAST DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS.

HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 60 MILES FROM THE CENTER…AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 205 MILES.

ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE IS 970 MB…28.64 INCHES.

RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 8 TO 12 INCHES CAN BE EXPECTED ALONG THE PATH OF NEKI.

LARGE SWELLS FROM THE SOUTH WILL CONTINUE TO BUILD THIS AFTERNOON IN ADVANCE OF NEKI ACROSS THE ISLANDS OF THE PAPAHANAUMOKUAKEA NATIONAL MONUMENT. SEAS ACROSS PORTIONS OF THE WARNING AREA WILL BUILD IN EXCESS OF 20 FT THIS AFTERNOON AND FRIDAY…CREATING SURF OF 20 TO 25 FT.

…SUMMARY OF 1100 AM HST INFORMATION…
LOCATION…20.8N 166.3W
MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS…105 MPH
PRESENT MOVEMENT…NORTH-NORTHEAST OR 15 DEGREES AT 9 MPH
MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE…970 MB

AN INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY WILL BE ISSUED BY THE CENTRAL PACIFIC HURRICANE CENTER AT 200 PM HST FOLLOWED BY THE NEXT COMPLETE ADVISORY AT 500 PM HST.NE CENTER AT 800 PM HST FOLLOWED BY THE NEXT COMPLETE ADVISORY AT 1100 PM HST.

More info at the Central Pacific Hurricane Center

Central Pacific Infrared Images

Go. Linda Lingle and Department of Land and Natural Resources chairwoman Laura Thielen speak with (from left) Jonathan Putnam, National Park Service, and UNESCO evaluators Jerker Tamelander (center) and Dr. Ian Lilley. (Photo courtesy of The Governor's Office)

MEDIA RELEASE

Gov. Linda Lingle welcomed officials from the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to Hawaii last week as part of the process to evaluate the nomination of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument as a World Heritage site.

“World Heritage sites belong to people of the world,” Lingle said. “They incorporate universal and significant aspects of natural and cultural heritage, as well as legacy of the past and present for future generations.”

Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument is one of the few remaining places that has limited direct human impact. It is larger than all the country’s national parks combined and home to more than 7,000 marine species, one quarter of which are found only in the monument.

The governor noted while Hawaii is commemorating its 50th anniversary of statehood this year, 2009 also marks another significant milestone: 100 years of conservation of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, now known as the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.

On Feb. 3, 1909, President Theodore Roosevelt issued Executive Order 1019 to establish the Hawaiian Islands Bird Reservation, which stretched from Nihoa Island to Kure Atoll.

“President Roosevelt was the first of many presidents to take decisive action to protect this jewel of the Pacific,” the governor said.

Hawaii was proud to contribute to this legacy in 2005, with the establishment of a State Marine Refuge. The refuge sets aside all state waters as limited access, no-take marine protected area. 

With the governor’s signature, the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands became the largest marine conservation area in the history of the state. One year later, President Bush designated the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.

The governor expressed her gratitude to the monument’s three co-managing agencies, the Department of the Interior’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

“We are all working to protect this archipelago for the next 100 years,” she said. “It’s our obligation to protect this legacy and to pass it on to future generations intact.”

MEDIA RELEASE

President Bush has announced the nomination of Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Centre for consideration to the World Heritage List.

The monument, which includes the islands and waters of the northwestern Hawaiian archipelago, is the nation’s largest protected area. Also nominated Tuesday, Jan. 6 at a press conference in Washington, D.C. to the World Heritage List is Mount Vernon, Va., home of America’s first president George Washington. These are the United States’ first nominations to be forwarded for consideration on the World Heritage List since 1994.

“The nomination of Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument recognizes its exceptional geological and ecological processes, its provision of critical habitat for some of the world’s most endangered species, and its sacred place in the history and culture of Native Hawaiian people,” Gov. Linda Lingle said.

The final nominations would be considered by the World Heritage Committee in the summer of 2010.

If inscribed under the World Heritage Convention, Papahanaumokuakea would join a globally exclusive list of sites with outstanding universal value that are unique and diverse – such as East Africa’s Serengeti, the Egyptian Pyramids, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, and the Galapagos Islands. World Heritage Sites currently include 878 sites from 144 countries – 679 cultural, 174 natural, and 25 mixed natural and cultural sites.

Papahanaumokuakea is the first site nominated with cultural connections to the sea, and adds to underrepresented World Heritage sites from the Pacific. It would be the U.S.’s first marine site, and the world’s first cultural seascape.

The monument is home to more than 7,000 marine species, a quarter of which are found nowhere else on Earth, the largest nesting albatross colony in the world, and the primary habitat for critically endangered Hawaiian monk seals and threatened green turtles.

The NWHI provide habitat for 23 threatened and endangered species, most found nowhere else in the world, such as the Nihoa Finch and a species of loulu or palm called Pritchardia remota.

The beaches and waters constitute the foraging and nesting grounds for nearly the entire population of the critically endangered Hawaiian monk seal, and 90 percent of the threatened Hawaiian green turtle.

Over 14 million seabirds nest in the islands and forage in the waters of the monument, making the NWHI the world’s largest tropical seabird rookery.

The monument area includes the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve, Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge/Battle of Midway National Memorial, Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge, Kure Atoll Seabird Sanctuary, and Northwestern Hawaiian Islands State Marine Refuge.

Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument is administered by three co-trustees – the Department of Commerce, Department of the Interior and the State of Hawaii – and represents a cooperative conservation approach to protecting the entire ecosystem.

— Find out more:
Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument: papahanaumokuakea.gov.