Hurricane Nolo to Cross Date Line, Become Typhoon Nolo

Category 3 Hurricane Nolo, at 115 mph west of Hawaii, is forecast to cross the International Date Line Sunday and become Typhoon Nolo.

Hurricane Nolo rapidly intensified back into a Category 3 storm on Saturday, with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph (185 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center. As of 5 p.m. Hawaii time, the Central Pacific Hurricane Center located Nolo about 200 miles south-southwest of Lisianski Island and 320 miles west-southwest of Maro Reef, moving west at 20 mph. Hurricane-force winds extend up to 30 miles from the center, with tropical-storm-force winds reaching 150 miles out. The storm poses no threat to populated islands, but a tropical storm warning was in effect for Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument from Maro Reef to Lisianski Island.

Nolo is expected to cross the International Date Line by midday Sunday Hawaii time, and when it does, it will simply be retitled Typhoon Nolo — the same storm, same name, new basin. The Weather Channel explains that the line at 180 degrees longitude marks the boundary between the Central and Western Pacific basins, so a crossing changes a storm's official designation without any renaming under World Meteorological Organization rules. Forecasting duty will shift from the Central Pacific Hurricane Center in Honolulu to the Japan Meteorological Agency and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center. For Nolo to be called a typhoon, it must keep sustained winds of at least 74 mph; below that, it would remain Tropical Storm Nolo.

Nolo's week has been a rollercoaster. Last weekend it skirted well south of the main Hawaiian Islands as a major hurricane, bringing gusty winds and showers, before weakening to a tropical storm far from Kauai. It regained hurricane strength Friday — the Sunday Guardian notes the National Hurricane Center's advisory at that stage put winds at 75 mph and flagged possible rapid intensification — then surged to major hurricane status again Saturday with 115 mph winds. That second intensification, after two weakenings, is the surprise twist that carries the story.

Storms that cross the International Date Line are uncommon but not unprecedented. The Weather Channel counts Hurricane Ioke, which became Typhoon Ioke in 2006, Hurricane Genevieve, which made the same transition in 2014, and most recently Hurricane Dora, which crossed the line in August 2023 to become Typhoon Dora. For devotees of tropical meteorology, each crossing is a small spectacle: one cyclone simultaneously tracked by two sets of agencies using different warning vocabularies, its title flipping on a purely geographical technicality even if its structure is unchanged.

Nolo's main threats are to the remote, uninhabited edges of the Papahanaumokuakea monument, where the hurricane center says large surf will likely inundate some low-lying atolls. Closer to home, the tropical storm warning for Maro Reef to Lisianski Island has been canceled, and drier conditions returned to the western end of the state Saturday as Nolo moved away. But the National Weather Service says a 'very early wet season type of system' will draw deep tropical moisture northward as early as Wednesday, bringing periods of heavy rain over Kauai and potentially Oahu, with flash flooding possible Wednesday night through Thursday and lingering on Kauai into the weekend.

The Central Pacific Hurricane Center expects Nolo to hold its westward motion over the next couple of days and cross the International Date Line by midday Sunday Hawaii time. Once across, tracking responsibility passes to the Japan Meteorological Agency and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, and Nolo's fate — typhoon or tropical storm — hinges on whether its 115 mph winds hold above the 74 mph typhoon threshold. Meanwhile, far to the east, Category 1 Hurricane Rachel continued heading westward away from Mexico's west coast, with dangerous swells forecast through the weekend for west-central Mexico and through Monday for the Baja California Peninsula.