Tropical Storm Lala moved steadily closer to Hawaii on Friday.\u00a0 At 5:00 p.m. EDT on Friday the center of Tropical Storm Lala was located at latitude 17.2\u00b0N and longitude 150.9\u00b0W which put the center about 340 miles (545 km) east-southeast of South Point, Hawaii.\u00a0 Lala was moving toward the west-northwest at 14 m.p.h. (22 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.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Maui County including Maui, Lanai, Molokai, and Kahoolawe.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for Oahu and for Kauai County including Kauai and Niihau.<\/span><\/p>\n Tropical Storm Lala was exhibiting signs of greater organization on Friday afternoon.\u00a0 The inner end of a rainband was wrapping around the northern side of the center of Lala’s circulation.\u00a0 An eye could be forming at the center of Tropical Storm Lala.\u00a0 Bands of showers and thunderstorms were revolving around the center of Lala’s circulation.\u00a0 Storms near the center of Lala generated upper level divergence that pumped mass away from the tropical storm.\u00a0 The removal of mass in the upper levels was nearly equal to the convergence of mass in the lower levels of the atmosphere.\u00a0 So, the surface pressure remained nearly steady on Friday.<\/p>\n The distribution of wind speeds in Tropical Storm Lala continued to be asymmetrical on Friday. Winds to tropical storm force extended out 195 miles (315 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. 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 continues to approach 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 on Saturday.<\/p>\n Tropical Storm Lala will move around the southern side of a high pressure system over the Central Pacific Ocean.\u00a0\u00a0 The high pressure system will steer Lala toward the west-northwest during the next 24 hours. On its anticipated track, Tropical Storm Lala will approach the Big Island of Hawaii on in 24 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 16 to 20 inches (400 to 500 mm) of rain on the eastern slopes where the wind blows of the slope.\u00a0 Isolated locations could receive 25 inches (635 mm) of rain.\u00a0 Heavy rain is likely to cause flash floods in some locations.<\/p>\n Flood Watches are in effect for Hawaii County, Maui County, Oahu, and Kauai County.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tropical Storm Lala moved steadily closer to Hawaii on Friday.\u00a0 At 5:00 p.m. EDT on Friday the center of Tropical Storm Lala was located at latitude 17.2\u00b0N and longitude 150.9\u00b0W which put the center about 340 miles (545 km) east-southeast of South Point, Hawaii.\u00a0 Lala was moving toward the west-northwest at 14 m.p.h. (22 km\/h).\u00a0 […]<\/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":[309,310,23,1178,1185,4199,4198,1176,1177,1186,1179,3291,4197],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24952"}],"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=24952"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24953,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24952\/revisions\/24953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}