Hurricane Lala damaged Highway 11 on Hawaii’s Big Island. Photo: Hawaii News Now//Facebook
While the Hawaiian Islands are still reeling from the wrath of Hurricane Lala, two more tropical disturbances are loading up similar energy in the Pacific.
According to the National Hurricane Center, a swath of ocean south of Mexico’s Pacific coast is likely to churn up another hurricane soon. The center gives the soon-to-come low-pressure system a 70 percent chance to become a hurricane in the next seven days. They expect the system to move in a westerly/northweserly direction several hundred miles from Mexico and remain offshore.
Further west, meteorologists are also watching another tropical disturbance closer to the Hawaiian Islands. They peg this system with a 50 percent chance to become a hurricane in the next seven days, marching west on a trajectory south of Hawaii.
“Environmental conditions appear conducive for gradual development of this system (south, southwest of Hawaii), and a tropical depression could form towards the end of the week or over the weekend,” the latest National Hurricane Center report states.
This far out, the strength and trajectories of these potential storms are still uncertain, and will become clearer in the coming days. Since hitting Hawaii, Lala was downgraded to tropical storm status, but is expected to regain hurricane status as it veers north, well west of the Hawaiian Islands.
If the system closer to Hawaii turns into a tropical storm, it will be named Moke. If the system off Mexico gains tropical storm force, it will be called Iselle.
