Hurricane weakens as it heads toward Hawaii

A fourth tropical depression formed in the Atlantic on Monday.

HONOLULU (AP) — Hurricane Flossie weakened to a Category 3 storm Monday with maximum sustained winds of 126 mph as it roared toward Hawaii, but it was expected to pass by the islands.

Forecasters earlier had said cooler weather would weaken the storm to a Category 1 hurricane, with sustained wind of at least 74 mph, by the time it passes about 70 miles south of the Big Island of Hawaii late today or early Wednesday.

But on Monday forecasters said they now expected a Category 3 hurricane, with little change in strength when it passes the island. Earlier in the day, Flossie had been a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph.

“The intensity has remained stronger than what was originally forecast, but the track has been pretty much right on,” said Jim Weyman, the National Weather Service’s meteorologist in charge in Honolulu.

New storm

Meanwhile, a tropical depression formed Monday in the far eastern Atlantic, the fourth of the Atlantic hurricane season, meteorologists said.

At 5 p.m. EDT, the depression was centered about 620 miles west-southwest of the southernmost Cape Verde Islands, and moving west near 20 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. It was still about 1,900 miles east of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean.

Its maximum sustained wind speed was about 35 mph, forecasters said. It would be named Tropical Storm Dean if its sustained wind strengthens to at least 39 mph, the threshold for a named storm.

The Central Pacific Hurricane Center said Flossie “remains a dangerous hurricane with a clear well-defined eye and good outflow. ... It must be noted that Flossie has been surprisingly resilient to cooler ocean temperatures so far.”

The weather service placed the Big Island under a hurricane watch and a tropical storm warning. A flash flood watch was also issued for the island through Wednesday, with possible flash flooding in areas.

Mayor Harry Kim declared a state of emergency Monday as a precaution. All 56 public schools on the Big Island also were closed for today.

The Big Island is largely rural, with about 150,000 people, and most live in the west or northeast, not the southern portion expected to be hit hardest by the hurricane. Other islands are expected to get much less of the storm’s wind and rain.