Even as its core was being pulled apart by strong wind shear on Friday, Hurricane Lane continued to trigger an array of havoc across the Hawaiian Islands. Torrential rains were spreading northward across Oahu to Maui after Lane’s outer rainbands dropped more than 30” on parts of the Big Island, where flooding was described by the Central Pacific Hurricane Center as “catastrophic”. Meanwhile, two fast-moving wildfires broke out on Friday in the drier downslope flow along Maui’s west coast, causing at
least one injury. On satellite imagery from Friday morning, Lane resembled a huge thunderstorm complex or a strong tropical storm more than a hurricane. Infrared imagery showed a near-circular blob of intense showers and thunderstorms (convection), with no eye evident. Officially, Lane was nearly stationary, but that net motion obscured two important trends: the mid-level circulation and most of the storm’s convection was being pushed toward the islands by 35 – 45 mph of southwesterly wind shear, while the low-level circulation was moving much more slowly. READ MORE