Tropical Storm Pali is weakening far southwest of Hawaii and could become a tropical depression later today, forecasters at the Central Pacific Hurricane Center said.

The storm had winds of 45 mph at 11 a.m. this morning, down from 65 mph Friday.

It was centered about 1,435 miles southwest of Honolulu and 700 miles south-southwest of Johnston Island, moving west at 5 mph.

Pali is too far away to bring any rain or winds to Hawaii, but it may be strong enough to send a small south swell to the islands starting Sunday.

The storm is expected to turn to the west and then to the south as it weakens.

Pali is only the third tropical storm to form in the Central Pacific in January, and is the earliest storm on record in a calendar year.

The last January tropical storm in the central Pacific Ocean was in 1992, when there was a significant El Nino. The other was in 1989.

El Nino is the natural warming of the central Pacific that interacts with the atmosphere and changes weather worldwide. It occurs every two to seven years or so.

Pali’s formation continues a pattern dating to 2014 of many storms forming in the central Pacific, said Jeff Masters, a former hurricane hunter meteorologist and meteorology director of the private Weather Underground.

That the year Tropical Storm Iselle hit the Big Island and two other hurricanes came within 200 miles of the islands. Then last year, eight named storms formed in the central Pacific. That broke the previous record of four set in 1982.

The current El Nino has tied 1997-1998 as the strongest on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center said, citing statistics that go back to 1950.