Hurricane Iona strengthened into a Category 3 storm hundreds of miles southeast of Honolulu late Monday night local time, as Tropical Storm Keli follows on Iona's heels several hundred miles to its east in the Central Pacific Ocean.

A major hurricane is churning in the Pacific Ocean several hundred miles away from Hawaiʻi. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Tuesday that Hurricane Iona is one of two major weather systems in the ocean but poses no threat to the islands.

In the Pacific, forecasters are watching five systems, including Hurricane Iona and Tropical Storm Keli. Iona has strengthened into a major hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph about 790 miles south-southeast of Honolulu, Hawaii.