#HurricaneLala is the mid-August 2026 Category 1 Pacific hurricane that skirted Hawaii’s Big Island and delivered the island’s first direct hurricane impact since 1871. Over roughly 48 hours it dropped more than 20 inches of rain, damaged or destroyed more than 100 homes, knocked out power to tens of thousands, and set up follow-on flooding when #TropicalStormMoke arrived a week later.
Quick Facts
- Formed: August 12, 2026 (central Eastern Pacific)
- Peak intensity: Category 1 (Saffir–Simpson), August 15–16 near the Big Island
- Closest approach: roughly 30 miles off the Big Island coast, per SFChronicle and Civil Beat reporting
- Rainfall: more than 20 inches (50 cm) in parts of the Big Island
- Damage: 100+ homes damaged or destroyed; hundreds of millions of dollars statewide (Gov. Josh Green estimate)
- Power outages: ~44,000 Hawaiian Electric customers; rural outages projected to last months
- Historical place: ninth named storm, third hurricane, and second major hurricane of the 2026 Pacific season
Origin
Lala formed August 12, 2026 from a tropical wave in the central Eastern Pacific and tracked west toward the Hawaiian Islands. NASA’s Earth Observatory and Wikipedia both note that the storm strengthened rapidly as it approached warm sea-surface waters south of the archipelago, reaching Category 1 intensity on August 15 as it neared the Big Island. The Hawai’i Emergency Management Agency issued storm updates through the weekend and coordinated with Hawaiian Electric on shutoff planning and staged repair crews.
What Happened
Lala’s eye passed just south of Hawaii’s Big Island on August 15 as a Category 1 storm with wind gusts over 80 mph. ABC News and Honolulu Civil Beat reported flash flooding, mudflows, and downed power infrastructure across Hawaiʻi County, with the Kohala Coast and Puna districts among the hardest hit. NASA satellite imagery captured a broad, well-defined circulation with an extended rain shield spreading across all of the main Hawaiian islands. Homes were swept away in some coastal and stream-adjacent neighborhoods, and by Saturday afternoon Hawaiian Electric confirmed roughly 44,000 customers had lost power statewide.
Reactions
Governor Josh Green called Lala one of the costliest tropical impacts in state history and told reporters that damage would run into the hundreds of millions. The Hawai’i Emergency Management Agency stood up mass-care operations for evacuees while federal support was requested. Civil Beat’s coverage focused on rural power outages potentially lasting months and on the disproportionate impact to lower-income neighborhoods where insurance penetration is thinner.
Aftermath
Lala’s damage was still being counted when #TropicalStormMoke approached the same coastline eight days later, adding 5–15 inches of additional rain on already-saturated terrain and raising the risk of secondary flooding and mudslides. Wikipedia notes Lala was the third-wettest tropical cyclone to affect Hawaii on record and the first hurricane to directly impact the Big Island since an unnamed 1871 storm — a statistic climate-vulnerability researchers highlighted while linking the back-to-back systems to warmer central-Pacific sea-surface temperatures.
Variations & Related Tags
Travels with #TropicalStormMoke as the second half of Hawaii’s August 2026 storm sequence, and sits alongside prior Hawaii-adjacent catastrophes indexed at #MauiFires and past Atlantic events like #HurricaneIan.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Lala
- https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/lala-batters-hawaii/
- https://abcnews.com/US/tropical-storm-lala-forecast-impact-hawaiian-islands-weekend/story?id=135610026
- https://www.civilbeat.org/2026/08/hurricane-lala-brings-rain-and-strong-winds-thousands-on-hawaii-island-lose-power/
- https://www.civilbeat.org/2026/08/lalas-wrath-homes-swept-away-some-power-outages-may-last-months/
- https://www.sfchronicle.com/weather/article/hawaii-hurricane-lala-flooding-storm-22390237.php
- https://dod.hawaii.gov/hiema/hurricane-lala-updates/