This Surfing Robot Is Live-Tweeting Hawaii's Hurricane

Right now, Hawaii is getting hit by Iselle, the first hurricane to hit the island chain since 1992. Statistically speaking, you're probably not there to watch it all go down, but this storm-faring robot is, and it's live tweeting the whole thing.

Wave Glider Holoholo, a "wave glider" robot that's powered by the waves themselves (and solar panels, too) is equipped with an internet connection (and, apparently, a Twitter account), and sensors that measure water temperature, wind speed, water pressure, wind direction, and it's got a camera on it, to boot.

For the last eight hours or so, it's been periodically tweeting out pictures, talking about the wind conditions (at last check: strong breeze. Earlier, a "fresh breeze." Before that, "near gale"), and generally being a cool seafaring autonomous robo weatherman.

Enjoy the view! pic.twitter.com/zFFoBOu9RY

— Wave Glider Holoholo (@Holoholo_WG) August 7, 2014

The use of drones in hurricanes is, by this point, commonplace: NASA and NOAA have whole fleets of drones designed specifically to fly through hurricanes to learn more about them. But drones actually in the water itself are more rare. Usually, the wave glider is used to monitor sharks, but with the hurricane coming through, it's being used to monitor the weather.

The company, Liquid Robotics, says that it should be able to withstand the storm. With the worst of the storm coming tonight, we'll see if that's true. It'll either live tweet its destruction, or it'll still be around in the morning, offering up 140-character updates.