Hawaii does get an occasional near miss from a hurricane from time to time, but it is not very often that it suffers a direct hit. Last year Hurricane Ioke remained well south of the islands as it traversed the Central Pacific, and Hurricane Daniel dissipated before reaching the islands. Back in 1992, during a strong El Nino, Hurricane Iniki passed directly over Kauai as a powerful Category 4 storm and was the strongest on record to hit the islands. Currently Hurricane Flossie is approaching the islands from the southeast at Category 4 intensity.

Flossie began as a tropical depression on the 8th of August about 1900 miles east- southeast of Hawaii. This image shows Tropical Storm Flossie as it was moving westward in the East Pacific shortly before it became a hurricane. The image was taken by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (or TRMM) satellite at 07:40 UTC on the 10th of August 2007 and shows the horizontal pattern of rain intensity within the storm. Rain rates in the center of the swath are from the TRMM PR, and those in the outer swath come from the TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI). The rain rates are overlaid on infrared (IR) data from the TRMM Visible Infrared Scanner (VIRS). Although the storm is still fairly asymmetric with most of the rain (blue and green areas indicating light to moderate rain intensities, respectively) south of the center, an eye is beginning to emerge, and there is good banding (curvature) in the rain field. There is also an area of more intense rain (dark indicative of a mature, intense hurricane. At the time of this image, maximum sustained winds were estimated at 55 knots (63 mph) by the National Hurricane Center.

As the system continued to track off in a generally westward direction, it continued to gain strength. Early on the 11th, Flossie reached Category 4 intensity with sustained winds estimated at 115 knots (132 mph). This next image was taken at 21:34 UTC (11:34 am Hawaii Standard Time) on the 11th of August. Flossie was now 840 miles southeast of the Big Island of Hawaii with sustained winds estimated at 120 knots (138 mph). A well-defined eye (dark center) is clearly visible. This is surrounded by a nearly symmetric, intense eyewall (dark red arc). Rain bands spiral inwards towards the center (large blue arcs). These features are indicative of a mature, intense hurricane.

Flossie is expected to continue moving to the west-northwest and remain south of but very close to Hawaii. A slight northward shift in the track would bring it right over the islands.

TRMM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japanese space agency JAXA.

Images and animations produced by Hal Pierce (SSAI/NASA GSFC) and caption by Steve Lang (SSAI/NASA GSFC)