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Major Hurricane Dora continued its steady march westward across the Central Pacific on Monday and was expected to be due south of the islands this morning.
While Dora passes well south with no direct effects here, the strong pressure gradient between the hurricane and the high pressure to the north was expected to continue to create damaging winds and fire weather (due to ongoing dry conditions) through today, according to the National Weather Service.
Dry air arriving from the east will limit rainfall chances through Wednesday, forecasters said, and a return of a more typical tradewind pattern is anticipated later in the week through the weekend.
Meanwhile, the National Weather Service issued a slew of weather warnings and advisories affecting Hawaii, including high winds, high surf for east- facing shores, a red-flag warning for leeward areas and gale warnings for channels.
Monday night, Dora was located more than 500 miles south-southeast of Hilo and more than 1,000 miles east- southeast of Johnston Island. Dora was moving west at 23 mph with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph and higher gusts.
Dora is still expected to gradually weaken over the next several days but maintain hurricane strength throughout the basin and beyond, according to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center.
As of Monday night, hurricane-force winds extended outward up to 30 miles from Dora’s center and tropical-storm-force winds extended up to 115 miles.