Hawaii residents dodged one bullet when Hurricane Iselle weakened before making landfall Friday.
Tropical Storm Iselle was still the first named storm to strike the islands in 22 years.
The storm game ashore around 2:30 a.m. local time just outside of Pahala. The storm carried sustained winds of 60 m.p.h. No deaths or major injuries have been reported so far.
Officials say that heavy rain has been falling on the island of Oahu that has been causing localized flooding. Roadways have been impassible and residents have been told to avoid traveling. Downed trees have blocked the H-1 freeway.
Power is out to large parts of the islands. Officials confirmed at least 21,000 homes are in the dark and the total is likely to climb as the storm continues.
Hurricane Julio, which has strengthened to a Category 3 storm, is now tracking to move just north of the islands but could still bring heavy rain from the outer bands to the areas currently being hit by Iselle.
Forecasters say a tropical storm has formed off the Florida coast and conditions are right for it to strengthen over the next few days.
That means Florida could be facing a Fourth of July hurricane.
A tropical storm watch has been put into effect for parts of Florida’s east coast because of Tropical Storm Arthur. The storm is centered about 95 miles southeast of Cape Canaveral. The cell was mostly stationary through Tuesday morning but was expected to begin moving toward land later in the day.
The storm had maximum sustained winds of 40 miles per hour as of noon Tuesday.
While the official storm track from NOAA predicts the eye of the storm will stay far offshore, some forecasters are seeing parallels between this storm and a similar storm in 2004 that battered the eastern seaboard despite the eye staying offshore.
Meterologist Joe Bastardi of WeatherBELL says that the storm is very similar to the tropical storm that ended up as Hurricane Alex in 2004. That hurricane ended up with wind gusts over 115 miles per hour that hammered the east coast from Florida to Virginia.
Another tropical storm has formed in the Pacific Ocean and is bearing down on Mexico.
Tropical Storm Sonia had formed about 285 miles south of the Baja California peninsula. The storm has maximum sustained winds of 40 m.p.h. and is moving north at 7 m.p.h.
The National Hurricane Center said that a tropical storm warning has been issued from Mazatlan north along Mexico’s mainland. The forecasters expect Sonia to pass south of Baja California before making landfall somewhere on the Mexican mainland.
Heavy rain could hit a wide area and local officials are warning residents about possible mudslides and flash flooding.