Forecasters say Tropical Storm Boris, which formed Thursday afternoon far east-southeast of the Big Island, is expected to sputter out over the weekend.
Forecasters say Tropical Storm Boris, which formed Thursday afternoon far east-southeast of the Big Island, is expected to sputter out over the weekend.
Boris was packing 40 mph winds and tracking west-northwest at 9 mph about 1,280 miles east-southeast of Hilo as of Thursday evening, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The center will monitor the system until it crosses over into the Central Pacific at which point Honolulu-based Central Pacific Hurricane Center forecasters will assume responsibility.
Little change in strength was forecast Thursday night. However, forecasters expect Boris will be downgraded to a depression by Friday night as it crosses into the Central Pacific.
Forecasters this season called for near- to below-normal tropical cyclone activity within the Central Pacific with two to six tropical cyclones — a category that includes depressions, storms and hurricanes — expected to pass through the basin between June 1 and Nov. 30.
The basin, which normally sees four to five cyclones, spans an area north of the equator from 140 degrees west longitude to the International Date Line. The number of storms has ranged from zero, most recently as 1979, to as many as 16 in 2015.
