Linda “Barely a Tropical Cyclone” as it Crosses into Central Pacific

Linda is barely hanging on to tropical cyclone status as it is forecast to cross over into the Central Pacific Hurricane Center’s area of responsibility later today, forecasters said. The forecast calls for the system to continue weakening, becoming a post-tropical system by tonight.

At 11 a.m. HST, the center of Tropical Storm Linda was located about 1,015 miles east of Hilo, Hawaiʻi. The National Hurricane Center reports that Linda is moving toward the west near 17 mph, a general motion that is expected to continue through the weekend.

According to the NHC forecast, maximum sustained winds are near 50 mph with higher gusts, and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 80 miles from the center.

A forecast discussion issued by the NHC says “dry, stable air should prevent any significant deep convection from returning over the next couple of days,” and when it reaches warmer waters in a few days, “strong SW shear within a dry environment should inhibit regeneration of the cyclone.”

The system is on a current track to approach the islands as a depression on Sunday and into early next week.