Air Temperatures The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Sunday:

Lihue, Kauai –                     82   
Honolulu airport, Oahu –  85
Kaneohe, Oahu –                 82
Molokai airport –                  82

Kahului airport, Maui –         84 
Kona airport –                     82
Hilo airport, Hawaii – 
           81

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain top around the state…as of 5pm Sunday evening:

Barking Sands, Kauai – 84
Molokai airport
– 78
 
Haleakala Summit –     M
(near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit –   34 (near 13,800 feet on the Big Island)

Hawaii’s MountainsHere’s a link to the live web cam on the summit of near 13,800 foot Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. This web cam is available during the daylight hours here in the islands…and when there’s a big moon shining down during the night at times. Plus, during the nights you will be able to see stars, and the sunrise and sunset too…depending upon weather conditions. Here's the Haleakala Crater webcam on Maui…although this webcam is not always working correctly.

Tropical Cyclone activity in the eastern and central Pacific – Here’s the latest weather information coming out of the National Hurricane Center, covering the eastern north Pacific. You can find the latest tropical cyclone information for the central north Pacific (where Hawaii is located) by clicking on this link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. A satellite image, which shows the entire ocean area between Hawaii and the Mexican coast…can be found here.  

 Aloha Paragraphs

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2264/2209729634_d2527d1429_z.jpg
 
 
  Locally strong and gusty trade winds, windward
showers at times…a few elsewhere

Satellite image showing Hawaii and weakening hurricane
Daniel & strengthening hurricane Emilia in the eastern Pacific…
more information about these tropical cyclones below

 

As this weather map shows, we have several high pressure systems spread out from the far northwest, through the north…to the northeast of the islands.  Our local winds will remain active from the trade wind direction through the next week…quickening Friday as the dissipating circulation of former tropical cyclone Daniel moves by south of the Big Island.

The following numbers represent the most recent top wind gusts (mph), along with directions as of Sunday evening:

32            Port Allen, Kauai – NE 
38            Kuaokala, Oahu – NE
35            Molokai – NE 
35            Kahoolawe – NE
35            Kahului, Maui – NE 

37            Lanai – NE

35            South Point, Big Island – NE

We can use the following links to see what’s going on in our area of the north central Pacific Ocean
.  Here's the latest NOAA satellite picture – the latest looping satellite imageand finally the latest looping radar image for the Hawaiian Islands.

Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Sunday evening:
 

0.32               Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.03               Nui Valley, Oahu
0.15               Molokai
0.00               Lanai
0.06               Kahoolawe

1.96               Puu Kukui, Maui
0.84               Kainaliu, Big Island
  

                                        Sunset Commentary: 

Our trade wind weather pattern will prevail into the new work week…breaking down towards later Thursday onwards for a couple of days. The trade winds remain strong enough to keep small craft wind advisories active across those windiest channels and coastal areas around the state…from Oahu southeast to Maui County and the Big Island.  These trade winds will carry windward biased showers our way periodically…most generously during the night and morning hours. A few of these showers will be carried over into leeward sides at times locally. There may be a few generally light afternoon showers at times on the slopes in the Kona and Kau districts on the Big Island…and perhaps along the leeward upcountry slopes of the Haleakala Crater on Maui here and there too.

As this satellite image shows, we have more minor cumulus and stratocumulus clouds upstream to the east and northeast of the islands. These low level clouds will continue to drop occasional showers along our windward sides as they arrive. Meanwhile, there continues to be areas of high cirrus clouds over the ocean, especially to our south and southeast. The closest ones were located offshore of the Big Island. Meanwhile, there's a large area of active thunderstorms far south through southwest of the islands. There's some cirrus pushing into the area not too far southeast of the Big Island now. Here's a closer look at our islands using this satellite picture…so we can keep track of those clouds upstream of the islands…as well as spotting the northern fringe of that high cirrus over the ocean southeast of here.

This last Friday evening I figured I'd adhere to my regular schedule, and headed down to Kahului for my usual new film viewing. The one I really want to see is called Savages, although it's just opening, so was likely too crowded for comfort. I'm also looking forward to seeing To Rome With Love, with Woody Allen and Penelope Cruz. Then, lets not forget The Amazing Spider-Man! As it turns out, I saw one that I hadn't planned on seeing, although was getting good marks by the critics, called Magic Mike. The stars in this film include Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, Matthew McConaughey, Cody Horn, and Olivia Munn…among many others. The synopsis: set in the world of male strippers, Mike takes a young dancer called The Kid under his wing and schools him in the fine arts of partying, picking up women, and making easy money. I have to admit, this sounded like fun to me! We'll it happened again, I ended up liking this film quite a bit. I was shocked to see the large theater totally fill up with hip women, who took up every seat in the place. I didn't mind of course, and it was actually rather unique to be one of the few guys in there! Now, after seeing the film, I can see why, they liked the performances by all the handsome men in the film. Fortunately for me, there were some good looking women in the in key roles too. At any rate, I'm going to dole out a solid B grade for Magic Mike, it was entertaining. This trailer may be a bit much for some of you, although on the other hand, it's not overly violent at least…being called a comedy.

Here in Kula, Maui at 515pm, it was partly cloudy…with an air temperature of 76.6F degrees. As noted above, our trade winds will continue blowing well into the future. The overall weather picture here in the islands remains generally very nice. Nothing unusual happening here in our latitudes of the tropics, which will remain the case through early Thursday. Looking off in the distance, we have hurricane Daniel far away to our east, and soon to be very strong hurricane Emilia a bit further east than that…closer to Mexico. Concentrating on Daniel, it will continue churning its way westward, more or less in our direction. Despite the strength of the hurricane now (category 2)…it will lose those strong winds well before it gets into our area, although is forecast to still be a weakening tropical storm as it moves into our central Pacific basin.

At this point it looks like it could bring a good amount of tropical moisture into our area Friday into Saturday, as the remnants of this system passes by to the south of our islands. This weakening low pressure system could prompt stronger trade winds over our islands then for a time too. Here's a looping satellite image of hurricane Daniel, which has peaked in strength Sunday. In that same looping satellite image, we see tropical storm Emilia (5E) not far to the right of Daniel as well. Emilia is going to be the strongest of these two systems, moving into what's called a major hurricane status…with wind gusts to 150 mph! There's more information about these tropical cyclones just below.

~~~ I'll be back early Monday morning with your next weather narrative, and with more information about the tropical cyclones to our east as well.  I hope you have a great Sunday night wherever you happen to be spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Inspiring Boatlift videoAn untold Tale of 9/11 Rescue – narrated by Tom Hanks

[World-wide tropical cyclone activity:

Central Pacific Ocean:  There are no active tropical cyclones

Eastern Pacific Ocean:  Hurricane Daniel (4E) is active about 1355 miles west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California…with 85 mph sustained winds. Here's the official NHC graphical track map. Here's a satellite image of this tropical cyclone, and hurricane Emilia described in the paragraph below. As you can see, Daniel will continue migrating west over open ocean in the eastern Pacific. Hurricane Daniel is forecast to drop back down into a tropical storm today. Daniel will then move over cooler sea water, and into an area of drier air, both of which will continue to diminish its strength through the remainder of its life cycle. The NHC brings it down into a tropical depression as it gets into our central Pacific…at which point it will still be well to the east-southeast of our Hawaiian Islands. It then becomes a post tropical remnant low pressure system thereafter, thus losing the rest of its wind circulation to the southeast of the Big Island Thursday. There's a chance that the northern fringe of whatever clouds and showers, from what will then be retired tropical cyclone Daniel, will move over the southern part of the state, as it moves by to the south of the Big Island…later Friday into Saturday. Former Daniel will begin to dip further south, further away from the Big Island as it slides by our state.

Meanwhile, the 5th tropical cyclone in the eastern Pacific remains active, called hurricane Emilia (5E), located
approximately 710 miles south of the southern tip of Baja California…with 100 mph sustained winds. This strengthening category 2 hurricane will become a major hurricane later today. This strong hurricane will remain that way through Wednesday, and thereafter begin losing some strength as it moves in a west-northwest. At this point it is forecast to drop back into the tropical storm category early this coming weekend. There's a chance of this weakened system to bring some rainfall to our area, without the winds however, at some point later next week. Here's the official NHC graphical track map. Here's a satellite image showing both 4E and 5E in the eastern Pacific.

Here's what the hurricane models are showing for this quickly strengthening tropical cyclone.

ELSEWHERE…TROPICAL CYCLONE FORMATION IS NOT EXPECTED DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS.

Atlantic Ocean/Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean:  There are no active tropical cyclones

Western Pacific Ocean:  There are no active tropical cyclones

South Pacific Ocean:  There are no active tropical cyclones

South and North Indian Oceans:
There are no active tropical cyclones