Hurricane Lowell

Lowell has indeed become a hurricane overnight. It is now about 575 miles southeast of Hilo. Maximum sustained winds are about 80 mph & Lowell is moving west-northwesterly at about 12 mph. Hurricane force winds extend out from the center about 15 miles with tropical storm force winds extending out about 90 miles. The forecast is for Lowell to increase in strength, becoming a major hurricane sometime tomorrow. 

Hurricane Karina remains a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of about 140 mph. It is moving westerly at about 12 mph & is expected to enter the Central Pacific region on Friday.  

 

More on Lowell

There are still 3 disturbances that are being watched in regards to how they will affect our weather here. Of these Tropical Storm Lowell is the most closely watched. At 5 am this morning Lowell was about 785 miles southeast of Hilo moving westerly at about 14 mph. Maximum sustained winds were about 65 mph but are expected to increase over the next day or so & Lowell is expected to become a hurricane in the next day & a major hurricane by Wednesday; which is also when it will likely be closest to us.

The disturbance to the southwest has been losing intensity & has now been decreased to a 20% chance of becoming a depression within the next 7 days. It is becoming even less likely to cause us any problems; which is good, then we can focus on Lowell!

Category 4 Hurricane Karina is steadily making its way westerly at about 9 mph. Karina's maximum sustained winds this morning at 5 were 140 mph; they are expected to gradually weaken over the next few days. At its current rate, Karina will enter the Central Pacific region early Friday morning.  

Lowell Now in Central Pacific

Tropical Storm Lowell crossed in to the Central Pacific region very early this morning. The 5 am public advisory & warning cone showed Lowell just coming in to the region; it was about 1070 miles east-southeast of Hilo. At that time, Lowell had maximum sustained winds of about 50 mph & was moving westerly at about 15 mph. Lowell is expected to strengthen over the next couple of days & become a hurricane before it makes its closest approach early Thursday morning. But we just need to wait & see exactly what will happen; more on that later. 

The disturbance to the south-southwest of us is given a 30% chance of developing into a more organized depression over the next 7 days. Since its motion continues westerly it will likely not be a problem for us.

Karina is currently a Category 1 Hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. It is expected to be entering the Central Pacific region on Friday. Currently, Karina has maximum sustained winds of about 80 mph & is moving west-northwesterly at about 9 mph. If Karina's westerly motion speeds up or Lowell's slows down or both, it could impact Lowell's strength. If Karina gets close enough it could take some of the energy from Lowell making it a weaker storm system. We will just have to wait & see.

Badlands Ranch

I have a monthly subscription for a dehydrated beef dog food for Moʻo from Badlands Ranch. I've had it for about 2 years now. I give her about a tablespoon with each meal to add nutrients her dried kibble might be missing. On Sunday I started getting emails saying they were unable to process my credit card; I got 3 emails that day. And another the next day, plus another on Wednesday. I did not contact them as they had asked.

08/23/26 @ 2:15 am. Why are you wanting me to respond when I am asleep?

08/23/26 @ 4:13 am. I am not ignoring you, I am still asleep!

08/23/26 @ 8:12 am. I am now ignoring you.

08/24/26 @ 2:20 am. Asleep, but will ignore you when I wake up.

08/26/26 @ 2:24 am. Still asleep, still going to ignore you when I wake up!

This same thing happened last year at about the same time; I wonder if it has something to do with the expiration month which is July. Last year the customer service rep was great, she checked a bunch of things & everything was correct; I got my order even though I did get more emails saying it was not able to process my card. It happened the next month & the next! I contacted Badlands Ranch each time. Finally the customer service rep said, they were not sure why it kept sending me emails saying something was wrong when nothing was, so just ignore the emails. And then the emails stopped coming; I thought they had fixed the problem. Not. When it started happening this time, I ignored the emails because the card expiration year is 2030 & everything they had in their system was correct; it should be working. I got this email today. (And yes, my dog is spoiled.)

Customer service rep was right; just ignore the other emails!

Neighbor Malia might be having some roof problems from Hurricane Lālā. There were 2 guys up on her roof today. They were there for an hour or so poking around & talking about things. I did not see them do any repairs, they were probably checking to figure out what the problem was & how to fix it. 

 

The Motek Bakery email about tomorrow's breakfast special says its going to be shakshuka! My favorite! There was a very nice photo. 

(Photo by Motek)

I am watching Episode 2 of Yuezhou Unusual News Record on Lingopie. It is an intermediate level video. What I like about Lingopie is that the video has the English subtitles but also has the Hanzi & Pinyin directly above the English. Scroll the cursor over the Hanzi which is then highlighted in orange & the specific English words it translates to pops up along with options to hear it said again (headset), to speak the word yourself (mic), or have a more detailed explanation for the word or phrase (light bulb). If you click on the plus sign (+) the word or phrase is added to your spaced repetition list of words to practice.

When you click on light bulb, box on right appears.

I learned a bunch of new words on Duolingo today. My 1st session was just before I went to sleep, a little after midnight. I learned about using suggestion particles in regards to transportation. My 2nd session was when I woke up around 6 am; the theme seemed to be watching TV! How appropriate!  

Start of 2nd lesson of the day.

FYI I do not eat popcorn when I watch TV.

But sometimes I do eat other snacks.

I serendipitously started watching 2 Korean TV series that turn out to have somewhat parallel but opposite themes. How can they be parallel & opposite at the same time? Well maybe those are not quite the right words to describe them, but I'll let you judge for yourself. SPOILER ALERT - Both involve time slips during an eclipse but in Bon Appétit, Your Majesty a modern Michelin level Korean chef is transported to Joseon era Korea & in My Royal Nemesis a Joseon era royal concubine is transported to modern day Korea. Both women are strong-willed & self-assured in their original lives & bring that with them & initially act that way but soon figure out they need to suppress that in order to navigate & survive their new lives. Both women also interact with the tyrannical male head (of the country in Bon Appétit & of a very large business conglomerate in Royal Nemesis) & assist the male tyrants in retaining their power through the use of their strengths. And obviously there is romance involved in both; which changes the males in to less-than-tyrannical beings. So I think the themes of these series are parallel but opposite. What do you think? (And yes, I am watching them at the same time, alternating episodes between the 2. Another way to exercise my brain.)

Tropical Storm Lowell is expected to enter the Central Pacific region some time late tonight or early tomorrow morning; it is currently about 1210 miles east-southeasterly of Hilo. It is also expected to increase in wind speed & become a hurricane; at 5 pm today it had maximum sustained winds of about 50 mph & is moving west-northwesterly at about 9 mph. The Central Pacific Hurricane Center area is keeping a close watch since it is unknown whether or how Hurricane Karina will affect it.

The window for Episode 55 of the eruption of Kīlauea has not yet been determined. Scientists are collecting more data to provide a more accurate prediction of when the next eruption will occur.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Diana! 

IASA #4-29

Emily's riding mower slid on wet lawn under puakenikeni, hit branch, slid more & dislodged Front Yard security cam; it still works.

 

August Is an Active Month

In an earlier post, I noted that historically August is the month with the most hurricanes in the Central Pacific. And there has been a lot of storm activity going on in the Pacific basin this year. Right now there are 3 disturbances that are tropical storms and 1 disturbance that may become a tropical depression. The disturbance to the south-southwest of us has a 30% chance of developing in to a tropical depression within the next 7 days as it moves west-northwesterly away from us; it is not likely to cause any problems for us. Likewise, Tropical Storm Karina, which is in the eastern Pacific, is likely to peter out before entering the Central Pacific basin & at this time is not seen as a threat. 

Tropical Storm Lowell is not yet in the Central Pacific region; it is about 1545 miles east-southeast of Hilo. Lowell has maximum sustained winds of 40 mph & is moving east-northeasterly at about 5 mph. It is expected to begin moving westerly on Saturday & may be entering the Central Pacific on Sunday. We shall have to watch what it does over the next few days.

Tropical Storm Lālā is slowly weakening & is expected to soon become a post-tropical depression. It is 650 miles north of Kure Atoll with maximum sustained winds of about 40 mph. Lālā is moving north-northwesterly at about 5 mph & expected to cross the International Date Line on Friday.

Up on the Roof

No, not the song ... really up on the roof. That's what the plan was for today in order to fix the West security camera. When the power came on yesterday the camera was initially working, but later it was no longer showing up on the monitor; it said the West camera was offline. The indicator light at the server was on & blinking, though not as rapidly as the lights for the other cameras. I went through the controls I could access through the computer but could not figure out how to turn it back on. (I had initially turned them on when I installed them & configured them, so I know how to do that.) I made arrangements for Libby to come over today & spot me while I climbed up on the roof to check out the hardware & see if that was the problem. 

But before I did that this morning, I called up my personal IT Help Desk guy, aka Kai. And he asked that 1st question the Help Desk guys ask, sort of. They ask, "Did you turn off your computer & turn it back on?" Which I would always do before I called them. But I had forgotten that the security cameras get their power via the Cat 6A cable that they are hooked up to the server with. Kai asked if I had unplugged it, then plugged it back in. I had not. But when I did, it was working again! For about 2 minutes. Then it went completely dark. My guess is that the end that plugs in to the server was not terminated properly; if I bend the cable I can make it turn on & off. I will re-terminate the cable & see if that resolves the problem. (Yes, I can do that, too.)

Upper left light is wonky cable.

Early this morning ʻŌhuna was outside 3 different times; I wonder why she was so restless this morning? Later in the evening, she slept on the fold-out futon bed on 1 side while ʻAlani & Hoʻokoa slept on the other side.

ʻŌhuna on the prowl!

ʻŌhuna at top; ʻAlani (L) & Hoʻokoa at bottom.

Lingopie has shown up on the frequently clicked links bar on my search page! Which I am happy to see; it confirms that I do go there a lot & it now makes it easier for me to get to the login page. Hūlō!   

I am still at Level 10 in Mandarin on Duolingo. That's because I have slowed down on the use of Duolingo lessons because I am also doing lessons on Lingopie. They each have their strengths & drawbacks. In this lesson I am able to distinguish the sounds to translate the phrase presented, translate a sentence given a variety of word options, & complete a short conversation. But I am still having difficulty with the proper pronunciation.   

Tropical Storm Lālā is still hanging in there! It is now about 595 miles northerly of Kure Atoll & moving northerly at about 6 mph. Currently it has maximum sustained wind speeds of 45 mph but is expected to gradually weaken over the next couple of days, becoming a post-tropical remnant low by tomorrow evening when it will no longer be tracked by the hurricane centers. 

Iselle has become a post-tropical cyclone & will not even come close to entering the Central Pacific region. This is the last advisory from the National Hurricane Center on Iselle. 

Although another episode of the eruption of Kilauea is likely, there is not enough data at this time for scientists to determine when that might occur.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Teena & Kyle! A me ka Hauʻoli lā Hoʻomanaʻo makahiki kanakolu kumamāono e Lorna & Darrell! A me ka Hauʻoli lā Hoʻomanaʻo makahiki ʻewalu e Danny & Kim!