Forecasters are trying to gather information on Hurricane Felicia as it approaches the Central Pacific. The National Weather Service's goal is to improve track forecasting and will do so with some help from heavy equipment. Felicia isn't expected to cross into the Central Pacific until late Friday or early Saturday.
"The northward shift in the track overnight also puts it in a higher latitude which puts it a little more in line with the state of Hawaii. The good thing about that is it does take over cooler waters and that's going to help to weaken the system as it approaches the state," said Ray Tanabe of the National Weather Service. "Any possible impacts to the Hawaiian Islands will take place late Sunday night next week into Monday."
Two aircraft will arrive in Hawaii to help with forecasting.
"The first aircraft that's going to come up is the NOAA G 4 it's a gulf stream and it's a high-altitude jet aircraft so it's not meant to penetrate into the storm," said Tanabe. "What it's meant to do is fly above or fly around the storm and it does an instrument package is attached to a parachute that they drop down and that's to help us to get a better idea of the environment around the storm."
On Friday a C-130 will arrive to assist. The aircraft is commonly known as the Hurricane Hunter.
"Those are heavily built planes and they're actually going to fly right into the hurricane. Those particularly can help us get a real good handle on exactly where the center is -- but also what the maximum wind speeds look like," said Tanabe.
The Hurricane Hunter will fly directly into the eye of Felicia which at mid-day Wednesday was estimated to be 31 miles wide. Forecasters say if Felicia continues its current track it will approach Hawaii late Sunday night or Monday morning and hit cooler water as a tropical storm. They remind everyone a tropical storm can still cause damage.
"We don't have to get hit by a hurricane to see a lot of damage even a tropical storm can produce significant winds and a lot of flooding," said Tanabe.
Meanwhile Tropical Storm Enrique continues to lose its punch as it moves further to the northwest. It is not expected to be a threat to Hawaii.
"This serves as a great reminder that we should always be prepared during hurricane season, if we don't get hit by Felicia -- it may be the next storm," said Tanabe.
The data gathered will give forecasters a better picture of Felicia from the inside out so we can all be better prepared.
