(BIVN) – The tropical depression that formed in the Eastern Pacific on Friday has strengthened into a tropical storm, far the southeast of Hawaiʻi island. However, the cyclone is not expected to last more than a few days. 

Tropical Storm Lane, with winds near 45 mph, was 1,760 miles to the east southeast of Hilo as of Saturday morning. Lane is moving toward the west near 7 mph. 

The National Hurricane Center says small intensity fluctuations are possible today, but Lane is expected to weaken on Sunday through early next week. It does not appear to be a threat to Hawaiʻi. 

From the National Hurricane Center discussion posted on Saturday morning:

Lane has continued to produce deep convection this morning over the low-level center, with cold cloud tops near -80 C. Objective and subjective satellite intensity estimates have increased and range from 35 to 45 kt. Given the continued deep convection and using a blend of these satellite estimates, the initial intensity is set to 40 kt for this advisory.

Lane continues to move westward at 270/6 kt, and this general motion should continue over the next few days as the storm is steered by a a subtropical ridge to the north. The latest NHC forecast is very similar to the previous one, and remains near the latest consensus aids.

Warm sea-surface temperatures and a relative low wind shear environment could allow Lane to strengthen a little more today. Environmental conditions become less favorable on Sunday as southwesterly shear is forecast to increase over the system, and the storm is forecast to move into a drier airmass early next week, which should cause Lane to weaken. Lane is forecast to degenerate to a post-tropical remnant low in about 48 h, although given the small size of the system it could dissipate even sooner than forecast as is depicted by some model fields, including the GFS.