Hurricane Lowell watch issued for Kauai, Niihau islands
A hurricane watch was issued for the Hawaiian islands of Kauai and Niihau Sunday evening, as the Category 3 Hurricane Lowell approached the US Pacific archipelago, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
The storm was dumping rain about 525 miles (840 kilometers) southwest of Honolulu Sunday evening, and is expected to brush by the state's westernmost islands from Monday evening.
"The center of Lowell will move across portions of Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, just west of the main Hawaiian Islands, on Monday night," NHC forecasters said.
Current conditions include maximum sustained winds near 120 mph (195 km/h), and up to 14 inches of additional rain is possible for Kauai, the NHC said.
The storm is then expected to turn northwest and slow down by early Wednesday.
Lowell briefly reached Category 5 strength earlier this week, but has since weakened to a Category 3, carrying maximum sustained winds of 125 mph.
Lowell is one of three storms in the Pacific Ocean right now, where a near-record strength El Nino climate episode warms the waters.
Karina, around 1,000 miles east of Hawaii, weakened to a tropical storm in the Central Pacific Sunday. Tropical storm Marie, several hundred miles southwest off the southern tip of Baja California, was moving northwest away from land.
Hawaii is still recovering from the impacts of Hurricane Lala, which grazed the southern part of the Big Island last month, bringing destructive winds and severe flash floods.
El Nino is the warming phase of a natural cycle in the tropical Pacific known as the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). It comes along every two to seven years.
ENSO promotes hurricane formation in the tropical Pacific while decreasing their likelihood in the Atlantic.
Climate change increases El Nino's global weather impacts.
A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, so El Nino-linked rains can turn more extreme. It also dries out soils, deepening drought where El Nino brings it.
