Hawaii records 140 mph wind gust as Hurricane Lala approaches

A slowly strengthening Hurricane Lala barreled toward Hawaii on Saturday as its outer bands began lashing the islands with rain and wind. The storm — reclassified as a hurricane at 9 a.m. local time after it reached sustained wind speeds of 75 mph — is expected to strike near the Big Island around 4-5 p.m. local time.

If Lala does hit Hawaii Island directly, it will be the first on record to do so there. Only two hurricanes are known to have made landfall in the Hawaiian islands since records began in 1949: Hurricane Dot in 1959 and Hurricane Iniki in 1992.

• Related: Hawaii is entering a dangerous stretch as a powerful El Niño builds

Lala was approximately 40 miles from the southern tip of the Big Island at 2 p.m. local time Saturday. It had been expected to hit the Big Island earlier in the day, but it slowed in its path. Regardless, the the surrounding communities will see the impacts of strong winds, thunderstorms, and heavy rain, said, said Ian Morrison, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. 

“You have to be careful. … Do not go out if it’s unsafe,” Gov. Josh Green told residents Friday evening, calling the storm “serious.”

As of Saturday morning, the storm’s outer bands had already dumped 12 inches of rain on some of the Big Island’s eastern slopes, said Morrison. Areas at lower elevations had received far less precipitation, however — about 2 inches of rain.

Rain was expected to be the biggest threat from Lala. Hawaii Island’s steep, rugged terrain can force moist air upward, intensifying rainfall and increasing the risk of flash floods and mudslides.

Winds were also a factor: Weather instruments at the summit of Mauna Kea, the highest point on Hawaii at close to 13,800 feet, recorded a 140 mph gust early Saturday afternoon.

The National Weather Service warned of impending flash floods on Big Island. The flooding could impact “small creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses,” according to the warning, “as well as other poor drainage and low-lying areas.”

Meteorologists expect the storm to produce 10 to 20 inches across the Big Island, with as much as 25 inches in some areas. The island of Maui and the rest of the island chain is expected to experience less precipitation, but still as much as 8 inches in some places, according to weather service forecasts, resulting in “life-threatening flooding and mudslides, especially in areas of steep terrain.”

But the storm was also expected to hit the islands with strong winds and heavy surf, Morrison said.

After impacting the Big Island and Maui, “damaging winds are expected to spread westward to Oahu and Kauai later this evening and Sunday,” the weather service noted in an update shortly before noon local time. “It is very important to note that the mountainous terrain of the islands will likely produce localized  areas of highly enhanced and damaging winds, even well away from the tropical cyclone center.”

In Maunakea, the Gemini Observatory recorded a wind speed of 119 mph at 11:32 a.m. local time. 

“The impacts — the flooding rain, upward of 25 inches — that can do a lot of damage of course. The winds, we’re looking at a lot of power outages across all the islands,” Morrison said.

“Even though the Big Island is seeing the strongest winds, the rest of the state (Maui County, Oahu, Kauai) — will also see impacts from wind, rain and waves: coastal flooding, power outages, trees down, mudslides.”

The storm, which remained about 325 miles southeast of Honolulu, was traveling about 13 mph on its path toward the Big Island, Morrison said. By 10 a.m. Pacific time, it was about 100 miles southeast of the island’s southern tip.

Morrison said that while the Big Island is under a hurricane warning, Lala is expected to hit other areas of the state with tropical storm strength, with winds of 35 to 45 mph and gusts up to 55 mph starting Sunday and lasting through Monday.

The hurricane warning is the first issued for Hawaii Island since Hurricane Lane approached the state in 2018, according to the National Hurricane Center. The last hurricane warning anywhere in Hawaii was issued during Hurricane Douglas in 2020.

The last hurricane to make landfall in Hawaii was Hurricane Iniki, which struck Kauai as a Category 4 storm in 1992.

Hurricanes rarely make landfall in Hawaii in part because the chances are simply low: The islands are small blips in a vast ocean, Morrison said.

But the formation of the hurricane itself is driven by what experts believe will be an extremely strong El Niño. El Niño is a pattern in which cycles of cold and warm waters in the Pacific Ocean cause change to the weather, temperature, atmosphere and more.

In a typical year, wind shear, which is changes in wind speed and direction, surrounds the islands. When wind shear comes into contact with a tropical storm, the shear weakens the storm, according to Morrison.

But warm waters from El Niño have caused a weaker wind shear, making it easier for the storm to strengthen to a category 1 hurricane.

Due to complex interactions with Hawaii’s steep terrain, the National Hurricane Center expects a “discontinuous track” of Lala’s circulation and may not immediately be able to confirm whether the storm makes landfall.

“We just can never know if a storm will turn,” Green warned Friday evening, a day after declaring a state of emergency and activating the state’s Major Disaster Fund. The move allows for the activation of the state’s National Guard, if necessary, and directs state agencies to coordinate emergency response efforts.

Authorities have asked the state’s residents to secure outdoor furniture and other loose objects, clear gutters and drains, move valuables off the floor and prepare for power outages. Residents and visitors should stay away from beaches and coastal areas during periods of rough surf.

“As the weather comes in, stay home if you can,” Morrison said. “Check in on your neighbors, be safe, and listen to our civil servants out there. If they tell you to evacuate, please evacuate.”

Chrissa Olson contributed to this report.