Hurricane Guillermo weakens and downgrades to a tropical storm as it is expected to pass north of the Hawaiian islands by Thursday night. Strong wind shear debilitated Hurricane Guillermo, transforming it into a tropical depression, sparing Hawaii of destructive winds and floods, Accuweather reported.
Frank Strait, a senior meteorologist at Accuweather said: "However, Guillermo will still track close enough to the islands to bring frequent soaking showers, particularly on the north- and northeast-facing shores and the mountains through Thursday night."
The eye of Hurricane Guillermo will pass 125 to 150 miles north of Hawaii resulting in rain showers on Kauai and Niihau lasting until Friday.
Hurricane Guillermo is part of the hurricane parade that started a year ago. The parade is a result of the continuous heat forming from the Pacific Ocean, according to Bloomberg.
"This year, it just has to do with the El Nino pattern we're in," according to Jon Jelsema, senior forecaster at the Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu.
Our RapidScat instrument gathers data on Hurricane Guillermo as it moves towards Hawaii: https://t.co/uBVSSjDZRs pic.twitter.com/YodRGypQAP
— NASA (@NASA) August 3, 2015
Hurricane Hunters of the U.S. Air Force will track Hurricane Guillermo by flying right into the eye of the storm as it gets closer to Hawaii. Each of the members of the team will help further track the path of the storm. After already passing four times into the storm's eye, the team concluded that the hurricane may be weakening but still carries the strength of a tropical storm. The team does a mission every six hours, according to Hawaii News Now.
"Hurricane hunters are important because we help gather data that satellites can't quite do it, central pressure, surface wind speeds and that data gets put into the forecast models and helps narrow up that forecast track," Major Kyle Larson, meteorologist of the team, said.
The global weather is affected by the continuous heat rising in the Pacific resulting to El Nino. As the water in the ocean gets warmer, there is more driving force to create new hurricanes and storms.
