Lala will be the first landfalling hurricane in Hawaii in 34 years

Storms usually weaken well before reaching the islands. Cooler water, stronger wind shear, and Hawaii's position out in the central Pacific tend to choke systems out before they arrive. When a storm holds together this far west, it's a genuine outlier.

Roughly 1 to 2 tropical systems pass within about 300 miles of Hawaii each year, and most never make landfall. Direct hurricane landfalls are rare enough that only a handful have happened since reliable records began. The last one was Hurricane Iniki in 1992, a Category 4 that struck Kauai.

Lala is currently a tropical storm and gaining strength, forecast to be a Cat. 1 hurricane by Saturday morning. The eye is expected to pass near or over the Big Island of Hawaii on Saturday and stay south of the other islands on Sunday.

Wind:

Hurricane conditions are expected on the Big Island by early Saturday, with tropical storm conditions possible in Maui County by late Saturday. On windward slopes and mountaintops, winds can run up to 30% stronger than what's reported at the surface. Sometimes even more at higher elevations.

Rain, the bigger threat:

• 8-12 inches expected across Maui and the Big Island, with isolated totals up to 25 inches on the Big Island
• 4-6 inches elsewhere in the chain, isolated totals up to 8 inches
• This is enough to cause life-threatening flooding and mudslides, especially in steep terrain

Storm surge:

1 to 3 feet of surge combined with high tide could push seawater into normally dry coastal areas.