Hurricane Lester continues to march to the west and NASA-NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite saw the storm as it was crossing from the Eastern Pacific to the Central Pacific Ocean and triggered new hurricane watches for Hawaii.
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At 8 a.m., Madeline was barely hanging on as a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 75 mph, about 120 miles east-southeast of Hilo and 335 miles east-southeast of Honolulu, moving west at 14 mph.
Conditions are expected to gradually improve from east to west as Lester moves away from the islands heading into Monday.
“Enhanced rainfall is possible across the island chain Friday night into the weekend”, Brown said.
Hermine became the fourth hurricane of the 2016 season around midafternoon when its sustained winds reached 75 miles per hour (120 kph).
Forecasters said wind shear is starting to tear the storm apart, but it is still expected to be at hurricane strength when it passes over or near South Point tonight.
Time lapse video of the hurricanes shows the eye of each storm amid swirling white clouds as the International Space Station passed more than 257 miles above the Earth. Drier air and strong upper atmosphere winds are weakening Hurricane Madeline as it approaches Hawaii.
Workers board up the windows of a store in Hilo, Hawaii as Hurricane Madeline approached the Big Island on Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2016.
The storm had threatened to disrupt a visit by President Barack Obama and dignitaries meeting in Hawaii for the World Conservation Congress, a major conference of thousands of delegates, including heads of state, scientists and policy makers. Flash flood watches extended from Florida into Virginia.
Though Tropical Storm Madeline was no longer a hurricane, the weather’s uncertainty couldn’t let Hawaii’s Big Island relax. Forecasters said tropical storm force-winds are expected on Hawaii island and Maui County.
The National Weather Service dropped the tropical storm warning for Madeline on Thursday.
A hurricane warning was in effect for Florida’s Big Bend from the Suwannee River to Mexico Beach.
One business was thinking ahead to Lester as they boarded up windows at Hulakai Store, a surf shop in Hilo, on Wednesday ahead of Madeline.
The Hawaiian islands of Maui, Molokai, Lanai and Kahoolawe were under a tropical storm watch, but there were no alerts for Oahu or Kauai.
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Gov. David Ige has issued an emergency proclamation for both storms, allowing the state to quickly spend money.
