As Tropical Storm Calvin darted toward Hawaii Tuesday, residents, and visitors across the state were bracing for the state’s first encounter with a tropical system in just over a year. AccuWeather forecasters say Calvin will unleash heavy rainfall, gusty winds, and churn up seas as it tracks just south of the island chain.
Tropical storm warnings were in effect for the Big Island and its surrounding waters Tuesday morning in anticipation of downpours and locally damaging winds at midweek.
As of 5 a.m. HST, Tropical Storm Calvin was located about 395 miles east-southeast of Hilo, Hawaii, according to the National Hurricane Center. Calvin was closing in on the island chain swiftly as the storm raced westward at a speed of 22 mph.
“Calvin will approach the Hawaiian Islands throughout the day Tuesday, bringing rough surf and rip currents to north- and east-facing beaches,” said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Adam Douty.
Conditions will quickly turn dangerous for surfers or any folks wanting to head to Hawaii’s beaches this week.
The National Weather Service in Honolulu issued a high surf warning for the Big Island’s east-facing beaches from Tuesday to Wednesday, warning of “dangerously large and disorganized waves.”
Forecasters say Calvin will usher in other dangers in addition to hazardous seas.
“The storm is also expected to bring downpours and flooding to the islands Tuesday night into Thursday, along with gusty winds, which can cause localized power outages,” explained Douty.
A large swath of Hawaii can receive 1-2 inches of rain from Calvin, with some portions of the Big Island set to record 4-8 inches.
Due to Hawaii’s mountainous terrain, there can be large variations in both the location and intensity of the heaviest rain. Areas with steep terrain that receive heavy rainfall are more susceptible to mudslides.
Any non-flooding rainfall may be welcome in parts of the islands. Moderate drought conditions were being reported in the western and central part of Maui as well as a section of the Big Island, according to the United States Drought Monitor.
As Calvin makes its closest approach to Hawaii, it will encounter cooler waters that are hostile to tropical systems. This will keep the storm from strengthening and producing worse impacts across the state.
“Although Calvin will be losing wind intensity, some localized damaging wind gusts remain possible, mainly on the Big Island,” said Douty.
Due to expected impacts from rain and wind, Calvin is a 1 on the AccuWeather RealImpact
Scale for Hurricanes.
After impacting the Hawaiian Islands, Calvin is expected to quickly lose organization and become a tropical rainstorm for a time before fully dissipating late this week.
Calvin’s track just south of Hawaii this week will mark the closest that a named tropical system has gotten to the state since Darby impacted the area in 2022.
Almost exactly a year ago, Hurricane Darby passed just south of Hawaii’s Big Island. Darby, a tropical storm that was losing wind intensity at the time, still managed to bring rain to the southern portion of the state before dissipating on July 17, 2022.
Calvin first formed well off the southwestern coast of Mexico back on July 7 and has been on an adventure spanning about 3,000 miles of the Pacific Ocean since.
While over the open eastern Pacific Ocean last week, Calvin rapidly intensified into the basin’s first major hurricane of the season. Calvin topped out at Category 3 hurricane status before encountering conditions that caused it to lose wind intensity this past weekend.
Produced in association with AccuWeather
Edited by Alberto Arellano and Kyana Jeanin Rubinfeld
