Tropical Storm Kristy has been upgraded to a hurricane by the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, and the NHC expects the storm to intensify rapidly over the next few days and become a major Category 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale over the eastern Pacific Ocean.
Kristy had formed Monday afternoon off the coast of Mexico from the remnants of Tropical Storm Nadine. Nadine had formed in the northwestern Caribbean last week but never had a chance to strengthen before it made landfall into Central America. Some if its remnant moisture was streamed far north, resulting in catastrophic flooding in portions of the U.S. southwest over the weekend. Because its central circulation dissipated, the storm was given a new name when it re-formed in the Pacific.
As of the latest advisory from the NHC, Kristy is located roughly 590 miles west-southwest of Acapulco, Mexico and had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph. Additional intensification is expected and Kristy could rapidly intensify into a major hurricane by Wednesday afternoon. Kristy is moving toward the west near 18 mph and this westward motion is expected by the NHC to continue for the next several days.
While Kristy should go through a period of rapid intensification, it is also expected to cross over significantly cooler waters and begin to weaken this weekend. The National Hurricane Center official forecast calls for the system to become a post-tropical storm as soon as Sunday morning.
Beyond there, global computer forecast models have the system disintegrating further as what’s left of it moves west. While there’s a chance some remnant moisture may reach Hawaii around October 31 or November 1, it’s unlikely to be of much consequence for now. Should that change, meteorologists with the Honolulu-based Central Pacific Hurricane Center would monitor any risk to the Aloha State along with their co-located peers at the local National Weather Service office.
With that forecast track, Kristy should remain over open waters of the eastern Pacific and pose no threat to any land mass.
As with the Atlantic Hurricane Season, the Central Pacific Hurricane Season runs through to the end of November.
