Hurricane Lowell has caused significant damage to Hawaii’s western islands this week. On Tuesday night, the centre of Lowell tracked 50 miles (80km) from the island of Ni’ihau as a category 2 storm, with winds reaching up to 110mph. These strong winds resulted in widespread power outages across Ni’ihau, Kaua’i, and O’ahu.
A tornado watch was issued for Kaua’i on Monday night and into Tuesday morning. Research maps from Iowa State University indicate this was likely the first-ever recorded tornado watch in Hawaii’s history, though a tornado was not documented.
Elsewhere, Japan experienced further heavy rainfall, leading to flooding of roads and subway stations and disrupting services, including the Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train. Nagoya recorded a record-breaking 104.5mm of rain within an hour on Tuesday afternoon. A level-two advisory for landslides remained in place across Japan on Friday, with some landslides already occurring, including one near Mount Fuji.
Central-southern Europe also saw heavy rainfall in recent days. Violent thunderstorms formed over waters around Corsica, Sardinia, and northern Italy on Wednesday and Thursday, producing torrential rainfall, flash flooding, strong winds, and some tornadoes. A weather station in Veneto, northern Italy, recorded 154.2mm of rain in 3.5 hours. The storms moved north-east into Austria and the Balkans late on Thursday, with some forecast to continue into Friday, though drier weather is expected for the weekend and early next week.