Tropical Depression Two-C East-Southeast of the Islands

Officials from the Central Pacific Hurricane Center and Hawai’i County Civil Defense are closely watching the movement of newly-formed Tropical Depression Two-C.

Two-C is located approximately 1,025 miles east-southeast of Hilo as of 8 a.m. Monday. CPHC says that the system has an 80 percent chance of becoming a tropical cyclone. If it becomes a tropical storm, it will carry the name “Ana.”

“We could look at some thundershowers occurring,” said Hawai’i County Civil Defense chief Darryl Oliveira. “We saw some electrical activity this morning over Puna, and there is some rains forecast coming in on shore down in Puna and Ka’u later today or, if not, tomorrow. The main system is expected to arrive maybe later in the week and bring heavy rain and thunderstorms. We’re also trying to see if there will be wind or surf issues coming with that.”

The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Weather Advisory for the summits of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, effective at Noon Monday. Oliveira said that the advisory indicates that there “may be some leading edge activity that’s preceding the main storm front that’s moving closer.”

The advisory, which is in effect until 6 a.m. Tuesday, calls for snow showers and thunderstorms on Monday afternoon and the possibility of more snowfall in the evening. Up to three inches of snow is expected to fall atop the summits with southeast winds gusting up to 50 miles per hour.

The first advisory on Two-C will be released at 11 a.m. Monday morning. The storm’s path remains unclear.

“There’s still some hope that it will move further north of the Big Island,” Oliveira said.

Monday’s forecast calls for the potential of heavy rainfall and possible thunderstorms. The National Weather Service says there is a 90 percent chance of rainfall over the Windward side of the island.