First Alert Forecast: Lowell will be a major hurricane when it passes to our south

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Off the top, here’s the answer to the most-asked question of the day, “What’s up with Lowell?”

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Lowell is still a tropical storm and at 5:00pm this afternoon was about 690 miles southeast of Hilo. It had winds of 70 mph and was moving to the west at 10 mph. Lowell is forecast to quickly strengthen over the next day or two and become a category 3 hurricane with sustained winds of 120 mph at its center. That level of intensity is concerning.

But the National Hurricane Center says Lowell, while strong, should stay well to our south when it passes at the end of the week. The current track takes it about 300 miles south of South Point and approximately 500 miles south of Kauai. The timing could vary but the pass will likely occur Wednesday through Saturday.

One impact we will see regardless of track, big surf. South shores could see quite large waves as early as Wednesday evening. Wet and windy conditions are going to depend on how far south the storm is when it passes.

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The trade winds will blow all week and at times be breezy… even windy. But at this point we don’t expect tropical-storm-force winds. Skies should be mostly sunny with passing showers mainly night and morning and mainly windward and mauka.

View the latest weather conditions here.

Download the HNN Weather app from the Apple App Store or Google Play for the latest updates from your First Alert Weather Team: chief meteorologist Jennifer Robbins and weather anchors Guy Hagi, Dan Cooke, Ben Gutierrez, and Billy V.

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