Historic Iselle rakes Hawaii, steamy State Fair open?

They're battening down the hatches as the first hurricane in 22 years rakes the Hawaiian Islands. Radars on the Big Island are lighting up with waves of rain from Hurricane Iselle.

Hurricane Iselle is will be hitting the Big Island with high winds, heavy rainfall and high surf through Friday, then will bump along the rest of the island chain as a tropical storm.

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Here's the view from the University of Hawaii Hilo campus as the first outer rain bands from Iselle roll in.

I expect Iselle will be a damaging storm for Hilo and the Big Island. If the center of Iselle makes landfall south of Hilo as expected, the strongest northeast winds will hammer northeast facing Hilo overnight and early Friday. Even a "minimal" hurricane with 75 mph sustained winds, and higher gusts will do significant damage in and around Hilo.

Here's a rundown on expected effects from the Central Pacific Hurricane Center.

Historic Iselle

Weather Underground's Jeff Masters has more on why Iselle may make Hawaiian hurricane history.

Hurricane warnings are flying for the Big Island as Hurricane Iselle bears down on Hawaii as a Category 1 hurricane with 80 mph winds. This is the first hurricane warning issued for the main Hawaiian Islands in 21 years--since Hurricane Fernanda in 1993 (which ended up missing.) Thursday morning satellite images showed very little weakening of Iselle. The eyewall's heavy thunderstorms continued to maintain their intensity and areal coverage, and the eye was still prominent. The outer spiral bands of Iselle had already arrived on the Big Island as of early Thursday morning, as seen on Hawaii radar. Wind shear was moderate, about 15 knots, due to strong upper-level winds out of the north, but this shear is having only a minor impact on Iselle. 

Julio: Near miss?

Hurricane Julio follows on the heels of Iselle. The storm appears destined to miss the Hawaiian Island to the north.

Minnesota: Blissfully boring weather continues

What you see is what you get. Our weather winning streak continues. High in the low 80s and comfy upper 50s dew points?

Weather complaints department is down the hall to the left. Way down the hall.

Yes, we could use a little rain around southern Minnesota. That may happen, at least in scattered fashion by Sunday.

Steamy State Fair opener?

The longer range forecast still hint at a possible mini heat wave just in time for opening day of the 2014 Minnesota State Fair. It's still too early to be credible, but here's the 16-day GFS "dreamcast" that suggest temps near 90 and humid to open the Fair.

Stay tuned.