The first hurricane of the 2007 season is expected to enter the central Pacific tomorrow, and on its current track will provide the Big Island with a wet and windy weekend.

Hurricane Cosme is expected to weaken significantly as it approaches the Islands, but could still have powerful gusts, said National Weather Service forecaster Pete Donaldson.

"It's looking more and more as if the track will be somewhere near the Big Island, and that it's going to be windy and rainy," he said.

Cosme overnight was expected to reach sustained wind speeds of 75 mph with gusts to more than 90 mph. But it is still far from Hawai'i, more than 1,000 miles to the east and several hundred miles south.

The storm is forecast to move over cooler water during the next several days and to weaken. Current forecasts have it approaching the Big Island Friday with sustained winds in the 45-mph range, and to pass somewhere near South Point during the day Saturday.

Donaldson said forecasts several days away are notoriously inaccurate, but he said with Cosme, the larger errors are most likely to be in its intensity rather than in its track. That means it is fairly likely to pass near the Big Island, but it could be significantly stronger or weaker than currently forecast.

Hawai'i residents are urged each year to be prepared during the hurricane season with a kit of critical supplies and plans for how families will communicate with each other during such events. Hurricane preparedness tips are found in the pages of most phone books.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.