Early August and things are perking up again. At least in the Pacific Basins.

The huge, sprawling invest due south of Baja finally ignited as 'Hernan' and is now forecast to spin up to a hurricane in a few days before then traversing over cooler SSTs and waning back to a depression and steered westward by the deep layer easterlies.

The remnant low is then projected to continue generally westward, along 20N, so hopefully it's remnant moisture, upon arrival in the Islands will enhance our tradewind showers, providing some relief from the drought conditions.

Meanwhile, much closer to home, the small swirl of persistant thunderstorms I've been following for a few days has also been designated as a tropical storm.

'Kika' (Key'-Kah). Storms in the Central Pacific (140W to the Dateline) are given Hawaiian Names from a special list by the Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu (CPHC, separate from the NHC in Miami), and do not begin with 'A' at the start of each season, like in the Atlantic and Eastern Pacific.

Central Pacific Hurricane Center: http://www.prh.noaa.gov/hnl/cphc

Similar to the NHC site, but with some different products and some unique tracking/forecast graphics.

Kika is forecast to pass westward, well to the south of the Hawaiian Islands. It will have only marginal SST's and moderate shear to contend with, so only slight intensification is currently expected with this rather small system. We'll see if the intensity forecast verifies; as you know, intensity forecasting can be quite tricky, *especially* with small compact cyclones.

Just wanted to introduce these two new systems before signing off. Feel free to chime in. Questions, comments, etc. All fair game. Something to watch and discuss while the Atlantic Basin is in "snooze mode".

Will update them later when I can find the time.

- Aloha