A tropical depression in the Eastern Pacific has developed into a tropical storm.
At 11 a.m. today, Tropical Storm Kiko was about 495 miles south-southwest of the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula.
Maximum sustained winds were 40 mph with higher gusts. The storm is moving to the west at 12 mph.
Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 90 miles from the storm’s center.
Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami have forecast further strengthening during the next 48 hours, with the system expected to become a hurricane this weekend.
There are three other disturbances forecasters are monitoring in the Eastern and Central Pacific regions north of the equator.
Closer to home in the Central Pacific, an area of low pressure is expected to form Friday through Saturday about 900 miles southeast of the Big Island. Some development is possible later as the system moves west-northwestward through early next week.
Forecasters at the Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu say this system has an almost zero chance developing into a tropical cyclone in the next 48 hours. Chances are also low, about 20 percent, of the system organizing into a cyclone in the next five days.
A tropical wave in the Eastern Pacific about 1,500 miles west-southwest of the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula continues to produce disorganized showers and thunderstorms. Forecasters say the chances of formation into a tropical cyclone are about 20 percent in the next 48 hours. Forecasters project its chances of organizing into a cyclone in the next five days as about the same, 20 percent.
Another Eastern Pacific tropical wave is a few hundred miles southwest of Acapulco, Mexico. It is producing an area of disorganized showers and thunderstorms. Some slow development of this system is possible over the next several days as it moves west-northwest at 5 to 10 mph.
According to forecasters, this system has about a 10 percent chance to form into a tropical cyclone in the next 48 hours and a 20 percent chance in the next five days.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com