UPDATE: Storm Expected to Weaken, Bring Heavy Rainfall

***Updated 5:42 p.m.***

The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch in anticipation of the arrival of what is now tropical storm Wali.

The watch is in effect for the entire state beginning Saturday night and lasting through Monday.

At 5 p.m., Wali was located about 995 miles east-southeast of Hilo and was moving northwest toward the Big Island at 12 mph, double its earlier speed.

That motion was expected to continue during the next 48 hours, the Central Pacific Hurricane Center said.

The latest expected track of tropical storm Wali. NWS image.

The storm had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph with higher gusts.

The center said tropical storm force winds of at least 39 mph extended up to 90 miles from its center.

Earlier today, meteorologist Ian Morrison said Wali was expected to weaken over the next several days as it encounters cooler waters and wind shear.

Posted 11:52 a.m.:

A tropical depression southeast of Hawaii is expected to strengthen slightly but then fall apart before it reaches the state, the National Weather Service said today.

At 11 a.m., tropical depression One-C was located 1,070 miles east-southeast of Hilo. It was moving northwest at 6 mph and carrying maximum sustained winds of 35 mph.

One-C is expected to strengthen over the next 24 hours and may become a tropical storm tonight or Friday, according to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center.

(Since storms that form in the Central Pacific are given Hawaiian names, if it does reach tropical storm status it will be named Wali.)

It is then expected to weaken this weekend as it encounters cooler waters and strong wind shear, meteorologist Ian Morrison said

“The wind shear is really going to break it up,” he said.

However, significant moisture associated with the depression is expected to arrive on the Big Island with torrential rains and likely thunderstorms Saturday night.

“All that moisture is coming our way,” Morrison he said, adding that it has a greater potential for heavy rains than tropical storm Fausto which passed over the island on Sunday.

Fausto and another low-pressure system early in the week dumped as much as a foot of rain on the Big Island’s windward side.

Morrison said the first bands of clouds from the system could reach the Big Island beginning Saturday afternoon.

Posted 9:58 a.m.:

A tropical depression that recently formed in the Central Pacific has a near-100% chance of becoming a tropical cyclone, the Central Pacific Hurricane Center said this morning.

The center in Honolulu said it will begin providing advisories at 11 a.m. today on the depression now known as One-C, which at 8 a.m. today was located 1,300 miles east-southeast of Honolulu.

A cyclone is an atmospheric condition consisting of a circular motion which rotates in a counter-clockwise direction in the Northern Hemisphere.

A cyclone is not considered a hurricane until it contains maximum sustained surface winds of at least 74 mph.

Big Island Now will be providing more information on the storm at it becomes available.