Hurricane Lala churned through the remote northwestern reaches of the Hawaiian archipelago in the third week of August 2026, battering the uninhabited atolls of one of the largest marine conservation areas on the planet after an earlier pass that had already lashed the Big Island. The storm’s slow drift across the central Pacific put the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument directly in its path, with high winds and towering surf threatening low-lying reefs and islets that serve as critical wildlife habitat. Its lingering presence came at the climatological heart of hurricane season, a period when forecasters watch both the Pacific and the Atlantic for the next system to organize.
A storm that struck twice
Lala first delivered serious damage to inhabited Hawaii in mid-August, passing just south of the Island of Hawaii as a Category 1 hurricane and narrowly avoiding a direct landfall. Even the near miss proved costly: parts of the island received rainfall totals exceeding 20 inches, triggering flash flooding and mudflow risks, while strong winds knocked out power to more than 220,000 customers statewide and damaged or destroyed more than 100 homes. Tracking and warnings for the system were issued through the National Hurricane Center and its Pacific counterpart, which coordinate forecasts for storms threatening the islands. After brushing the main Hawaiian chain, Lala weakened and then reorganized, a reminder that a storm’s threat does not necessarily end once it clears populated areas.
Bearing down on Papahanaumokuakea
By late August the storm’s core was affecting portions of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, a vast protected expanse stretching northwest of the main islands. Forecasters reported maximum sustained winds near 100 mph with higher gusts as hurricane conditions reached the monument, and large surf generated by the system threatened to wash over some of the low-lying atolls, particularly the stretch from French Frigate Shoals to Maro Reef. The monument, described in detail by its managing agencies at Papahanaumokuakea.gov, encompasses coral reefs, atolls and shallow banks that host seabird colonies, endangered Hawaiian monk seals and green sea turtles. Because the islets sit only a few feet above sea level, inundation from storm surge and overwash poses a real danger to nesting sites and the animals that depend on them, even where no human population is at risk.
How the central Pacific is monitored
Storms that form or travel across the waters near Hawaii fall under the responsibility of the Central Pacific Hurricane Center, the office that issues advisories, watches and warnings for the region and works alongside the national center. Its forecasts, distributed through the central Pacific tropical outlook, guide emergency decisions for the islands and for the ships and researchers who operate in the surrounding ocean. Satellite imagery and reconnaissance data feed the intensity and track estimates that determine when residents should prepare for wind, rain and surf. In Lala’s case, the monitoring allowed authorities to warn of the shift from the storm’s initial approach to the main islands through its later track over the northwestern monument, keeping the public informed as the threat migrated.
Why remote does not mean harmless
A hurricane passing over an uninhabited monument may seem to pose little consequence, but the ecological stakes are substantial. Overwash can flood turtle nests and seabird burrows, saltwater intrusion can damage the sparse vegetation that stabilizes the islets, and powerful surf can reshape the sandy cays that provide the only dry land for miles. Documentation of the storm’s effects on the islands from NASA’s Earth Observatory illustrated how satellite sensors capture the scale of such systems and the flooding they leave behind. For scientists, the passage of a strong hurricane over a conservation area offers a stark case study in how extreme weather stresses fragile island ecosystems that have few natural buffers against a direct hit. The monument’s atolls have historically served as some of the last refuges for species pushed out of the more developed main islands, which means damage to a single low-lying cay can ripple through populations that have nowhere else to breed, and recovery from a severe overwash event can take years.
A season near its peak
Lala’s persistence coincided with the stretch of the calendar when tropical activity typically ramps up across the Northern Hemisphere. The Atlantic basin, in particular, approaches its climatological maximum in early September, and forecasters keep a continuous watch for developing disturbances even as they track ongoing Pacific systems. Historical patterns compiled in the hurricane-season climatology maintained by the National Hurricane Center show why late August and September concentrate so much of the year’s tropical activity, as warm ocean waters and favorable atmospheric conditions align. For Hawaii, still recovering from Lala’s initial blow and bracing for the possibility of additional systems, the storm underscored a recurring reality of life in the central Pacific: the threat can arrive from far offshore, strike the inhabited islands, and then continue to menace the fragile outposts that lie beyond them.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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