Forecasters keep watch on Iona and Keli, south of Hawaiian Islands

While emergency sirens warned of an impeding tsunami Tuesday, Hurricane Iona slipped by the south of the Hawaiian Islands, continuing on a 20-mph westward track away from the islands. Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Keli was almost directly south of Hawaiʻi Island as of 5 a.m. this morning, also moving west but at 21 mph.

Iona’s maximum sustained winds of 75 mph were just a tad high enough to continue classification as a hurricane with winds of 74 to 110 mph, according to the National Weather Service. Keli’s winds of 40 mph were just enough to keep it a tropical storm. A tropical depression has winds of less than 39 mph. Advisories remain posted for both weather systems.

National Weather Service forecasters are also keeping a wary eye on a separate tropical disturbance located 1,000 miles east-southeast of the island chain. There are showers and thunderstorms associated with that low-pressure weather system, they reported.

That area of unstable weather has 40% chance of forming a cyclone in two to seven days, they said.

Much further away in the eastern Pacific and several hundred miles south of southwestern Mexico, there’s rain showers from a low-pressure system that has become better organized since Tuesday, weather forecasters reported.

“Environmental conditions appear conducive for additional development,” they said, and there’s a 90% chance of a cyclone formation in the next seven days. “A tropical depression is likely to form within the next day or two while the system moves west-northwestward around 15 mph while remaining well offshore of the southwestern coast of Mexico.”

A small craft warning remains in effect until 6 a.m. Thursday for waters in the vicinity of Maui County, with winds blowing out of the east up to nearly 29 mph.

The weather forecast for Central Maui today is sunny and breezy, with high temperatures from 84 to 92 degrees, and winds out of the east up to 20 mph, increasing to 10 to 25 mph in the afternoon. Tonight skies are predicted to be partly cloudy with temperatures dropping to 70 to 75 degrees. Similar weather conditions are expected throughout the rest of this week and into the weekend.