Pali becomes earliest hurricane on record in the Central Pacific

Tropical Storm Pali intensified into a Category 1 hurricane Monday with sustained winds of 85 mph, far southwest of Hawaii.

Pali is the earliest hurricane on record in the Central Pacific, according to the National Weather Service. It already is the earliest tropical storm to form in the Central Pacific.

Surf generated by Pali when it was a tropical storm brought 3- to 5-foot surf to the south shores of Oahu on Monday. The swell is expected to decline to 2 to 4 feet tonight but could continue for several days at small to moderate heights.

The storm is too far away to bring more than surf to Hawaii.

At 5 p.m. Monday, Pali was moving east-southeast at 6 mph about 1,305 miles southwest of Honolulu.

Satellite images showed Pali’s eye becoming better defined, with the storm expected to maintain its strength before beginning to weaken today.

Ekeka is the only other January hurricane on record since 1949. It formed as a tropical depression on Jan. 28, 1992, and became a hurricane the next day.

Sea turtle saved from drain is back at sea

LIHUE >> A Hawaiian green sea turtle that was rescued from a storm drain in Lihue is now being monitored by biologists after its release at Kalapaki Beach.

Biologist Don Heacock worked with Department of Transportation employees Friday morning to rescue the animal, which was secured with a rope and lifted from the drain by a forklift. The turtle was found underweight and slightly injured, The Garden Island reported Saturday.

“She should be roughly 125 pounds,” said Heacock, of the Kauai District Fisheries. “But she’s very light; she’s probably around 90 pounds because she’s lost so much weight. She’s emaciated; we can tell that by the concavity of her bottom shell.”

Heacock said the young turtle, estimated to be 32 inches long, may have been stuck since Christmas. He credits the rescue to a group of children that first spotted the turtle in the drain Thursday night.

“What really saved her were the kids who looked down and saw her in the storm drain,” he said. “Because no one looks in storm drains unless they drop their keys.”

Heacock said the turtle may have been feeding on algae in the bay when it got swept into the drain during high tide. Another possibility, he said, is that the turtle was too weak to fight a wave and got pushed in.

“Sea turtles can’t go in reverse,” Heacock said. “To change directions, they have to completely turn themselves around.”

The sea turtle was tagged and driven to Kalapaki Beach, where it was released into the water.