Forecasters are monitoring a tropical storm and a depression festering far east of the Big Island.
As of 5 p.m. Monday, Tropical Storm Douglas featured 40 mph winds as it tracked west-southwest at 10 mph approximately 2,260 miles east-southeast of the Big Island, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm is expected to track westward and strengthen over the coming days, possibly being upgraded to a hurricane Wednesday.
After a few days, however, a combination of higher shear, slightly cooler waters, and drier air should end the strengthening trend and induce weakening as it crosses into the Central Pacific, which is where Hawaii is located, forecasters said.
Meanwhile, Tropical Depression 7E, which formed Sunday evening, was weakening as it headed west-northwest at 12 mph approximately 1,500 miles east of the Big Island. Forecasters expect the depression to degrade into a remnant low today.
No storm formation was expected elsewhere in the Eastern Pacific and Central Pacific basins within the coming 48 hours.
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.
