Mary Gilmore, Staff Writer
Hurricane Kiko was a category four hurricane headed towards the islands of Hawai’i in early September.
According to LiveScience, Kiko began as a tropical storm to the east of the Hawai’i islands on September 1st. Just two days later, on September 3rd, Kiko was identified as a category four hurricane as it gained strength by unusually warm ocean temperatures and low wind shear. The storm continued on its westward path where these conditions remained favorable for the hurricane.
On September 5th, Acting Governor Sylvia Luke issued an emergency proclamation which activated state resources and the Hawai’i National Guard to prepare for potential impacts from the storm. The proclamation included that, “Tropical storms carry the potential for life-threatening and damaging winds, rain, and surf. Tropical storm force winds and high surf associated with Kiko could begin impacting portions of the State starting around Monday, September 8, 2025.”
Hurricane Kiko was sustaining a speed of about 140mph during this time, but it appeared that its path was beginning to head Northwest.
The hurricane held well throughout the week, ripping through the Central Pacific Ocean. Over time, however, it began losing strength. The hurricane was reduced to a category three hurricane by September 6th.
By September 8th, the major fear around Hurricane Kiko was resolved. Kiko was reduced to a tropical storm with its path visibly heading North, away from the islands. Although this is good news, people on Hawai’i’s islands will continue to deal with the storm for the coming weeks.
The state will experience much larger ocean swells, and dangerous rip currents through the next week. Additionally, “Tropical Cyclone Kiko will bring a rapid rise in surf along east-facing shores starting with the Big Island and Maui County and Oahu and Kauai. Surf heights are expected to peak at high surf warning levels,” as stated by the National Weather Service.
While it is great that the hurricane dissolved into nothing more than a storm, it shouldn’t have risen to a category four level, as reported by CNN. Hurricane Kiko is, “Yet another example of a hurricane undergoing rapid intensification amongst extremely warm waters,” Brandon Miller, a senior meteorologist and supervising weather producer for CNN, stated.
Additionally, BBC reported that, “Warmer ocean waters mean storms can pick up more energy, leading to higher wind speeds.” And, “Overall, the IPCC concludes that there is ‘high confidence’ that humans have contributed to increases in precipitation associated with tropical cyclones, and ‘medium confidence ‘ that humans have contributed to the higher probability of a tropical cyclone being more intense.”
As more storms continue to form, the call for action gets louder. Many of the storms would just fizzle out if it wasn’t for the warmer temperatures allowing them to pick up speed and energy quicker. Damaging natural disasters will continue to come for every nation, so humans across the globe are called to reduce climate change together.
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