Daniel Swain in Washington Post: Extraordinary, record-crushing rainstorm deluges Honolulu

UCLA climate scientist, Daniel Swain, in the Washington Post about storms in Honolulu. 

The cold front associated with the unusual low-pressure zone triggered thunderstorms and heavy rain. The rainfall was probably increased by warmer-than-normal ocean temperatures surrounding the islands, which were also a contributor to the recent record-warm air temperatures. The warm ocean “raises the ceiling on precipitation intensity,” tweeted Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California at Los Angeles.