Powerful hurricanes usually steer clear of Hawaii, but Hurricane Lane is coming

As the planet continues an accelerated rate of warming due to human-caused climate change, around 95 percent of accumulated heat gets absorbed by the oceans, increasing the background levels of ocean warming and making warmer-than-normal temperatures more likely. 

"Global warming is really ocean warming," Josh Willis, an oceanographer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, recently said in an interview.

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As the storm skims the islands, or perhaps even makes landfall, severe and potentially historic flooding is expected. 

According to the National Hurricane Center, there will certainly be battering waves on the coast and potentially "life-threatening flash flooding from heavy rainfall" as water pours down the famously mountainous Hawaiian terrain.