Nolo transitions from hurricane to typhoon after crossing international dateline in Pacific

MIAMI -- Nolo is no longer a hurricane. The powerful storm remains about as strong, but it changed names Sunday to a typhoon as it crossed the international dateline in the Pacific Ocean.

Now Typhoon Nolo is located about 395 miles (640 kilometers) west-southwest of Lisianski Island and moving west at 17 mph (28 kph), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

The storm underwent rapid strengthening Saturday becoming a Category 3 hurricane. As it changed names, Nolo had maximum sustained winds of 115 mph (185 kph), the Miami-based hurricane center said Sunday in its final advisory on the storm.

“The good news is there’s a large, vast ocean, so even though it is still going to be strong, it’s not near any land,” said John Cangialosi, a senior hurricane specialist with the center.

Tropical cyclones with winds over 74 mph (119 kph) have different names across the world depending on where they form. They are called hurricanes in the North Atlantic Ocean and the central and eastern Pacific. They get the name typhoon in the Northwest Pacific, while the South Pacific and Indian Ocean use just the generic term tropical cyclone no matter the strength of the storm, according to the hurricane center.

Nolo is expected to keep moving west across the Pacific and is not forecast to threaten any land through Friday, forecasters said.

Nolo skirted Hawaii as a hurricane a week ago. It then lost some of its punch and became a tropical storm, before regaining hurricane strength on Friday.

Elsewhere in the Pacific, Hurricane Rachel continued heading westward on a path away from Mexico.

As the storm moved further out to sea, it was sending dangerous waves and swells back to the coast of west-central Mexico and the Baja California Peninsula, according to the hurricane center.