Surf generated by Tropical Storm Nora is expected to impact southeast shores of the Big Island through Thursday.
Located about 515 miles southeast of Kailua-Kona, Nora had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph and was headed northwest at 8 mph as of 5 p.m. Tuesday, Central Pacific Hurricane Center meteorologists said. Tropical storm-force winds extended outward from Nora’s center up to 45 miles.
Surf generated by the 14th named storm of the 2015 Eastern Pacific hurricane season is forecast to range in height from 6 to 9 feet along southeast-facing shores from Cape Kumukahi in Puna to South Point in Ka‘u through 6 p.m. Thursday, according to a high surf advisory issued Tuesday by the National Weather Service in Honolulu.
The weather system, which peaked Sunday as a tropical storm packing 70 mph winds, is forecast to continue slowly weakening as it tracks northwest over warm waters during the next couple of days. Forecasters expected to downgrade the tropical storm to a depression late Tuesday. By Wednesday evening, it’s expected to be a post-tropical remnant low located about 400 miles southeast of Kailua-Kona.
Though the storm will be far south of the island, “some moisture may reach far enough northward to cause an increase in showers especially for the Big Island over the weekend,” National Weather Service forecasters said.
Elsewhere in the Central Pacific, no tropical cyclones are expected to form by Thursday evening, forecasters said.
Meanwhile, in the Eastern Pacific, showers and thunderstorms associated with an area of low pressure about 850 miles south of the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula increased Tuesday. A tropical depression is likely to form by this weekend as the disturbance moves west at 10 to 15 mph. Forecasters gave it an 80 percent chance of forming into a tropical depression within five days.
The Central and Eastern Pacific hurricane seasons continue through Nov. 30.
Get more hurricane-related content, including preparation tips, evacuation info and daily tropical weather updates, on our hurricane season page, sponsored by Clark Realty, at www.westhawaiitoday.com/hurricane-season-2015.
