Tropical Storm Lala develops southeast of Hawai`i
1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) Visible images (above) and Infrared Window images (below) showed the slow organization of cloud features associated with Tropical Storm Lala southeast of Hawai’i on 13 August 2026. Overlays of GOES-18 GLM Flash Points indicated that lightning activity was sparse during that time period. Lala was moving through an environment of very low deep-layer wind shear and traversing fairly warm Sea Surface Temperatures — factors which favored further intensification as Lala approached Hawai’i.
During the preceding nighttime hours, before Potential Tropical Cyclone One-C had intensified to become Tropical Storm Lala, VIIRS Day/Night Band images from NOAA-20 and NOAA-21 (below) displayed the faint signature of cloud features — faint because the Moon had not yet risen at that location, so the only source of illumination was atmospheric airglow.
