Visitors watch as water flows over Rainbow Falls the day after Hurricane Lala in Hilo, Hawaii, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. The storm brought heavy rain and strong winds to the island of Hawaii before moving away without making landfall. (Photo by Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)

San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

Hurricane Lala has moved away from the Hawaiian Islands. Though it never officially made landfall, it skirted just south of the islands placing them in the dreaded “dirty-side” of the eye. Extreme winds, massive surf, and even snow atop Big Island peaks were featured. As expected, the hurricane also dumped a massive amount of rainfall, particularly on the Big Island, causing flooding and mudslides.

The National Weather Service released preliminary rainfall totals from Hurricane Lala, and they are stunning. Several locations received over 3 feet of rainfall. These sites included Laupahhoehoe (43.55 inches), Nahuku (37.27 inches) and Nene Cabin (37.20 inches). Other notable locations include Mauna Loa (26.42 inches) and Hilo International Airport (14.21 inches). To place these numbers in context, Honolulu received almost a half-foot of rainfall (5.35 inches) and that seems small by comparison.

The largest rainfall totals were on the windward side of the Big Island relative to storm motion. The NWS map above shows the difference in rainfall on the windward side of the island as compared to the relative rain shadow on the leeward side. Orographic enhancement is common in mountainous terrain. "Gradients in orographic height lead to large variations in precipitation, land-surface type, vegetation and watershed properties, noted the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research website. Orographic enhancement contributed to life-threatening rainfall associated with Hurricane Helene in 2024.

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In addition to extreme rainfall, Hurricane Lala also produced significant wind gusts. At the summit of Mauna Kea, gusts of 140 miles per hour were measured. There were numerous reports of gusts ranging from 65 to 91 mph across the islands. Overall, Hurricane Lala did exactly what we expected it to do in terms of track, intensity, and impacts. Further, it illustrated that impacts can happen whether the storm makes landfall or not.

As I write this Tuesday morning, Lala has regained hurricane intensity and is now west of Hawaii. However, the National Hurricane Center is now monitoring two new areas of interest in the eastern Pacific basin. Unlike the Atlantic hurricane basin, the Pacific hurricane basin can be more active during an El Niño, which continues to strengthen. NOAA is predicting possibly the strongest El Niño on record.