Kenneth (2005)

Hurricane Kenneth formed from a tropical wave that moved into the eastern North Pacific and became a tropical depression on 14 September 2005 about 780 nautical miles southwest of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. It moved generally west to west-northwest for its life, strengthening to a tropical storm on 15 September and to hurricane strength by 16 September. Kenneth tracked far to the west, entered the Central Pacific basin on 26 September, then gradually weakened and dissipated just before reaching the Big Island of Hawaii on 30 September. Its remnants moved near or over the Hawaiian Islands and produced locally heavy rain there.

Kenneth did not make any landfalls as a tropical cyclone. It remained over open water for its entire organized life and dissipated before directly striking any major landmass. After dissipation, the remnants passed near or over the Hawaiian Islands on 30 September, producing rainfall there but no tropical-storm- or hurricane-force landfall.

The storm’s maximum intensity was 115 knots (which is 132 mph) with a minimum central pressure of 947 millibars, reached around 1200 UTC on 18 September. At that time Kenneth was a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson scale. Winds gradually decreased after 18 September, and Kenneth fell below hurricane strength by 20–26 September as it approached Hawaii.

Storm surge was not reported from Kenneth because it did not make coastal landfall. Rainfall from Kenneth’s remnants produced locally heavy totals across parts of the Hawaiian Islands, with amounts generally in the 6 to 12 inch range and isolated flash flooding reported in some locations (the report does not list specific towns with measured totals). No ship reports of tropical-storm-force winds were received.

There were no reports of damage or casualties associated with Kenneth. The areas most affected by its remnants were portions of the Hawaiian Islands, which saw heavy rain and isolated flash flooding. Noteworthy items: Kenneth was long-lived and reached major hurricane strength well east of Hawaii before weakening; NHC track forecasts for Kenneth were substantially better than the 1995–2004 average, while intensity forecast errors were near long-term averages.