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Powerful Hurricane Hector will track toward the west-northwest this week and pass just to the south of Hawaii.

Satellite imagery from Monday depicts a strong cyclone with a well-defined eye.

Hector has achieved major hurricane status which means the cyclone has sustained winds of at least 111 mph (96 kts). As of Monday night local time, sustained winds were as high as 155 mph (135 kts)

Environment conditions around Hector will remain favorable enough to sustain a major hurricane through Thursday.

The only major landmass that will be in the vicinity of Hector’s path this week is Hawaii. Fortunately for the US island state, steering winds will take Hector far enough south of the area to keep nearly all impacts off shore.

Tropical storm-force winds around Hector will extend up to 90 miles from the storm’s center. Based on Hector’s projected track, this will keep tropical storm winds (winds >39 mph or >34 kts) south of Hawaii.

The primary impact Hector will bring to Hawaii will be very large surf with waves of 10-20 feet (3-6 m) along the south facing shore of Hawaii’s big island through Thursday.

A tropical shower crossing New York City briefly put down a tornado across the borough of Queens around 10:30 pm Thursday evening.

The National Weather Service confirmed that an EF0 tornado touched down in the College Point neighborhood of Queens. The tornado traveled just over 1km with maximum winds estimated at 70-85 mph.

Numerous trees were damaged and some Queens residents lost electricity during the time the tornado was on the ground.

#BREAKING: NWS official confirms tornado touched down in Queens, at 124th Street and 15th Avenue, as wild weather hit Thursday. https://t.co/bvhAYEiU1s

— NBC New York (@NBCNewYork) August 3, 2018

Historically, there have been 10 tornadoes since 1950 that have touched down in NYC. 2010 was a particularly active year across the city with 3 tornadoes impacting 3 of NYC’s 5 boroughs.

Manhattan is the only NYC borough to escape any tornado touch downs.

July 2018 brought a smattering of temperature and precipitation extremes to the United States.

The western US experienced a very dry month that exacerbated wildfire issues, while portions of the Mid-Atlantic saw record rainfall that lead to flooding problems. Below are several maps that break down the temperature and precipitation departures across more than 800 climate stations over the contiguous US for July 2018.

Temperature Departures

Temperatures across the US favored warmer than average conditions over cooler than average by a ratio of more than 3:1. Some cities that have (unofficially) set new record July mean high temperatures include: Key West, Florida, Albany, New York, Caribou, Maine, and Long Beach, California.

Some locations from the Midwest to the central Appalachians experienced a cooler than average July. Burkes Garden, Virginia has (unofficially) experienced it’s coldest mean July temperature on record.

Precipitation Departures

Precipitation departures varied widely across the contiguous US, which highlights the hit-and-miss nature of summertime thunderstorms.

In additional to being hot, much of California and the Pacific Northwest were drier than average. Meanwhile farther east, the northern Mid-Atlantic experienced a very wet July that was highlighted by a week of heavy rain and storms during the latter part of the month.

Some bigger cities that saw their record wettest July on record include Baltimore, Maryland and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Temperature and Precipitation Records

While official temperature and precipitation values for July are still being evaluated for quality control, as it stands on 1-August there are 90 climate stations across the US that have set or tied a new July temperature or precipitation record.