LIHUE — Weather experts are telling Hawaii to get prepared as they watch two tropical storms charging toward the Central Pacific.
Forecasters with the National Weather Service said Monday that tropical storm Erick was about 1,250 miles off the coast of the Big Island with maximum sustained winds of 70 miles per hour and gusts as high as 85 mph.
The storm was moving at about 16 mph in a west-northwest direction and the Central Pacific Hurricane Center says it could grow into a hurricane today. Erick is then expected to weaken to a tropical storm before getting close to Hawaii.
Wind models forecast the storm moving just south of Kauai, with winds potentially reaching within range of the island Thursday or Friday.
“When we issue that first bulletin, it’ll be the first hurricane to reach the Central Pacific so far this season,” said NWS forecaster Gavin Shigesato. “We’re telling everyone to be prepared, whether or not it arrives (in Hawaii waters) as a hurricane.”
Hurricane Barbara caught forecasters’ attention in early July, but never reached the Central Pacific.
“Hurricane Barbara came close, but petered out right at the 140-degree line,” Shigesato said. 140 degrees West longitude is the dividing line between the eastern and central Pacific.
Following in Erick’s tracks, but just slightly in a more northward pattern, is Tropical Storm Flossie, projected to reach hurricane status today or tonight.
As of Monday afternoon, Flossie was about 780 miles south-southwest of the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula and was moving west at 18 mph.
At the same time, another little collection of thunderstorm activity has been building behind Flossie, though the Center says it is unlikely that will turn into a tropical storm.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted an above-normal 2019 hurricane season in the Central Pacific in May, with a 70 percent chance of above-normal activity. NOAA predicted between 5 and 8 tropical cyclones will enter the Central Pacific — a near normal season has about four or five tropical cyclones in a season.
That outlook was due to a forecasted weak El Nino to continue through the season.
Hurricane season runs from June 1 through Nov. 30.
