Forecasters expect
storm to miss isles

Hurricane Jova will pass 350 miles
east of Hawaii, they say

National Weather Service forecasters said yesterday they are confident that Hurricane Jova will not hit the islands.

Jova, a Category 3 storm, is about 635 miles east-southeast of Hilo, moving northwest at 7 mph with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph, lead forecaster Jeff Powell said last night.

"As it moves northwest, it should pass 350 miles east of the main Hawaiian islands. It's still a clean miss," Powell said.

Forecasters predicted no residual effects from Hurricane Jova, except for increased surf on east-facing shores of the Big Island and Maui. Surf is expected to build to 8-to-12 feet today and tomorrow, with the waves possibly reaching the other main islands by Friday, according to the weather service.

Although Jova will not bring showers to the islands, forecasters do expect some showers and muggy weather from a separate weather system today and tomorrow.

"Winds will stay light," Powell said. "If we have increased showers, it will be independent from Jova."

Forecasters said they are less concerned with hurricanes Kenneth and Max, which are outside of the Central Pacific region.

"Jova is the only one in the Central Pacific Basin. We're giving it our full attention," Powell said.

Hurricane Kenneth was about 1,600 miles east-southeast of Honolulu last night while Hurricane Max was about 2,300 miles east of Hilo. Both continue to weaken and are predicted to have no effects on Hawaii.

Weather service officials also said they have had a surge of hits on their Web site since earlier this week.

The Web site receives an average of 20,000 to 30,000 hits a day, according to Jim Weyman, director of the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. Over 24 hours Monday, "we got over a million hits," Weyman said.

Because of the high volume on the Web site, some people had trouble accessing it, he said. The weather service installed additional memory to their system and plan a "mirror Web site" to divert traffic to improve accessibility for viewers.