The China Mail - Kauai on tornado watch as Hurricane Lowell nears Hawaiian islands

"Conditions are favorable for tornadoes in and close to the watch area" of Kauai, including the city of Lihue, NWS officials said.

The core of Lowell was expected to pass near or just west of Niihau late Monday or early Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center said in a bulletin at 5:00 pm (0300 GMT).

"Dangerous conditions are expected for Niihau, Kauai and Oahu, with flash flooding, damaging waves and high winds expected from Lowell," NHC said.

The center warned that the combination of a storm surge and tide would flood normally dry areas near the coast in Kauai and Niihau.

A tropical storm warning was also issued for the island of Oahu, where Honolulu is located.

The storm was expected to dump 4-8 inches of rain on Kauai, with 3-8 inches of rain forecast for the Big Island.

The storm was about 230 miles (370 kilometers) southwest of Honolulu and moving north-northeast, the center said.

Lowell, which was packing maximum sustained winds of 110 miles per hour (175 kilometers per hour), was expected to gradually weaken over the next several days.

The storm briefly reached Category 5 strength earlier this week.

Hawaii is still recovering from the impacts of Hurricane Lala, which grazed the southern part of the Big Island last month, bringing destructive winds and flash floods.

Lowell is one of two storms in the Pacific Ocean right now, where a near-record-strength El Nino climate episode warms the waters. Tropical Storm Marie, about 745 miles southwest of San Diego, was moving west away from land.

El Nino is the warming phase of a natural cycle in the tropical Pacific known as the El Nino-Southern Oscillation. It comes along every two to seven years.

The oscillating climate pattern promotes hurricane formation in the tropical Pacific while decreasing their likelihood in the Atlantic.

Climate change increases El Nino's global weather impacts.

M.Zhou--ThChM