The first hurricane of the eastern Pacific season formed far from land on Wednesday.
The U.S.National Hurricane Center said that Hurricane Douglas was centered about1,785 miles (2,870 kilometers) east-southeast of Hilo, Hawaii, Wednesday morning with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph (120′ kph).
It was moving to the west at 15 mph (24 kph). That track would carry it toward Hawaii on Sunday or Monday, but forecasters said it was likely to weaken back to a tropical depression by that point.
Meanwhile, recently formed Tropical Storm Gonzalo was strengthening in the Atlantic and the center said it was expected to become a hurricane by Thursday.
It was centered about 1,205 miles (1,935 kilometers) east of the southern Windward Islands with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph). It was heading west at 14 mph (22 kph).
The Hurricane Center said that Interests in the Windward Islands should monitor the storm.
Gonzalo’s strengthening breaks a record set by Tropical Storm Gert, which formed on July 24, 2005. So far this year, Cristobal, Danielle, Edouard and Fay also set records for being the earliest named Atlantic storms of their respective place in the alphabet.
(AP)
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2 Responses
The picture accompanying this article is of the Caribbean Sea, which is far from the Pacific Ocean. And I thought hurricane-like storms in the Pacific were called typhoons.
Huju, read further in the article. “Meanwhile, recently formed Tropical Storm Gonzalo was strengthening in the Atlantic and the center said it was expected to become a hurricane by Thursday.”
In the north-western Pacific they’re called typhoons. In the north-eastern Pacific and the Atlantic they’re called hurricanes. And in the southern Pacific and the Indian they’re called cyclones. All three are exactly the same thing.