Hurricanes are hitting Hawaiʻi—and the old rules no longer apply

The Hawaiian Islands have long been considered a safe haven from hurricanes. Their remote location in the central Pacific, combined with naturally cooler surrounding waters, typically weakened storms before they could make landfall. But this summer broke that pattern. In August, Hurricane Hone struck the Big Island, damaging homes and roads and knocking out power. Weeks later, Hurricane Lowell hit Niʻihau and Kauaʻi. For Dr. Haunani Kane, an assistant professor at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa who studies how climate change impacts islands and reefs, the season was more than anomalous—it was alarming. "It's been a bit scary for a lot of the people that live here in Hawaiʻi," she told Science Friday.

What changed: warmer water and shifting storm tracks

Two factors converged to make this hurricane season unusually dangerous. The first was El Niño, which warms the surface waters of the central and eastern Pacific. Those warmer waters act as fuel for hurricanes, keeping them strong as they travel. The second factor is climate change, which has been gradually raising ocean temperatures and prolonging the warm season into the fall—the same months when Hawaiʻi is most vulnerable to storms.