Aloha Friends and Thank You Ed. Busy here in the Hawaiian Islands with folks getting ready for Tropical Storm Felicia.

Surprisingly, Felicia is *still* a respectible 40 Kt. Tropical Storm. Although struggling against SW'erly vertical wind shear and having all it's convection, what's left of it, severely displaced 100 miles to the NE of the LLCC, Felicia continues to buck the shear and is hanging in there with sustained winds of 45 mph, with gusts to 55 mph, in a broad area in the Northern Semi-Circle.

So we in Hawaii are not out of the woods just yet. And with the forecast track of TS Felicia expected to pass through the central Islands, things could still get *pretty interesting*, to say the least!

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This is the *FIRST* time, after living in Hawaii for almost 30 years, that I have *ever* seen a Tropical Storm (there have been many very weak 'remnant lows') approach the Islands straight from the East and threaten the Islands with possible Tropical Storm Force damaging winds and torrential rains leading to possible flash flooding. Very, very unusual, to say the least !!

Will be updating here throughout this afternoon and into tonight (Hawaii time!) to see just what effects that Tropical Storm Felicia will bring to these Islands.

Sure hope we get some drenching rains from this (but not flash flooding!), as El Nino years tend to be very dry, but now that the Northern 1/2 of Felicia seems to be passing well north of the Big Island, their drought conditions are likely to persist there.

Alas, yet *another* tropical cyclone is brewing far to the ESE of the Islands (TD- 9E) and is expected to enter into the Central Pacific mid-week, next week as a Tropical Storm, and again will be approaching the Hawaiian Islands in some fashion or another.

Busy, busy, busy! Sure can tell it's an El Nino Year !!