A rare tornado warning was issued early Friday morning for the island of Niʻihau as a strong storm system moved across the western end of the Hawaiian Islands, prompting officials to urge residents to seek shelter and remain alert.

The warning was precautionary. It ran through 7 a.m., and no reports came in of confirmed tornado damage on the sparsely populated island near Kauaʻi.

“Of course, it’s very rare to get something like this in Hawai’i,” National Weather Service meteorologist Derek Wroe said.

The warning was issued due to a signature on radar that was conducive to a tornado formation and that moved on to southern Ni’ihau.

The rare event lasted only about 30 minutes, but it generated a lot of buzz on social media, as many people were shocked that the islands could experience a tornado touchdown.

Tornado warnings are uncommon in Hawaiʻi because of the islands’ geography and prevailing trade winds that usually prevent the atmospheric conditions needed for tornado formation.

When tornadoes do occur, they are usually short-lived and weak compared to those commonly experienced on the U.S. mainland.

According to National Weather Service records, Hawaiʻi averages only a handful of tornadoes per decade.

Wroe said the last time the National Weather Service issues a tornado warning for the state was nearly two years ago, in January of 2024, for the island of Molokaʻi near Maui.

“We’ll be coming up on two years since that occurrence, but there hasn’t been an issuance of a tornado since 2020, Wroe said.

Kauaʻi County has experienced several brief tornadoes in the historical record; the most recent confirmed tornado in the county touched down in 2002, causing minor damage in Anahola.

In 2020, a similar warning was issued for parts of Kauaʻi County and Niʻihau during a strong cold-front passage, though no tornado was confirmed. More recently, last April, a Kauaʻi resident captured a large waterspout, which also generated significant buzz online.

Tornadoes are classified using the Fujita Scale, which rates their intensity primarily by the damage they inflict on human-made structures and vegetation.

To determine the official Fujita scale category, meteorologists and engineers conduct ground and or aerial damage surveys and, when appropriate, analyze ground swirl patterns.

Due to Ni’ihau’s sparsely populated area, “the chances of there being any impacts to infrastructure are pretty low and most likely weak,” Wroe Said. “So, you’re talking about an EF0, which would be the weakest side of a tornado, and based on the short-lived nature of the radar signature, it’d probably fall on the weaker end.

“But the atmosphere was very marginally supportive of something like this.”

Hurricane season in the Central Pacific ended on Nov. 30. Since then, Kaua’i has had heavy rain, high surf, strong winds, and, on Dec. 15, unusually heavy fog.

For weather updates, call the National Weather Service automated weather line at 808-245-6001 or click here.

To sign up for WENS, the county’s emergency notification service, click here.