The first named storm of the 2023 Eastern Pacific hurricane season has formed off the western coast of Mexico.
At 11 a.m. Hawaii Standard Time, Tropical Storm Adrian was located about 280 miles south-southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico.
According to the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Adrian is packing maximum sustained winds of 45 mph and is moving to the west at 15 mph. Tropical-storm force winds extend outward up to 45 miles from the storm’s center.
Strengthening is expected for the next couple of days, and forecasters expect Adrian to become a hurricane on Wednesday before weakening back to tropical storm status late in the week.
On its current track, the storm isn’t forecast to threaten Hawaii, which is located in the Central Pacific.
Adrian represents a late start to the Eastern Pacific hurricane season, which began on May 15. The first named storm in that basin usually occurs around June 10, and the second follows by June 24, according to the National Hurricane Center.
The Central Pacific hurricane season started June 1 and ends on Nov. 30.
The Pacific is currently in an El Nino weather cycle, with warmer-than-average waters near the equator. Forecasters expect a “near- to above-normal” hurricane season in the Central Pacific, with four to seven tropical cyclones in the Central Pacific.
Only one named storm, Hurricane Darby, crossed over the 140-degree West longitude line into the Central Pacific in 2022. Darby dissipated south of the Big Island without doing damage.