{"id":71808,"date":"2026-08-15T23:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T23:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=71808"},"modified":"2026-08-21T19:46:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T19:46:30","slug":"tropical-storm-lala-becomes-a-category-1-hurricane-as-it-approaches-the-big-island-of-hawaii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/71808","title":{"rendered":"Tropical Storm Lala becomes a Category 1 Hurricane south of the Big Island of Hawai`i"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video autoplay controls loop muted src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/260815_g18_ir_vis_Lala.mov\" playsinline><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>1-minute GOES-18 Infrared Window (left) and Visible images (right) with overlays of GLM Flash Points and surface observation data, from 1610 UTC on 15 August to 0400 UTC on 16 August<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 <em>(GOES-West)<\/em> Infrared Window and Visible images <strong><em>(above)<\/em><\/strong> showed Tropical Storm <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhc.noaa.gov\/archive\/2026\/LALA.shtml?\">Lala<\/a><\/strong> as it intensified to become a Category 1 Hurricane at 1900 UTC on 15 August 2026 (<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/260815_1900utc_goes18_infrared_Visible_Lala.png\">GOES-18 images<\/a><\/strong> | <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhc.noaa.gov\/archive\/2026\/cp01\/cp012026.update.08151858.shtml\">NHC advisory<\/a><\/strong>) south of the Big Island of Hawaii. Lala exhibited a rather ragged eye that remained generally cloud-filled &#8212; and while the hurricane did not make an official landfall, its northern eyewall did pass across the far southern tip of the Big Island. An overlay of 1-minute GOES-18 <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goes-r.gov\/spacesegment\/glm.html\">GLM<\/a><\/strong> Flash Points revealed that there was no intermittent satellite-detected lightning activity until 2323 UTC on 15 August. In terms of wind, some <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nifc.gov\/about-us\/what-is-nifc\/remote-automatic-weather-stations\">RAWS<\/a><\/strong> sites on the Big Island reported gusts in the 60-<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/260816_0430utc_g18_ir_vis_khrh1_g77mph.png\">77 mph<\/a><\/strong> range, and Kona International Airport reported a peak wind of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/260816_0353utc_g18_ir_vis_phko_g64kts.png\">64 knots<\/a><\/strong> (74 mph) &#8212; with a peak gust of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/260816_wpc_summary_Lala.text\">140 mph<\/a><\/strong> occurring at the Mauna Kea summit. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/260816_phnl_pns_wind.text\">Highest wind gusts<\/a><\/strong> at other islands included 85 mph in Maui County and 74 mph in Honolulu County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The coldest overshooting tops surrounding the eye of Lala exhibited infrared brightness temperatures in the -75 to -80 C range (brighter white pixels embedded within dark black regions) &#8212; according to a plot of rawinsonde data from Hilo on the Big Island <strong><em>(below)<\/em><\/strong>, those temperatures roughly corresponded to altitudes near or just above the Forecast Surface air parcel&#8217;s Equilibrium Level (EL).<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/260815_1800utc_phto_raob.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/260815_1800utc_phto_raob.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Plot of rawnsonde data from Hilo, Hawai`i at 1800 UTC on 15 August [click to enlarge]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is noteworthy that the Precipitable Water (PW) value on the Hilo sounding was 2.73 inches &#8212; which appears to be the highest PW value on record for Hilo, just eclipsing the prior record maximum value of 2.72 inches on 24 August 1961 <em><strong>(below)<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/260815_phto_tpw_climatology.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/260815_phto_tpw_climatology.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Climatology of Precipitable Water (PW) for all Hilo, Hawai`i soundings [click to enlarge]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With an unusually moist atmosphere in place, heavy rainfall amounts in excess of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/260816_wpc_summary_Lala.text\">43 inches<\/a><\/strong> occurred on the Big Island. The <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/tropic.ssec.wisc.edu\/real-time\/mtpw2\/product.php?color_type=tpw_nrl_colors&amp;prod=global2&amp;timespan=48hrs&amp;anim=html5\">MIMIC Total Precipitable Water<\/a><\/strong> product <strong><em>(below)<\/em><\/strong> indicated that Lala was drawing rich tropical moisture northward from the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) as the tropical cyclone developed and moved northwestward toward Hawai`i.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video autoplay controls loop muted src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/260811_260816_mimicTPW_Lala_anim.mp4\" playsinline><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>MIMIC Total Precipitable Water product, from 0000 UTC on 11 August to 2300 UTC on 16 August<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A sequence of storm-centered Rainfall Rate products derived using microwave data from the ATMS and AMSU instruments on a variety of polar-orbiting satellites is shown below &#8212; access to these and other Low-Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellite Direct Broadcast ground station products is discussed in <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/63076\">this blog post<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video autoplay controls loop muted src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/260815_260816_atms_amsu_rainRate_Lala_anim.mp4\" playsinline><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Rain Rate derived using AMSU and ATMS microwave data, from 1131 UTC on 15 August to 2008 UTC on 16 August<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ample moisture of Hurricane Lala that was helping to produce the heavy rainfall was also producing snow at the summit of Mauna Kea, as documented by web camera video shortly before 0100 UTC on 16 August:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-x wp-block-embed-x\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">It&#39;s happening. Hurricane Lala is currently producing SNOW on the summit of Mauna Kea <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/kwz1RNm0Yl\">pic.twitter.com\/kwz1RNm0Yl<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Greg Diamond (@gdimeweather) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/gdimeweather\/status\/2088791430982479875?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 16, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A sequence of rawinsonde data plots from Hilo <strong><em>(below)<\/em><\/strong> showed that the freezing level (labeled FZL, in cyan) was at its lowest height (15174 feet) at 0000 UTC on 16 August &#8212; which was only 1371 feet (418 meters) above the Mauna Kea summit elevation of 13803 feet. Larger snowflake aggregates falling from clouds above Mauna Kea would likely not have melted entirely before arriving at the summit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video autoplay controls loop muted src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/260815_260816_phto_raobs_anim.mp4\" playsinline><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Plots of rawinsonde data from Hilo at 1800 UTC on 15 August, 0000 UTC on 16 August and 0600 UTC on 16 August<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">_____________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A 3-day animation of GOES-18 daytime True Color RGB + <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/QuickGuide_GOESR_NtMicroRGB_Final_20191206_acc.pdf\">Nighttime Microphysics RGB<\/a><\/strong> images <strong><em>(below)<\/em><\/strong> displayed the northwestward trek of Lala from 14-16 August. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is interesting to note that on <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/goeswest_abi_radc_true_color_night_s20260814000118_e20260814235618_f288.mp4\">14 August<\/a><\/strong>, as Lala was still well southeast of the Big Island, a hazy plume of &#8220;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/hilo.hawaii.edu\/natural-hazards\/vog\/\">vog<\/a><\/strong>&#8221; (volcanic fog) could be seen southwest of the island &#8212; which was emitted by Episode 53 of an ongoing eruption of Kilauea (the hot thermal anomaly of the volcano&#8217;s lava flow showed up as a small cluster of dark purple pixels in Nighttime Microphysics RGB imagery).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video autoplay controls loop muted src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/260814_260816_goes18_trueColorRGB_nighttimeMicrophysicsRGB_Lala.mp4\" playsinline><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>5-minute GOES-18 daytime True Color RGB + Nighttime Microphysics RGB images, from 0001 UTC on 14 August to 2356 UTC on 16 August<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) Infrared Window and Visible images (above) showed Tropical Storm Lala as it intensified to become a Category 1 Hurricane at 1900 UTC on 15 August 2026 (GOES-18 images | NHC advisory) south of the Big Island of Hawaii. Lala exhibited a rather ragged eye that remained generally cloud-filled &#8212; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":71814,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,114,16,30,58,79,78,131,45,49,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-glm","category-goes-18","category-heavy-rain-flooding","category-lightning","category-metop","category-microwave","category-noaa-20","category-noaa-21","category-redgreenblue-rgb-images","category-suomi_npp","category-tropical-cyclones"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71808"}],"version-history":[{"count":57,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71946,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71808\/revisions\/71946"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}