Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Wednesday:

81  Lihue, Kauai
83  Honolulu, Oahu
84  Molokai
85  Kahului, Maui
86  Kona, Hawaii
88  Hilo, Hawaii


Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops on Maui and the Big Island…as of 843pm Wednesday evening:

 

Hilo, Hawaii – 79
Poipu, Kauai – 70


Haleakala Summit –   46 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 36 (13,000+ 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 – if it’s working.

 


Aloha Paragraphs


http://www.thegailygrind.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/hScreen-Shot-2013-04-09-at-13.52.34-1.png

Lighter winds turning southeast, carrying volcanic haze locally,
a few showers…followed by a rather dramatic weather
change late Friday into the weekend – first on Kauai

Happy Thanksgiving!

 





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

14  Port Allen, Kauai – SE
20  Kahuku Trng, Oahu – SE
21  Molokai – NE
22  Lanai – NE
23  Kahoolawe – NE
17  Lipoa, Maui – NE
25  South Point, Big Island – NE


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

0.01  Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.07  Kaneohe, Oahu
0.00  Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.01  Puu Kukui, Maui
0.06  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 image… and finally the latest looping radar image for the Hawaiian Islands.


~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~



Our winds will be shifting to the southeast on Thanksgiving, becoming south to southwest later Friday into the weekend…followed by east to southeast breezes early next week. Here’s the latest weather map, showing the Hawaiian Islands, and the rest of the Pacific Ocean. We see a very strong storm low pressure system well northwest of the state, with its associated comma-shaped cold front, draping down into the tropics. Weather models continue to suggest that the trades will be disrupted Thursday, veering around towards the southeast during the day. These southeast winds will carry volcanic haze (vog) from the Big Island vents over the smaller islands…and make our air mass sultry near the beaches. As we get into late Friday and the weekend, our winds will increase in strength from the south and southwest, as the cold front mentioned above approaches from the northwest, moving into the Hawaiian Islands first on Kauai on Saturday.

The trade winds will carry a few showers to our windward sides tonight, while the leeward sides will remain generally dry. Satellite imagery shows patches of stable clouds being carried into the windward coasts and slopes here and there…along with some fairly minor high cirrus clouds to our southwest. Meanwhile, the leeward beaches will remain in good shape tonight into Thursday, with quite a bit of sunshine prevailing. Here’s the looping radar image, showing a few showers falling around parts of the Big Island and Maui. There are just a few showers here and there elsewhere, with no untoward changes expected through Thanksgiving Day. As the winds become lighter Thursday, we’ll see afternoon clouds developing over the leeward slopes and interior locally…leading to a few showers then.

Generally fine weather conditions will prevail through Thanksgiving Day, as the overlying atmosphere remains quite dry and stable. As we get closer to the end of the week, we’ll begin to see a more dramatic change in our weather, with increasing showers…as a cold front moves into the state. This cold front is anticipated to be a strong one, with gusty Kona winds, potential flooding rainfall, and a good chance of thunderstorms too. Kauai will have the front arriving later in the day Saturday, then pushing down into the central islands during the night and Sunday. Oahu and Maui County appear destined to get into this inclement weather activity, although its still too early to know if the Big Island will be just outside the most active precipitation zone. Looking further ahead, the models continue showing another cold front approaching the state around the middle of next week. I’ll be closely following this upcoming wet weather situation, fine tuning the particulars as we get closer to this event. I’ll be back early Thanksgiving morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Wednesday night wherever you’re spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.



World-wide tropical cyclone activity:


Atlantic Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones


Here’s a satellite image of the Atlantic Ocean

Caribbean Sea: There are no active tropical cyclones

Gulf of Mexico: There are no active tropical cyclone

Here’s a satellite image of the Caribbean Sea…and the Gulf of Mexico.

Here’s the link to the National Hurricane Center (NHC)

Eastern Pacific: There are no active tropical cyclone


Here’s a wide satellite image that covers the entire area between Mexico, out through the central Pacific…to the International Dateline.


Central Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones


Here’s a link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)


Western Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones


South Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones


North and South Indian Oceans: Tropical Cyclone 05B (Lehar) remains active in the Bay of Bengal. Here’s the JTWC graphical track map, along with a satellite image.

Tropical Cyclone 02S (Alessia) remains in the Gulf of Carpenteria. Here’s the JTWC graphical track map, along with a satellite image. – Final Warning


Here’s a link to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC)


Interesting: Climate change signals a whale of a shift in feeding patterns. Every summer and fall, endangered North Atlantic right whales congregate in the Bay of Fundy between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to gorge on zooplankton. Researchers have documented the annual feast since 1980, and well over 100 whales typically attend, a significant portion of the entire species. Only this year, they didn’t. Just a dozen right whales trickled in—a record low in the New England Aquarium’s 34-year-old monitoring program. And that comes on the heels of two other low-turnout years, 2010 and 2012.


Numbers of the critically endangered marine mammal have been ticking up in recent years just past 500 individuals, so no one thinks the low turnout in the Bay of Fundy augurs a decline in the species as a whole. The right whales must have gone elsewhere. But where? And more importantly, why?


“Our whales have been missing in their normal habitat areas, where we’ve learned to expect them over three and a half decades,” says Moira Brown, a senior scientist at the aquarium who runs the monitoring program. “It’s quite shocking when you go out there day after day after day and you don’t see any right whales.”


This change in North Atlantic right whale behavior is occurring against a backdrop of major climate-related ecosystem shifts taking place throughout the northwest Atlantic Ocean. While Brown and other right whale researchers are not ready to attribute changes in the species’ feeding or migratory patterns to any one factor, including global warming, what is clear to them is that the right whales’ new itinerary must signal a shifting food supply. A zooplankton species called Calanus finmarchicus is the whales’ mainstay. Researchers reported an unusual scarcity of the zooplankton in the Bay of Fundy this summer. By the same token, in Cape Cod Bay, where right whales have been unusually plentiful, other scientists have been documenting increasing concentrations — so much so that the normally invisible creatures noticeably color the water.


Other ecosystem shifts are afoot in the northwest Atlantic off the eastern coasts of the United States and Canada. Sea surface temperatures in waters such as the Gulf of Maine are rising and various marine species, including cod and red hake, are shifting their ranges northward, according to recent studies. Increasing precipitation, the rapid disappearance of Arctic sea ice, and the melting of ice sheets in Greenland and Canada are all expected to pour more freshwater into the northwest Atlantic, causing increased stratification of ocean waters and changes in the abundance and distribution of phytoplankton and zooplankton at the bottom of the food chain, studies show.