On the forecast track, Madeline would pass south of Maui County but come “dangerously close” to the Big Island on Wednesday and Wednesday night.
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Two hurricanes are barrelling down on Hawaii and could make landfall in what looks like a “one-two punch” to the Big Island.
Meanwhile, Hawaii has its own problems – risky category 4 Hurricane Madeline in the central Pacific and category 3 Hurricane Lester in the East Pacific, according to KHNL. The storm’s expected to continue tracking west today before making a turn toward the west-southwest Tuesday night through Thursday as a upper-level trough digs toward the hurricane pushing it on a more west-southwest track.
NOAA’s Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC) said that Madeline is moving toward the west near 9 miles per hour (15 kph) and this motion is expected to become west southwesterly late today through early Thursday.
Hurricane-force winds extend 35 miles from the storm’s eye, and tropical storm winds reach up to 90 miles.
Lester was downgraded overnight to a category 3 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 120 miles per hour with stronger gusts. The good news with Gaston it is a fish storm and has no threat to land.
Rain, wind, and high surf could be a problem in the coming days. (Two major hurricanes threatening Hawaii in the same week is a huge deal and extremely rare, if not unheard of.) To make matters more complicated, Lester and Madeline may begin to interact with each other, changing their current forecast tracks by rotating around each other.
If Lester remains on current course, it’s due to pass 154 miles northeast of Hilo at noon Saturday and 102 miles northeast of Camp H.M. Smith at 3 a.m. Sunday as a Category 1 hurricane.
The weather service estimates Hilo has a 7 percent chance of seeing hurricane-force winds and a 63 percent chance of tropical storm-force winds.
No direct hits are now forecast. To say that a double hurricane landfall in Hawaii in the span of less than a week is rare would be a serious understatement: It has never happened in history, according to Hawaiian hurricane records that date back to 1949.
Hawaii residents can not let their guard down after Madeline moves through, however, as Hurricane Lester is fast on its heels.
Cameras on board NASA’s International Space Station captured imagery of three hurricanes on Earth.
“It’s significantly far away (so) we can’t rule out the effects on Kauai”, National Weather Service meteorologist, Derek Wroe said Monday.
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The forecast for Tuesday. Lester, however, is moving steadily west and could arrive just in time for Labor Day weekend, Wroe said. Lester is estimated to have strengthened at an impressive rate of 45 kt during the past 24 hours.
