Washington DC - Two powerful hurricanes and a strengthening tropical storm on Wednesday were churning through the Pacific Ocean, where waters were being warmed by a historically strong El Niño climate episode.
Hurricane Lowell intensified to a Category 5 storm Wednesday, as it moved west, followed by Hurricane Karina, which is a Category 4 storm.
Both storms are expected to pass well to the south and to the northeast of Hawaii, respectively, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).
"Swells generated by Lowell are spreading northward and will affect portions of the Hawaiian Islands during the next several days," and are "likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions," the NHC said.
Hawaii is still recovering from the impacts of Hurricane Lala, which brushed past the southern part of the Big Island last month, bringing destructive winds and severe flash floods.
Lowell and Karina are trailed to the east by Tropical Storm Marie, currently a few hundred miles south of Baja California and "expected to become a hurricane later today," the NHC said.
Washington Post meteorologist Ben Noll cheekily called the phenomenon a "hurricane sandwich" in a weekend X post.
"El Niño warming sets the stage for these storms, which are fuelled in large part by warm waters – when the tropical Pacific is warmer than normal we see an increase in strong storms," Julia Cole, a climate scientist at the University of Michigan, told AFP.
A train of three cyclones "is definitely rare to see," she added.