UPDATE: 11 p.m.

Tropical Storm Erick, located 1,875 miles east-southeast of Hilo, is expected to become a hurricane by Monday night.

Erick, with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph, is moving toward the west near 16 mph.

Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 35 miles from the center.

5 p.m.

Tropical Storm Erick, located 1,955 miles east-southeast of Hilo, is expected to become a hurricane by Monday night.

Erick, with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph, is moving toward the west near 17 mph and this general motion is expected to continue for the next few days, according to the National Hurricane Center. Gradual strengthening is expected, as well as a slight decrease in forward speed.

11:15 a.m.

Tropical Depression Six-E has been upgraded to a tropical storm.

Tropical Storm Erick had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph and was located about 2,055 miles east of Hilo as of 11:15 a.m. today.

Tropical-storm-force winds extend about 20 miles to the east from the storm’s center.

10:45 a.m.

Tropical Depression Six-E, which continues to move westward, is forecasted to become a tropical storm by tonight.

Six-E had maximum sustained winds near 35 mph with higher gusts and was located about 2,055 miles east of Hilo as of 11 a.m. today.

The storm, which was moving west near 18 mph, is expected to strengthen over the next 48 hours. The depression is expected to become Tropical Storm Erick by tonight and strengthen into a hurricane by Tuesday.

According to the latest five-day forecast, Six-E is supposed to weaken to a tropical storm by the end of Thursday, a change from this morning’s earlier minimal Category 1 hurricane projection.

5 a.m.

A tropical depression has formed in the East Pacific and is expected to grow to a hurricane by next week as it approaches the Hawaiian Islands.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Tropical Depression Six-E had maximum sustained winds of 35 mph and was centered 2,160 miles east of Hilo as of 5 a.m. today.

The storm, which is expected to become Tropical Storm Erick today, was moving west at 18 mph.

The five-day forecast projects Erick to be a minimal Category 1 hurricane, with winds of 75 mph, by Thursday, several hundred miles southeast of the Big Island and moving northwest.

The hurricane center said the tropical depression “is embedded within a good environment for intensification of low (wind) shear and high (sea-surface temperatures). Despite the environment, most of the models show only a very modest strengthening.”

Further east, off the southern coast of Mexico, another weather system has a 90% chance of becoming a tropical cyclone in the next five days. It would be called Tropical Storm Flossie.

For the weekend and into next week, the islands are expected to see moderate to breezy trade winds through at least Wednesday. High temperatures are expected to be in the mid- to low-80s with tradewinds of 10 to 5 mph, according to the National Weather Service in Honolulu.