As Pacific Storm Season Begins, Aletta Forms

NU Online News Service, May 15, 1:06 p.m. EDT

Tropical Storm Aletta has formed in the early-morning hours of the Pacific storm season's opening day.

According to the National Weather Service, Aletta began forming yesterday and became a tropical storm early this morning with sustained winds of 40 mph.

At 2 a.m. PDT, the storm was located 640 miles south-southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico heading west-northwest.

Officials say Aletta is not a threat to the West Coast.

A weather service spokesman says that this is the second earliest a tropical cyclone has formed in the Eastern Pacific.

The National Hurricane Center says the Eastern Pacific season begins May 15 and runs until Nov. 30.

Meanwhile, the Atlantic basin hurricane season begins June 1 and runs until Nov. 30.

The National Weather Service has scheduled to release its hurricane prediction for 2012 on May 24.

So far this year, the Atlantic Hurricane Season is expected to be less active than in the recent past, according to two forecasters.

In early April, Colorado State University forecasters said this year's season would be below average, with 10 named storms, four of which will become hurricanes and of that number two would become major hurricanes.

Later in the April, Weather Service International issued its prediction with 11 tropical storms, six of which will become hurricanes and, of those, two of which will be major with winds above 111 mph.