Tropical Storm Jimena, located 515 miles north-northeast of Kailua-Kona Tuesday morning, is forecast to continue weakening as it moves north of the Hawaiian Islands this week. ADVERTISING Tropical Storm Jimena, located 515 miles north-northeast of Kailua-Kona Tuesday morning, is forecast
Tropical Storm Jimena, located 515 miles north-northeast of Kailua-Kona Tuesday morning, is forecast to continue weakening as it moves north of the Hawaiian Islands this week.
Circulating 50 mph winds as of 8 a.m. Tuesday, Jimena was moving west at 8 mph through a hostile environment of 27 to 37 mph wind shear, said forecasters with the Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu. That west to southwest wind shear is forecast to increase to 46 mph Thursday and to nearly 58 mph Friday.
By Friday, Jimena is expected to be downgraded to a tropical depression located about 675 miles north-northwest of Kailua-Kona and packing 30 mph winds, according to current forecast models. That day, Jimena is expected to make a turn toward the north and away from the islands.
“It is once again difficult to see how this system could remain intact through a five-day forecast track. However, Jimena has proven to be quite resilient so far,” forecaster Jeff Powell cautioned in the advisory.
Elsewhere in the Central Pacific, which is where Hawaii is located, no tropical cyclones are forecast through Thursday morning.
Meanwhile Tuesday morning in the Eastern Pacific, Hurricane Linda rapidly strengthened to a Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph. Moving north-northwest at 14 mph, Linda, the fifth major hurricane of the 2015 Eastern Pacific hurricane season, was located 280 miles west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California, National Hurricane Center forecasters based in Miami said.
Weakening is expected to commence Tuesday, forecasters said. Thereafter, progressively cooler waters and a more stable environment is forecast to further rip apart the hurricane, leaving Linda a tropical storm by Wednesday evening. By Friday, Linda is expected to be a post-tropical remnant low located 2,300 miles east of the Big Island.
Elsewhere in the Eastern Pacific, forecasters are monitoring an area of low pressure expected to develop several hundred miles south of the Gulf of Tehuantepec later this week. The disturbance has about a 40 percent chance of forming into a tropical depression within five days.
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