'Very, Very Turbulent Air' around Hawaii will Continue to Affect Flights Tuesday

Dec. 20—An extremely strong storm system to the northeast of Hawaii will continue to pose challenges to air travel Tuesday — a weather pattern that came to national attention after a sudden, violent drop on a Hawaiian Airlines flight Sunday caused injuries to dozens of passengers.

Jon Jelsema, a senior forecaster for the National Weather Service in Hawaii, told The Chronicle on Monday night that "there's going to be a lot of really strong thunderstorm activity in the main flight paths from like S.F. and L.A. to Hawaii" for approximately 24 more hours.

"It's very, very strong system across the central Pacific right now," he said. The system extends roughly from the Big Island 500 miles to the northeast, bringing "very, very turbulent air."

Warnings have been issued to pilots for certain areas "because it could be very dangerous to fly through," Jelsema said. "There could be extreme turbulence, there could be severe icing."

The National Weather Service's Oakland Center Weather Service Unit, which works closely with the Federal Aviation Administration, tweeted Sunday that there were "very active thunderstorms over Hawaiian Islands eastward," and hazardous weather conditions involving "SEVERE Turbulence and thunderstorm" were in place for up to 48,000 feet.

At 39,000 feet there was a pilot warning for "SEVERE turbulence and SEVERE rime icing," the Oakland unit tweeted. (Rime ice is drops that are quickly frozen after striking a surface like an airplane.)

On Monday night, the

flight boards at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport

showed many delays and a few cancellations.

Jelsema said it's one of the strongest storm systems he's seen in his years of working as a meteorologist.

He said there was "absolutely" an impact to flights from mainland destinations like San Francisco, due both to thunderstorms and clear air turbulence — which occurs in clear skies and cannot be seen.

Speaking around 9 p.m. PST on Monday, he said conditions could start improving after about 24 hours.

On Sunday, the Hawaiian Airlines flight from Phoenix was about half an hour from landing in Hawaii when it suddenly lurched, sending some passengers flying to the ceiling.

Kate Galbraith is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected]

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