Although Tropical Storm Oho has changed paths several times in its brief existence, forecasters predict it will continue on its northeasterly track and pass south of the Big Island.
“… we have a pretty high amount of confidence it’s going to continue in that general (direction),” National Weather Service forecaster Maureen Ballard said Monday afternoon.
As of 5 p.m. Monday, the storm was 340 miles south-southeast of Hilo, moving northeast at 6 mph and packing maximum sustained winds of 65 mph.
Although no coastal advisories were in effect at that time, the NWS website stated “all interests in the main Hawaiian Islands should continue to monitor the progress of Oho during the next couple of days.”
“On the Big Island, you are going to be the ones to feel whatever impacts there are going to be from it,” Ballard said. “There could be some rain, some moisture that could be going over the Big Island, but we’re not really expecting any significant problems from the rain.
“What might be a bigger impact might be some swells generated from the system, and right now, we’re looking at — as the system pushes off to the east — there might be some southerly swells in towards the Big Island. We’re not talking about massive surf or anything like that, but you’ll probably see some increases on the south shores and in another day or so, you might see an increase on the east side, as well. We’re not expecting the winds from this storm to reach the Big Island or the immediate coastal waters of the Big Island.”
Asked if the swells are expected to bring a high surf advisory to the Big Island, Ballard replied, “It’s kind of hard to tell because we don’t have a lot of gauges between the area where the storm is and the Big Island. It might be approaching advisory levels.”
Ballard said forecasters, who have been kept busy by an unusually active hurricane season caused by strong El Niño ocean conditions still are watching former Tropical Depression 8C, but “don’t really expect anything there.”
“It is still hurricane season and we’re still monitoring, but there’s nothing else that we’re monitoring,” she said. “As long as Oho is still out there, we’ll be looking at it. It seems that each day and each week brings us another thing to look at. The water temperatures are still warm enough to support (the formation of tropical cyclones) and until there’s a general pattern switch, we’ll be looking to see if anything else will develop.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
