In what ’s being hailed a meteorological first , two back - to - back hurricane are marching toward Hawaii , both of them threatening torrential rains and rip - roaring winds this hebdomad . The closer of the two , hurricane Madeline , could break a 2d meteoric record as the first hurricane to light upon the Big Island since clerking began in 1949 .
grumble west at roughly 9 mph , Madeline iscurrently packingCategory 3 windspeeds of 120 mph . Itslatest trackhas the storm passing to the south of the Big Island on Thursday , although as meteorologists Bob Henson and Jeff Masterspoint outover at Weather Underground , it ’s too former to dominate out the possible action of landfall on the island of Hawai’i . In any case , the violent storm is expected to bestow heavy rains and 40 to 50 mph breaking wind gusts to the island later this week . Ahurricane watchis in effect for Hawaii County .
“ What ’s concerning is that even if Madeline stays offshore , that ’ll put the Big Island on the righthand side of the tempest , ” Henson told Gizmodo . “ That ’s more life-threatening because of how winds spread out in a hurricane , and because those winds will be pushing up very high sight incline , which will compact out a torrential amount of rain . ”
Hurricanes are rare in Hawaii — the circumstance that favor their development tend to mold more to the Dixieland — and to watch two barreling toward the island archipelago at the same time is a first for meteorologists . fit in to Henson , a combination of sea temperatures two to three degrees Fahrenheit warmer than usual and favorable atmospherical conditions are to pick .
“ commonly the water [ along this storm track ] are on the boundary of what ’s needed to support hurricane , ” Henson say . “ Now , they ’re just warm enough , and it ’s making a full-grown difference . ”
Henson total that farsighted - term ocean warming is part of the write up , meaning Hawaii could be in for more hurricane as the planet continues to heat up . But the ambience also needs to be contributory , with very undifferentiated windspeeds so that the tempest does n’t tilt over . Right now , the atmosphere is just about perfect , with warm air rising , spreading out , and being hauled aside by strong upper - degree flatus that act as an outflow duct .
For Hawaii , there is one silver medal lining to this minacious place : Nearby cyclones tend to spin around each other , in a phenomenon jazz as theFujiwhara result . “ What this means is the one ahead in line gets fish a little to the left , while the one behind is angled slimly to the right hand , ” Henson articulate .
In other news , the Fujiwhara effect could turn Madeline a spot further to the Dixieland while nudging Lester more or less further north , guide both storms clear of the Big Island . “ The irony is , if if only one of these storms were there , there ’d be a bigger prospect of a direct hit , ” Henson articulate .
Correction 8/30 : An earlier version of this article stated that Hurricane Lester is moving east . It is , in fact , moving west . The text has been updated accordingly .
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