The hurricane center said late Tuesday that the tropical depression should strengthen and will become a tropical storm on Wednesday.
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Tropical Depression 4E formed in the Eastern Pacific and crossed the 140 West longitude line as of the 0300 UTC time, which brought it into the Central Pacific Ocean.
Tropical Depression 4E has now moved into the Central Pacific Ocean, and the future forecasts will be issued by NOAA’s Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu, Hawaii.
However, it is not expected to be a strong storm – the hurricane center said wind shear is expected to increase and the storm should begin to weaken over the weekend as it nears the islands. The disturbance, located about 975 miles southwest of Honolulu, could see some development during the next couple of days as it moves toward the northwest, forecasters said. The depression is forecast to reach tropical storm strength later today or tonight before weakening Thursday, and continue on a northwest track near the Hawaiian Islands, staying to the north of the islands itself.
Leeward areas can expect humid and warm conditions through the weekend, Foster said.
Elsewhere, no tropical cyclones are expected through Friday morning.
Other systems such as Wali, Genevieve and Julio either passed well away from the islands or had minimal effect on Hawaii during 2014.
On average, the Central Pacific annually sees four to five tropical cyclones in its waters.
“We’re into July now, we are going to be heading toward the peak of hurricane season in August and September so this is the time of year we start seeing things fire up”, Ballard said.
Many factors affect the level of tropical cyclone activity from year to year. Warm water makes storms spawn and survive.
Currently, the Central North Pacific basin is experiencing El Nino conditions that are forecast to continue through at least the fall, and possibly longer. They say having extra supplies and an emergency plan in place is always a good idea during hurricane season. The season ends November 30.
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The National Hurricane Center has officially classified an organizing low-pressure system east-southeast of Hilo as Tropical Depression Four-E.
