Two Pacific hurricanes are expected to weaken to tropical storms before nearing Hawai'i but may still pack heavy rains.

"It might be a wet weekend," Bob Farrell, lead forecaster for the National Weather Service, said last night.

At 5 p.m. yesterday, Hurricane Jova (pronounced "hova") was about 965 miles east-southeast of Hilo, Hawai'i. It had maximum sustained winds of 105 mph and was moving northwest at 8 mph.

But by Thursday, the weather service said, Jova is expected to be a tropical storm with winds of about 70 mph.

"Our track takes it quite a ways east of the Big Island, but we may get some rain," Farrell said. "At the moment the strongest possibility is that we'll get a large amount of rain."

Farther to the east, Hurricane Kenneth had maximum sustained winds of 130 mph yesterday but was expected to weaken to a tropical storm by Thursday.

Tropical Storm Lidia was downgraded to a tropical depression yesterday.