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

Lihue, Kauai –                        75  
Honolulu airport, Oahu –     80
 
Molokai airport –                    76

Kahului airport, Maui –           78 

Kona airport     –                   79   

Hilo airport, Hawaii –              79

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops around the state…as of 530am Monday morning:

Honolulu, Hawaii – 72
Barking Sands, Kauai – 64

Haleakala Summit    39     (near 10,000 feet on Maui)

Mauna Kea Summit – 34      (13,000+ 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…if it's available.

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.  The 2012 hurricane season is over in the eastern and central Pacific…resuming on May 15th and June 1st 2013.

 

Aloha Paragraphs

http://land-as-an-investment.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Hawaii-end-of-a-perfect-day-e1312580266833.jpg

Small Craft Advisory for strong and gusty trade
winds…over most of the coastal and channel waters

Wind Advisory for North Kohala on the Big Island,
Volcanoes National Park, Lanai…and the Haleakala
summit on Maui

Some increase in windward showers through mid-week –
chance of localized heavy showers thereafter

~~~550am HST Monday morning: clear, calm…at my
upcountry Kula, Maui  weather tower: 48.2F
degrees –
high temperature Sunday afternoon: 69.6~~~


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

17       Poipu, Kauai – NE
45       Kuaokala, Oahu – NE

29 
      Molokai – NNE 
36       Kahoolawe – NNE

31       Kapalua, Maui – NE

31       Kealakomo, Big Island – NE

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

 

0.01          Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.01          Waihee Pump, Oahu

0.00          Molokai

0.00          Lanai
0.00          Kahoolawe

0.00          Maui
0.04         Kawainui Stream, Big Island  


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.


                   ~~~ Hawaii Weather Commentary ~~~
 


Our winds are blowing from the trade wind direction, which will remain moderately strong…before increasing a notch or two during the upcoming new week. Here's a weather chart showing trade wind producing, high pressure systems located to the northeast and the northwest of Hawaii. At the same time, we see gale and storm low pressure systems far to our north…with an associated cold front to the west and northwest of Kauai.

Satellite imagery shows stable and dry clouds over the islands…with somewhat more showery looking clouds to our east and northeast of the islands. We can also see a cold front to our northwest, as it slowly approaches the state. At the same time, we see evidence of an upper level low pressure system far to our east…with heavy rain producing clouds out that way. As the trade winds remain in force, a few minor showers will arrive along our north and east facing windward coasts and slopes. The south and west leeward sides should be in good shape, with dry weather prevailing. The trend will be to finally see some increase in windward biased showers begin over the next few days.

The weather models continue showing a cold front approaching the state, although it will stall before arriving…at least likely. As far as our winds go looking ahead, they will strengthen during the first half of the new week, and another notch by mid-week. Small craft wind advisories are already covering most of the marine zones in the state now. At the same time, there's a wind advisory now up for a few locations on the Big Island and Maui. These trades will be able to carry windward biased clouds and showers our way, as the moisture content upwind of the state rebounds soon. 

Starting Wednesday, we'll find a trough of low pressure edging over the state, or close to it at least. This trough will bring colder than normal air overhead, in the middle and high layers of the atmosphere. This cold air aloft will help to destabilize the air mass below it late Tuesday through Thursday or Friday. This in turn may bring snow to our higher summits on the Big Island, and increase showers locally…some of which may be locally heavy. There's always that chance that we could see a few thunderstorms popping-up at some point Wednesday through Friday. I'll have more information on this extended forecast period, stay tuned.

My neighbors and I went to an art opening at the Tropical Plantation Saturday evening, which was fun. We were all over the map once we left there. We initially drove upcountry to Makawao, where we had a nice dinner. We thought we might do some dancing there afterwards, but the music wasn't to our likely. We decided to just head home, although along the way back to Kula, the driver (Jeff) made an executive decision, and we ended up in Kihei! The three of us hit a couple of our favorite dive bars, and had a good time finally ending up on the dance floors. It was a fun day, after being out for breakfast Saturday morning, and at the film described below on the previous evening. I turned into quite a social butterfly for a change! At any rate, I stayed home today, and enjoying this great weather right here in upper Kula. I ended up watching quite a bit of the Super Bowl football game on the internet. I'll be back this evening with more updates, and then again early in the morning with your next new weather narrative. I hope you have a great Sunday night wherever you're spending it! Aloha for now, Glenn.
 

Friday evening film: My neighbors and I drove down to Kahului, had a quick dinner, and to took in a new film last evening. This one was called Parker, starring Jason Statham, Jennifer Lopez, Michael Chiklis, Patti LuPone, Sharon Landry, Charleigh Harmon, Rebecca Marks, Nick Nolte…among many others. The synopsis: Parker is a professional thief who lives by a personal code of ethics: Don't steal from people who can't afford it and don't hurt people who don't deserve it. But on his latest heist, his crew double crosses him, steals his stash, and leaves him for dead. Determined to make sure they regret it, Parker tracks them to Palm Beach, playground of the rich and famous, where the crew is planning their biggest heist ever. Donning the disguise of a rich Texan, Parker takes on an unlikely partner, Leslie, a savvy insider who's short on cash but big on looks, smarts and ambition. Together, they devise a plan to hijack the score, take everyone down and get away clean. ~~~ This film isn't garnering the highest ratings from critics, although I think it will be fun to watch all the action, and the top actors, Jason and Jennifer…do their things. It's definitely a hot blooded action flick, and I must admit, as many of you already know, I'm a sucker for them. Five of us saw the film last evening, and the grades were: A-, B+, B+, B+ and B- across the board. In my estimation, it was incredibly entertaining, with not a dull moment from start to finish. Here's the trailer, in case you are curious.


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: On Super Bowl Sunday, we were thinking more about football than asteroids hurtling through space that might intercept planet Earth! Turns out, one is heading our way, and on Feb 15th will pass pretty close to our planet. The small near-Earth asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass inside the ring of geosynchronous weather and communications satellites that orbit Earth. NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office can accurately predict the asteroid's path with the observations obtained, and it is therefore known that there is no chance that the asteroid might be on a collision course with Earth.

Nevertheless, the flyby will provide a unique opportunity for researchers to study a near-Earth object up close. Asteroid 2012 DA14 will be closest to Earth on Feb. 15, at about 11:24 p.m. PST (2 p.m. EST and 1924 UT), when it will be at a distance of about 17,200 miles above Earth's surface.

Although this is close enough for the asteroid to pass inside the ring of geosynchronous satellites, located about 22,200 miles above the equator, it will still be well above the vast majority of satellites, including the International Space Station.

At its closest, the asteroid will be only about 1/13th of the distance to the moon. The asteroid will fly by our planet quite rapidly, at a speed of about 17,400 mph in a south-to-north direction with respect to Earth. Even though 2012 DA14 is coming remarkably close, it will still only appear as a point of light in the biggest of optical telescopes, because of its small size.

Based on its brightness, astronomers estimate that it is only about 45 meters (150 feet) across. It will brighten only to magnitude 7.5, too faint to be seen with the naked eye, but easily visible with a good set of binoculars or a small telescope.

The best viewing location for the closest approach will be Indonesia, from which the asteroid will be seen to move at a rate of almost 1 degree per minute against the star background. Eastern Europe, Asia and Australia are also well situated to see the asteroid around its closest approach.

But by the time Earth rotates enough for observers in the continental United States to have a chance to see the asteroid, it will have receded and faded to about the 11th magnitude. Radar astronomers plan to take images of the asteroid about eight hours after closest approach using the Goldstone antenna in California's Mojave Desert, which is part of NASA's Deep Space Network.

2012 DA14 has not been in the catalogues for very long — it was discovered in February of 2012 by astronomers at the La Sagra Sky Survey program in southern Spain and reported to the Minor Planet Center, which designates minor bodies in our solar system.

At the time of the discovery, the asteroid had just made a fairly distant passage by Earth, about seven times farther than the distance to the moon. Since 2012 DA14's orbital period around the sun has been about 368 days, which is very similar to Earth's, the asteroid made a series of annual close approaches.

This year's is the closest approach, and is the closest the asteroid will come for at least three decades. But this encounter will shorten 2012 DA14's orbital period to about 317 days, changing its orbital class from Apollo to Aten, and its future close approaches will follow a different pattern.

This passage of 2012 DA14 by Earth is a record close approach for a known object of this size. A few other known asteroids have flown by Earth even closer, but those asteroids were smaller. On average, we expect an object of this size to get this close to Earth about once every 40 years.

An actual Earth collision by an object of this size would be expected much less frequently, about once every 1,200 years, on average.