Eugene fading but Dora
still packing a punch

It's too early to say whether
Hurricane Dora will cause problems
for the Hawaiian Islands

Weather Forecasts

Star-Bulletin staff

Hurricane Eugene was downgraded to a tropical storm last night but Hurricane Dora is still packing winds of about 145 mph, about 1,300 miles east southeast of Hilo.

No rain showers are expected from Tropical Storm Eugene, which was 500 miles east southeast of Hilo.

But Dora is another matter and the National Weather Service says it's still too far away to speculate whether it will cause any problems to the Hawaiian Islands.

A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration jet taxied up to the Air Service Hawaii lounge at Honolulu Airport at 5:12 p.m. yesterday after an eight-hour flight that took it around Hurricane Eugene.

After getting off the blue and white twin-engine NOAA aircraft, Mike Black, a meteorologist, summed up the fading Eugene:

"It was weakening; we could see it out there in the wind field," he said. "We flew on top of all the clouds."

Eugene poses no real threat to Hawaii, Black said.

"It may get a little breezier here -- especially the Big Island -- and if you're lucky, you might get some rain out of it -- but probably not even that."

THE PACIFIC

Pacific cloud map courtesy of Planet Earth^TM by Lunar Software