(Bloomberg) -- Tropical Storm Hone is invoking fears of wildfires as it churns on a path that will take it south of Hawaii’s Big Island, where strong winds could raise the risk of blazes amid drought conditions.
Hone has formed about 720 miles (1,159 kilometers) east-southeast of Hilo with top winds of 45 miles per hour, sparking a tropical storm watch on the Big Island. The storm is likely to pass south of the island on Saturday. Hone is stirring up memories of last year’s Hurricane Dora, whose powerful winds fanned blazes that killed 102 people and destroyed or damaged more than 2,000 structures.
“A majority of the Hawaiian Islands have experienced worsening drought conditions in recent weeks, so any rainfall will be beneficial to the island chain,” Brandon Buckingham, a meteorologist at commercial-forecaster AccuWeather Inc., said in a statement. “However, if a majority of the rain stays to the south of the islands and the primary impacts from the storm come from gusty winds, the wildfire risk could greatly increase as the storm passes by.”
Further west, Japan faces a growing threat from Tropical Storm Shanshan.
Shanshan will likely grow into a typhoon in the next day and is threatening to land on Japan’s southern coast Tuesday if the current track holds. Forecasters at the Japan Meteorological Agency predict the storm, about 1,200 miles south of Tokyo, will trace a broad S-shaped path through the Pacific as it nears shore.
Within hours of reaching land, it would pack winds of 130 miles per hour, the US Joint Typhoon Warning Center said, making it a major Category 4 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale. There is still a chance it will curve even farther east and miss Japan altogether, however.
--With assistance from Mark Chediak.
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