Hawaii is beginning the cleanup from Hurricane Lala as forecasters track two new areas of potential development in the eastern and central Pacific, raising questions about whether the active basin could produce another named storm in the coming days. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Monday that one disturbance has a high chance of forming south of Mexico within the next week, while a second area of low pressure could develop well southeast of Hawaii and move westward toward the central Pacific. The new systems come as Lala, now again a tropical storm, continues to move away from the Hawaiian Islands.
As of Monday afternoon, the NHC said Lala was located west of Hawaii with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph and was continuing on a westward track away from the state. Forecasters said the storm could restrengthen and regain hurricane status later this week while remaining over open waters. The threat of additional development underscores how active the Pacific hurricane season has been compared with the relatively quiet Atlantic basin.
While the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) continues to forecast a below-normal Atlantic hurricane season and the Atlantic currently has no active tropical cyclones, the central and eastern Pacific have produced several named storms, including Lala, which became one of the season's most closely watched systems because of its impacts on Hawaii. For Hawaii residents, the focus remains on recovery. Over the weekend, Lala tracked parallel to the island chain and passed close enough to bring damaging winds, heavy rainfall, flooding, high surf and landslides across parts of the state despite never making official landfall.
"Due to the severe impacts of Hurricane Lala, all state and county offices, Hawaiʻi State Department of Education schools, public charter schools, courts and Judiciary offices statewide will be closed Monday, August 17," Hawaii Governor Josh Green posted on X. "My team and I have been closely monitoring the damage from Lala. As we begin our recovery efforts, I’m committed to assisting state and county partners in identifying and accessing any federal resources that are needed to help impacted residents throughout the state.
Stay safe, everybody," U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono posted on X on Monday. Some parts of Hawaii received over 2 feet of rain from Lala, the National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Prediction Center said, with Laupahoehoe receiving over 43 inches.
According to the NHC's latest Tropical Weather Outlook, the first area of concern could develop several hundred miles south of Mexico near the end of the week. Environmental conditions are forecast to become increasingly favorable, and forecasters say a tropical depression is expected to form by the weekend as the system moves west-northwestward while remaining well offshore. The disturbance currently has a 70 percent chance of development over the next seven days.
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