Hurricane Lowell spent Tuesday night making its presence known across Hawaii's western islands, tracking 50 miles (80km) from Niʻihau in Kauai county as a category 2 storm with winds reaching 110mph. The result was widespread power outages across Niʻihau, Kauaʻi, and Oʻahu - because nothing says "tropical paradise" quite like a prolonged opportunity to reconsider your relationship with electricity.

Perhaps the most notable development was a tornado watch issued for Kauaʻi on Monday night into Tuesday morning. According to research maps from Iowa State University, this was likely the first tornado watch in Hawaii's history - a milestone nobody asked for, but which the state has now achieved anyway. In the end, no tornado was documented, which is the meteorological equivalent of a fire drill where nothing catches fire but everyone still has to stand outside.

That said, hurricanes can produce tornadoes, most often occurring in thunderstorms within rain bands away from the centre of the storm. So the watch was not merely bureaucratic enthusiasm. Currently, five named storms have occurred in the central Pacific, with the strong El Niño this year acting as a key driver in the above-normal hurricane season, as noted by the National Weather Service. Meanwhile, in Japan, further heavy rainfall caused widespread flooding - because apparently one hemisphere's weather drama wasn't enough for this week.