Hurricane Nolo is forecast to cross the International Date Line this weekend and become Typhoon Nolo. The storm weakened to a tropical storm before the weekend, but its name will stay the same as its official label changes on the map at 180 degrees longitude.
Faiza Mohammed, a meteorologist intern at weather.com, studied geography, worked with the Weather Dawgs team at the University of Georgia, and received her master's in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her background fits a forecast like this one, where geography changes the storm's title without changing the system itself.
International Date Line boundary
The International Date Line separates the Central Pacific basin from the Western Pacific basin, and that is why a storm can move from hurricane status to typhoon status without a change in its name. Typhoons are what hurricanes are called in the Western Pacific basin, so Nolo's east-to-west crossing this weekend would trigger the new designation automatically.
That basin shift has happened before. Hurricane Ioke became Typhoon Ioke in 2006, Hurricane Genevieve became Typhoon Genevieve in 2014, and Hurricane Dora crossed the International Date Line in August 2023 and became Typhoon Dora.
Nolo's weakened state
Nolo is already weaker than it was earlier in its life cycle, but it still remains active enough to keep its place in the forecast. The storm's physical structure is not what changes its title; the title changes because of geography, not because the system transforms into a different kind of weather pattern.
For readers following the storm path, the key point is that the name Nolo stays intact even as the label changes from hurricane to typhoon. A similar east-to-west crossing would place the system under the Western Pacific basin title once it gets past the line.
Weather Channel forecast context
The Weather Channel was found to be the world's most accurate forecaster in ForecastWatch’s Global and Regional Weather Forecast Accuracy Overview, 2021-2024, commissioned by The Weather Company. That forecast context matters here because the weekend crossing is the trigger for the naming change, and the change depends on where the system sits rather than how strong it looks at any one moment.
Exactly when this weekend Nolo will cross the International Date Line is not specified, so the practical marker for readers is the basin boundary itself. Once the storm moves from the Central Pacific basin into the Western Pacific basin, Nolo will be called Typhoon Nolo.
