Lowell continuted it’s eastward track shift and is passing just offshore of the western main islands of Hawaii this morning. It is highly sheared now, and doesn’t look symmetrical on the satellite image …
Passing this close, both Niihau and Kauai are experiencing hurricane conditions – high winds, especially along exposed ridge lines and higher elevations, high waves. Oahu is getting tropical storm conditions in some areas. These islands are also getting heavy rain exacerbated on the windward slopes by something called orographic enhancement – the wind forces warm, wet air upwards, in some cases doubling or more the rain rate.
The latest from CPHC is at this link: Key messages regarding Hurricane Lowell (en Español: Mensajes Claves). Here’s the primary damage swath based on the 5am ET CPHC forecast, using my TAOS(tm)/TC Lachesis damage model:
As you can see, these track shifts over the last 24 hours have put the western islands well within the damage swath, with forecast economic impacts going up from a few million to over half a billion or more in the last 24 hours.