By the time you read this, Tropical Storm Moke is likely to have formed or should do so at some time on Friday. As of early Friday morning here in the eastern time zone, the storm is designated as Tropical Depression Two-C by the National Hurricane Center. Here’s what you need to know.

As of 11:00 pm local time, the storm had maximum sustained winds of 35 miles per hour and was moving west-northwestward at 10 miles per hour. It had a minimum central pressure of 1006 millibars. "This general motion is expected to persist over the next several days, with the center of the system passing south of the Big Island of Hawaii this weekend, then the smaller main Hawaiian Islands by early next week," wrote NHC. It is expected to become Tropical Storm Moke at any moment.

While the storm is not expected to make landfall, Hurricane Lala, which by the way is still a hurricane in the Central Pacific, showed us that impacts matter. Since “future” Moke will skirt south of the Hawaiian Islands, they will be on the “dirty side of the eye.” Forecasters anticipate anywhere from 5 to 10 inches of rainfall on the Big Island, with isolated amounts over a foot. Maui could see up to 3 inches of rain on the windward side of the island. A couple of inches of can generally be expected across the other islands.

As I wrote earlier in the week, parts of the Big Island received over 3 feet of rainfall from Hurricane Lala. The summit of Mauna Kea even experienced August snowfall. The prospect of another foot of rainfall in an already saturated and impacted region is never a good thing. “Swells generated by the depression are expected to affect portions of the Hawaiian Islands ths weekend, and could cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions,” warned the NHC. The active Pacific basin is consistent with what is typically expected during an El Niño.