Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Monday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 82
Honolulu airport, Oahu – 80
Molokai airport – 84
Kahului airport, Maui – 86
Kona airport – 87
Hilo airport, Hawaii – 81
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops around the state…as of 830pm Monday evening:
Kailua-kona – 78
Hilo, Hawaii – 70
Haleakala Summit – 43 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 32 (near 13,800 feet on the Big Island)
Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’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.
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
Trade winds continuing into mid-week
High and middle level clouds continue
A few passing windward showers
As this weather map shows…we find near 1025 millibar high pressure systems to the north-northwest…and far to the east-northeast of the Hawaiian Islands. These high pressure cells will continue our gusty trade winds into Wednesday.
The following numbers represent the most recent top wind gusts (mph), along with directions as of Monday evening:
22 Port Allen, Kauai – E
30 Kuaokala, Oahu – NE
28 Molokai – ENE
33 Kahoolawe – NE
23 Lipoa, Maui – E
31 Lanai – NE
27 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 image…and 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 Monday evening:
0.28 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.46 Poamoho RG 1, Oahu
0.02 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.05 Hana airport, Maui
0.38 Mountain View, Big Island
~~ Hawaii evening commentary ~~
Our moderately strong trade winds will continue over the next few days…then become lighter during the second half of this work week. We currently find near 1025 millibar high pressure systems (weather map), located to the north-northwest, and far to the east-northeast of the islands. The trades should remain active through mid-week, and thereafter will become lighter. An approaching cold front during the weekend will prompt our winds to veer to the southeast, south, and then southwest before its arrival early next week.
As we look at this satellite image, it shows lots more high and middle level clouds to the south and southwest of Hawaii…which will sweep overhead at times. There will continue to be a few passing windward biased showers arriving at times, with the leeward sides remaining generally dry. We'll find those occasional passing windward biased showers through mid-week. Thereafter, two things occur, the first will be the approach of a cold front to our northwest, which won't arrive…and our weather will likely turn more showery at times locally, Thursday into the weekend.
The various weather models have been pointing out some changes as we get to the Thanksgiving holiday…into the weekend. They show a low pressure system, with its associated cold front, becoming active to our northwest, although don't indicate its arrival here in the islands. At the same time, they point out pooling tropical moisture to the south of the state. During the period between Thursday into the weekend, we can expect occasional passing showers to arrive, although they will be isolated and of a hit and miss nature. Perhaps the Big Island end of the chain will see the most generous showers during this time frame. The models still aren't providing a rock solid idea of exactly what we can expect, so there may be more fine tuning necessary over the next day or even two. Looking a bit further ahead, those same models show either this first cold front, or another one altogether, moving towards the state. As this frontal cloud band gets nearer, we should see our winds veering around to the southeast, south, and southwest preceding its arrival early Monday morning. I'll be monitoring all of the above carefully, and will have a new edition to this narrative available early Tuesday morning. Aloha for now…Glenn.
World-wide tropical cyclone activity:
Atlantic Ocean/Caribbean Sea: There are no active tropical cyclones
Gulf of Mexico: There are no active tropical cyclones
Eastern Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones
Central Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones
Western Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones
South Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones
North and South Indian Oceans: There are no active tropical cyclones
Interesting: Hurricane Sandy was a monster. It changed lives and changed the actual land shapes along the coasts affected. The USGS has released a series of aerial photographs showing before-and-after images of Hurricane Sandy's impacts on the Atlantic Coast. Among the latest photo pairs to be published are images showing the extent of coastal change in North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware.
The photos, part of a USGS assessment of coastal change from as far south as the Outer Banks of North Carolina to as far north as Massachusetts, show that the storm caused dramatic changes to portions of shoreline extending hundreds of miles. Pre- and post-storm images of the New Jersey and New York shoreline in particular tell a story of a coastal landscape that was considerably altered by the historic storm.
Meanwhile, images from hundreds of miles south of the storm’s landfall demonstrate that the storm’s breadth caused significant coastal change as far south as the Carolinas. "Sandy taught us yet again that not all Cat-1 hurricanes are created equal: the superstorm's enormous fetch over the Atlantic produced storm surge and wave erosion of historic proportions," said USGS Director Marcia McNutt. "We have seized this opportunity to gather unique data on a major coastline-altering event."
As major storms approach, the USGS conducts pre-storm and post-storm flights to gather aerial images along the length of the coastline expected to experience impacts from the storm’s landfall. Identifying sites of such impacts helps scientists understand which areas are likely to undergo the most severe impacts from future storms, and improves future coastal impact forecasting.
Photo pairs from North Carolina to Massachusetts are now available online. "This storm’s impact on sandy beaches included disruption of infrastructure in the south, such as overwash of roads near Pea Island, Buxton, and Rodanthe in N.C., and some dune erosion near Duck, N.C.," said St. Petersburg-based USGS oceanographer Nathaniel Plant.
Such storm-induced changes to the coastal profile can jeopardize the resilience of impacted coastal communities in the path of subsequent storms. "Houses and infrastructure may be more vulnerable to future storms because beaches are narrower and dunes are lower," Plant said. Overwash is the flow of water and sediment over the crest of the beach that does not directly return to the water body (such as ocean, sea, bay or lake; hereafter, ocean) where it originated after water level fluctuations return to normal.
There are two kinds of overwash: overwash by runup and overwash by inundation. In the fields of coastal geology and geomorphology, 'overwash' refers to a landward flux of sediment due to overtopping of a dune system. The configuration of a coastline's physical features determine how it will respond to storm forces, and whether it will experience erosion, overwash, or inundation.
In South Bethany, Delaware, the storm appears to have eroded a low dune that had stood between the Atlantic and a row of beachfront homes. Like overwash, beach and dune erosion can compromise a coastline's natural defenses against future storms. Data collected from these surveys are also used to improve predictive models of potential impacts from future severe storms.
Before a storm makes landfall, USGS makes these predictions to help coastal communities identify areas particularly vulnerable to severe coastal change, such as beach and dune erosion, overwash, and inundation. For instance, in the days before Sandy approached the eastern seaboard, the USGS ran models forecasting that 91 percent of the Delmarva coastline would experience beach and dune erosion, while 98 percent and 93 percent of beaches and dunes in New Jersey and New York, respectively, were likely to erode. For those living in these areas, they know how dramatically these areas have changed due to Sandy.
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