Hurricane Lala and Hawaii's 155-Year Hurricane Drought
A Category 1 hurricane just raked the Big Island with an 80 mph eyewall and feet of rain — and still didn't make landfall. The last storm to directly strike the Big Island did it in 1871. Here's why Hawaii keeps dodging the bullet, and how Lala compares to Iniki, Iselle and Lane.
Hurricane Lala brushed past Hawaii's Big Island as a Category 1 hurricane on Saturday, August 16, 2026 — battering the coast with 80 mph winds and up to 25 inches of rain, but stopping short of an actual landfall. That distinction matters more than it sounds: a direct hurricane strike on the Big Island hasn't happened since 1871, roughly 155 years ago. Lala came about as close as a storm can without crossing the coastline, and the record still stands.
The Central Pacific Hurricane Center said Lala's eyewall was “brushing” the southern Big Island with maximum sustained winds near 80 mph, moving northwest at about 9 mph. More than 84,700 customers lost power statewide — over 63,000 of them in Hawaii County alone — and windward slopes of Maui and the Big Island had already picked up 12 to 13 inches of rain in a 12-hour stretch, per same-day wire reports. At least one death had been reported. Tropical storm warnings extended up the chain to Maui, Oahu and Kauai counties.
If you follow Hawaii weather, you know the pattern by now: a storm bears down, the islands brace, and it weakens or veers away at the last minute. It happened with Lane in 2018 and Douglas in 2020. It very nearly didn't happen this time. Below is the short, strange history of hurricanes and Hawaii — and what our NOAA daily records from Hilo show about how these storms actually hit the ground.
Why Hawaii almost never takes a direct hit
Hawaii sits in the middle of the Pacific hurricane belt, yet direct strikes are vanishingly rare. Three things do the protecting:
- Cooler water. The ocean northeast of the islands — the direction most storms approach from — runs cooler than the bathwater-warm tropical Atlantic. Hurricanes are heat engines; take away the warm surface water and they starve. Storms often lose a category or two in the final approach.
- Wind shear. Strong upper-level winds near the islands tend to shear the tops off approaching storms, tilting and unwinding them. Lane in 2018 fell apart from a Category 5 out at sea to a shredded system that stalled offshore.
- Small targets, huge ocean. The whole archipelago is a speck in the North Pacific. Even a storm on a “Hawaii track” usually threads north or south of the islands. Douglas in 2020 missed by fewer than 50 miles — and 50 miles is a near miss out there.
The upshot: most storms that reach Hawaii arrive as tropical storms, not hurricanes. Iselle in 2014 was a Category 4 in the open Pacific but a bedraggled tropical storm by the time it crossed the Big Island's Puna coast. Lala's ability to hold Category 1 strength right up to the coastline is exactly what made it unusual.
Every hurricane that has mattered to Hawaii
Hawaii's tropical-cyclone record is short compared with the Gulf or Atlantic coasts — which is the whole point. Here are the storms that actually reached the islands, from the 1871 Big Island strike to Lala.
| Storm | Year | What it did to Hawaii |
|---|---|---|
| "1871 storm" | 1871 | Raked the Big Island and Maui — the last known DIRECT hurricane strike on the Big Island, 155 years ago. |
| Dot | 1959 | Struck Kauai as it weakened; one of the earlier documented Kauai hits. |
| Iwa | 1982 | Brushed Kauai and Oahu during an El Niño winter; ~$250M damage, then a record for the state. |
| Iniki | 1992 | Made landfall on Kauai Sept 11 at 145 mph — the most powerful and destructive hurricane in Hawaii's recorded history. 6 deaths, ~$3.1B damage. The last hurricane to make landfall in Hawaii. |
| Iselle | 2014 | Weakened to a strong tropical storm at landfall on the Big Island's Puna coast — the first tropical cyclone on record to make landfall on the Big Island. ~17,200 lost power. |
| Lane | 2018 | Stalled just offshore without landfall, but its moisture produced some of the heaviest tropical-cyclone rainfall ever recorded in the US (see table below). |
| Douglas | 2020 | Passed just north of the islands as a Category 1 — a near miss for Oahu and Maui. |
| Lala | 2026 | Brushed the southern Big Island Aug 16 with an 80 mph eyewall and up to 25" of rain — the closest call for the island in decades, but no landfall. |
Source: NWS Central Pacific Hurricane Center and NOAA. “Peak” is the storm's strongest point, often far from the islands; the impact column describes what actually reached Hawaii.
The one that got through: Iniki, 1992
For all the near misses, Hawaii has taken a genuine hit in living memory. On September 11, 1992, Hurricane Iniki slammed into Kauai as a Category 4 with 145 mph sustained winds — the most powerful and destructive hurricane in Hawaii's recorded history. It killed six people, destroyed or damaged thousands of homes, and ran up roughly $3.1 billion in damage. It remains the last hurricane to make landfall anywhere in the state.
Iniki is the benchmark every Hawaii storm gets measured against, and it's why emergency managers don't shrug off a “brush.” Kauai was told the same thing many islands are told before the near misses — and then the track shifted. Lala kept forecasters on edge for exactly that reason.
What our Hilo data shows: the rain is the real story
For most Hawaii storms, wind is the headline but water does the damage. Hilo, on the Big Island's windward side, is one of the rainiest cities in America — it averages about 122 inches of rain a year in our records, which is why it anchors our rainiest cities in America ranking. We pulled every daily total at Hilo International Airport back to 1970. Here are the seven wettest single days on record:
| Rank | Date | Rain (in) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Feb 20, 1979 | 16.87 |
| 2 | Nov 2, 2000 | 16.17 |
| 3 | Mar 17, 1980 | 15.66 |
| 4 | Nov 18, 1990 | 15.41 |
| 5 | Aug 24, 2018 | 15.00 |
| 6 | Nov 1, 2000 | 13.11 |
| 7 | Jan 29, 2002 | 12.20 |
First-party analysis of the NOAA GHCN-Daily record for Hilo International Airport (station USW00021504), 1970–2026, quality-controlled. The wettest day in the 56-year record is 16.87 inches on February 20, 1979.
Notice the fifth row. On August 24, 2018, Hurricane Lane dumped exactly 15.00 inches on Hilo's airport in a single day — and Lane never made landfall. Higher-elevation gauges above Hilo recorded several feet over the multi-day event, ranking it among the heaviest tropical-cyclone rain totals ever measured on US soil, behind only Texas' catastrophic Hurricane Harvey in 2017. That is the template for Hawaii disasters: the storm you fear for its wind ends up flooding you out. Lala's forecast maximum of 25 inches would have topped any single-day total in Hilo's modern record — a reminder that even a “miss” can be a flood emergency.
Why 2026 is a season to watch
Central Pacific hurricane seasons tend to run more active in El Niño years, when warmer water and lighter shear reach farther west — and 2026 is a strong El Niño year. We've been tracking that setup in our 2026 hurricane season outlook, and the calendar isn't on Hawaii's side yet either: the basin's busiest stretch runs through late summer, as we lay out in when hurricane season peaks. Lala is the closest call the Big Island has had in decades, but in a season like this one it may not be the last.
The pattern also shows up on the mainland, where 2026 has already delivered extraordinary heat and a busy tropical stretch — see our analysis of Texas hurricane history and the year's record extreme heat.
Frequently asked questions
Did Hurricane Lala make landfall in Hawaii?
No. As of Saturday, August 16, 2026, Hurricane Lala's eyewall brushed the southern coast of the Big Island as a Category 1 hurricane with 80 mph winds, but the center stayed just offshore and the storm was not expected to make landfall. Because it passed by rather than crossing the coastline, the Big Island's streak without a direct hurricane strike — which dates to 1871 — remained intact.
When was the last hurricane to hit Hawaii?
The last hurricane to make landfall anywhere in Hawaii was Iniki on September 11, 1992, a Category 4 storm that struck Kauai with 145 mph winds, killed six people, and caused about $3.1 billion in damage. For the Big Island specifically, the last known direct hurricane strike was an estimated Category 3 in 1871 — roughly 155 years ago.
Why does Hawaii rarely get hit by hurricanes?
Three things protect Hawaii. The ocean northeast of the islands is cooler than the tropical Atlantic, which starves approaching storms of fuel. Strong upper-level wind shear near the islands tends to tear storms apart. And the islands are small targets in a vast ocean, so most Central Pacific systems pass harmlessly to the north or south. Most storms that do reach Hawaii have already weakened to tropical storms, like Iselle in 2014.
How much rain did Hurricane Lala drop on Hawaii?
The Central Pacific Hurricane Center forecast 10 to 20 inches of rain across the Big Island with local maxima up to 25 inches. Windward areas of Maui and the Big Island had already recorded 12 to 13 inches within a 12-hour span. For context, the wettest single day ever measured at Hilo's airport is 16.87 inches (February 20, 1979), and Hilo averages about 122 inches of rain a year — among the wettest cities in the United States.
Was Hurricane Lane worse than Hurricane Lala?
By rainfall, Lane (2018) was historic even though it never made landfall. It dropped 15.00 inches on Hilo's airport on August 24, 2018 — the fifth-wettest calendar day in that station's record — and far more at higher-elevation gauges, ranking among the heaviest tropical-cyclone rain events ever recorded on US soil. Lala's threat was more about wind and a possible direct strike than record rainfall.
Dig into the weather record yourself
Every rainfall figure here comes from our NOAA historical database. Look up Hawaii's records, check the day a storm hit, or explore the wider hurricane archive: