Tropical Storm Lala strengthened on Thursday evening.\u00a0 A Hurricane Warning was issued for the Big Island of Hawaii.\u00a0 At 11:00 p.m. EDT on Thursday the center of Tropical Storm Lala was located at latitude 16.2\u00b0N and longitude 147.5\u00b0W which put the center about 555 miles (890 km) east-southeast of Hilo, Hawaii.\u00a0 Lala was moving toward the west-northwest at 12 m.p.h. (19 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 60 m.p.h. (95 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 75 m.p.h. (120 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 997 mb.<\/p>\n
A Hurricane Warning is in effect for Hawaii County.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for Maui County including Maui, Lanai, Molokai, and Kahoolawe.<\/span><\/p>\n Reconnaissance aircraft found that Tropical Storm Lala had strengthened on Thursday evening.\u00a0 Even though Lala was stronger, the distribution of thunderstorms was asymmetrical.\u00a0 Thunderstorms were occurring mainly in bands north and east of the center of Tropical Storm Lala.\u00a0 Bands in the southern and western parts of Lala’s circulation consisted primarily of showers and lower clouds.\u00a0 Storms near the center of Lala generated upper level divergence that pumped mass away from the tropical storm. The removal of mass caused the surface pressure to decrease.<\/p>\n The strongest winds were occurring in the northern side of Tropical Storm Lala.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force extended out 275 miles (445 km) in the northern half of Lala\u2019s circulation. \u00a0 The winds in the southern half of Tropical Storm Lala were blowing at less than tropical storm force.<\/p>\n Tropical Storm Lala will move through an environment favorable for intensification during the next 24 hours.\u00a0 Lala will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperatures are near 27\u00b0C.\u00a0 It will move under the eastern part of an upper level ridge that is east of Hawaii.\u00a0 The upper level ridge will produce northeasterly winds that will blow toward the top of Lala\u2019s circulation.\u00a0 Those winds will cause some vertical wind shear.\u00a0 The vertical wind shear will inhibit intensification, but the wind shear will not be enough to prevent intensification.\u00a0 Lala will move into a region of drier air as it approaches Hawaii.\u00a0 Tropical Storm Lala is likely to intensify during the next 24 hours even with the effects of the wind shear and drier air.\u00a0 Lala could strengthen to a hurricane during the next 48 hours.<\/p>\n Tropical Storm Lala will move around the southern side of a high pressure system over the Central Pacific Ocean.\u00a0 The high pressure system will steer Lala toward the west-northwest during the next 24 hours.\u00a0 On its anticipated track, Tropical Storm Lala will move toward Hawaii. The center of Lala’s circulation could reach the Big Island of Hawaii on within 48 hours.<\/p>\n Tropical Storm Lala could be a hurricane when it approaches the Big Island of Hawaii.\u00a0 Lala will bring strong winds and heavy rain to the Big Island of Hawaii.\u00a0 Lala could drop 10 to 15 inches (2554 to 380 mm) of rain on the eastern slopes where the wind blows of the slope.\u00a0 Heavy rain is likely to cause flash floods in some locations.<\/p>\n Flood Watches are in effect for the Big Island of Hawaii and for Maui.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tropical Storm Lala strengthened on Thursday evening.\u00a0 A Hurricane Warning was issued for the Big Island of Hawaii.\u00a0 At 11:00 p.m. EDT on Thursday the center of Tropical Storm Lala was located at latitude 16.2\u00b0N and longitude 147.5\u00b0W which put the center about 555 miles (890 km) east-southeast of Hilo, Hawaii.\u00a0 Lala was moving toward […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,2],"tags":[309,310,23,1124,1178,4198,1176,1175,1177,4197],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24945"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24945"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24946,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24945\/revisions\/24946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}