CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — The first storm of the 2009 northwest Pacific’s tropical cyclone season spawned overnight east of the Philippines and is forecast to track well southeast of Okinawa, weather officials said.

Despite the forecasted path, officials at Kadena Air Base’s 18th Wing Weather Flight say they plan to keep an eye on Tropical Storm Kujira in case the track changes.

At 3 p.m. Sunday, the storm was 862 miles south-southwest of Okinawa and was quasi-stationary, with sustained 52 mph winds and 63 mph gusts, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

If it stays on the JTWC forecast track, Kujira will rumble 123 miles south of Iwo Jima at 6 p.m. Thursday with 58 mph sustained winds and 75 mph gusts at its center.

The northwest Pacific’s tropical cyclone season generally runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, although some storms — including violent ones in 1962, 1976, 1997 and 2002 that devastated Guam — have occurred outside that time period.

Kujira is Japanese for the constellation Cetus, or whale.