September 3, 2026

Hawaii has two hurricanes to its east and no watches or warnings. Hurricane Karina is a major hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 145 miles per hour, located near 18.5 north and 131.7 west and moving west. Hurricane Lowell, also a major hurricane, has moved into the Central Pacific and is forecast to track south of the islands before turning north.

The honest description of the forecast is that it is uncertain. Meteorologists covering the Pacific describe no immediate threat to Hawaii while noting that both systems could bring impacts later and that the interaction between two storms makes the timing hard to pin down. That is a situation to follow, not one to act on today. The Central Pacific Hurricane Center is the authority for any watch or warning affecting the islands.

For Hawaii households the reasonable step this week is the one that is easy now and difficult later: confirm you have water stored, know where your county's shelter list is published, and top off fuel. Nothing about it is pressing today. All of it is simpler on a Thursday with no warning posted.

Southern Arizona sits inside a marginal risk of excessive rainfall, the lowest of the Weather Prediction Center's four levels, on monsoonal moisture being drawn north by Tropical Storm Marie off the southwest coast of Mexico. Marginal risk means isolated flash flooding is possible in the usual places. In Arizona the usual places are washes and dip crossings, and the rule there is the National Weather Service's Turn Around, Don't Drown: do not drive into water across a road.

California, Nevada, and Guam have no severe weather or excessive rainfall risk drawn over them today.

Five large fires are burning across California and Nevada in the National Interagency Fire Center's September 1 situation report. In California, the Plaskett fire stands at 28,968 acres and 1 percent containment, and the Timber fire at 25,223 acres and 22 percent. In Nevada, the McConnell fire is at 32,851 acres and 46 percent, the Calico fire at 18,319 acres and 65 percent, and the Blue Eagle fire at 9,218 acres and 72 percent.

Southern California is at geographic preparedness level 3 and the Great Basin at level 4. Nationally the preparedness level is 5, its highest step, with 84 large uncontained fires and 8,265,751 acres burned year to date, 163 percent of the ten year average.

A magnitude 4.7 earthquake occurred about 85 kilometres west of Petrolia, California on September 1, offshore in the Mendocino area. No tsunami message was issued for it and the United States Tsunami Warning Centers report no warning, advisory, watch, or threat in effect anywhere.

No grid emergencies or water system disruptions are reported across the region.

No air quality advisories were confirmed for California, Nevada, or Arizona this run. Smoke from the fires listed above can affect areas well away from the perimeters and shifts through the day. AirNow's fire and smoke map and your county health department are the current sources for your address.

No public health advisories specific to the Pacific region were confirmed this run. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Health Alert Network archive could not be read without JavaScript, so this brief makes no claim about national health advisories in either direction.

The Pacific tropics are the item to follow this week. Two major hurricanes moving west in the same corridor, with a third system, Tropical Storm Marie, feeding moisture into the Southwest, is an active basin by any measure. Forecasters have also flagged a new area off southwestern Mexico with a 20 percent chance of development over seven days.

For Hawaii the useful frame is that a storm still several days out is a planning problem, not an emergency. The islands' supply chain is the thing that changes first in a warning, so a household that already has water, food, and fuel in hand simply watches. One that does not is competing with everyone else at the same moment.

In California and Nevada, fire season has weeks left to run. The Plaskett fire at 1 percent containment is the one with the least line around it. For households near any active perimeter, the item that matters is your county's evacuation notification system and whether you are signed up for it.

Earthquake preparedness is the standing item in this region regardless of what the week brings. The September 1 event off Petrolia caused no reported issues, and offshore events in that area are ordinary. The value in noticing them is the reminder to secure a water heater, keep shoes under the bed, and settle in advance where your household would meet.