Pali Becomes Earliest Central Pacific Tropical Storm on Record

January 9,2016

January is not typically a month in which tropical systems develop in the central Pacific, but Tropical Storm Pali was named Thursday afternoon, becoming the earliest central Pacific tropical storm on record.
This is on the heels of a historically active 2015 tropical season in the Pacific Ocean, including a Tropical Depression Nine-C, which formed near the end of the year and dissipated on Jan. 1, 2016.
(MORE: 11 Things We Remember About the 2015 Tropics)
Tropical Storm Pali was located about 1,450 miles southwest of Honolulu, Hawaii as of Saturday night.
Moderate vertical wind shear is taking a toll on Pali, as indicated by its degraded look on satellite imagery. Gradual weakening is expected over the next day or so, as the system should soon dissipate.
This system remains no threat to land. The latest map of the projected path can be found here.

Latest Information

Dating to 1949, only two tropical storms had formed in the central Pacific in the month of January prior to Pali. Tropical Storm Winona was the first on Jan. 13, 1989, and the second was Ekeka on Jan. 28, 1992. Ekeka reached Category 3 hurricane intensity amidst the moderate El Niño of 1991-92.
El Niño played a role in the formation of this unusual tropical cyclone. According to the discussion issued Thursday morning by the Central Pacific Hurricane Center, "This low-latitude out-of-season system has tapped into significant directional shear of the low-level winds, with an El Niño related westerly wind burst south of the system, and prevailing easterly trade winds to the north providing the large scale conditions conducive for development."
(MORE: How May El Niño Impact Hurricane Season?)
Hurricane specialist Eric Blake said that Pali is also the "southernmost tropical storm to form in the central Pacific basin," forming at just 4.7 degrees north of the equator, likely also influenced by the warmer than average sea-surface temperatures associated with El Niño.
If this Pacific tropical storm wasn't strange enough, the Brazilian Navy Hydrographic Center's Serviço Meteorológico Marinho analyzed a tropical depression off the east coast of Brazil in the South Atlantic earlier this past week. There is also a low pressure system in the North Atlantic that could become a subtropical storm within the next week. Pali is just another rarity in what has been an odd last couple of weeks in the tropics.
The official 2015 hurricane season ended on November 30 in the central Pacific and does not begin in 2016 until June 1.
MORE: Late Season Hurricanes