If you have not been following the recent weather news, you may have missed the news that a Category 4 hurricane named Lane is bearing down on the Hawaiian Islands and is expected to cause impacts there even if the center misses the islands, as it is expected to do. As bad as the winds may be, one of the biggest impacts is likely to be extremely heavy rains from the combination of tropical moisture in the storm and the orographic lift of the tall volcanoes on the islands. I spend a month there in college hiking on the mountains on the different islands and even in everyday weather the contrast in rainfall amounts from the upwind to downwind side was dramatic. With the tropical moisture streaming into the area, some regions may see up to 25 inches of rain as the storm moves past. This could lead to catastrophic flooding in addition to the damage that is likely from the strong winds around the storm. CNN has one story at https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/22/us/hurricane-lane-hawaii-wxc/index.html but you can find many more on news sites. One rainfall estimate map is shown below.
