"How did two hurricanes with L names pass by Hawaii in the same summer?" — Kathy

Thanks for the question, Kathy. There are two reasons.

First, the National Hurricane Center splits up the tropical Pacific Ocean east of the International Date Line. 

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They do that because many more hurricanes form in the Eastern Pacific, much closer to Mexico, than the Central Pacific, much closer to Hawaii.

Any storm that forms east of 140 degrees longitude works off an Eastern Pacific storm name list. That set of names repeats every six years unless one storm is so deadly or destructive that its name is retired from use for any future storms.

Since Lowell first formed east of that 140 degree longitude line, and therefore was the 12th storm of the Eastern Pacific hurricane season, it was that basin’s “L” storm. All storms that move from the Eastern Pacific to Central Pacific keep their original name, in this case “Lowell.”

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But “Lala” actually formed just west of 140 degrees longitude in mid-August.

Since it first formed in the Central Pacific, it worked off a separate name list. There are far fewer names in this list, since there are far fewer Central Pacific storms each year (4) than the Eastern Pacific (15).

Those Central Pacific name lists don’t repeat every year, they simply pick up where the previous year left off. Coincidentally, the first Central Pacific storm name this year was “Lala.”

The other reason for this oddity was El Niño. Pacific hurricane seasons are generally more active during El Niños. That raised the odds of development not just in the Eastern Pacific, but also much closer to Hawaii.

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.