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

80  Lihue, Kauai
80  Honolulu, Oahu
77  Molokai
80  Kahului, Maui
81  Kona, Hawaii
80  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 743pm Saturday evening:

 

Kailua Kona – 76
Hana, Maui – 66


Haleakala Summit –   45  (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.

 


Aloha Paragraphs


http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02134/surf-banzai_2134342b.jpg

Very large surf along our north and west facing beaches…
today into Monday

We’ll see a period of showers with a cold front today, first on
Kauai, followed by windward showers for a few days…some
could be quite heavy, with even a thunderstorm by Tuesday –
especially on Maui and the Big Island

Small Craft Advisory...coastal and channel waters

High Wind Warning…Big Island summits

High Surf Warning…north and west shores of Kauai, Oahu,
Molokai, and north shores of Maui…through Monday




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

22  Port Allen, Kauai – W
29  Kahuku Trng, Oahu – SW
30  Molokai – WSW
27  Lanai – SW
21  Kahoolawe – SW
36  Kahului, Maui – SW
30  South Point, Big Island – SW


Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Saturday eveningn (545pm totals):

0.01  Waiakoali, Kauai
0.01  Kahuku Trng, Oahu
0.00  Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.01  Kahakuloa, Maui
0.06  Pali 2, 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 come in from the southwest tonight into Sunday…locally quite strong and gusty. Here’s the latest weather map, showing the Hawaiian Islands, and the rest of the North Pacific Ocean. Here’s a real-time wind profile of the central Pacific…centered on the Hawaiian Islands. ~~~ We find two storms to the north of Hawaii, with an associated cold front approaching our area from the northwest. At the same time, there’s a ridge of high pressure located just south of the Big Island, which will be pushed further south of the state by the advancing cold front. 

Satellite imagery shows generally stable low clouds over parts of the state, with a cold front to the northwest of Kauai. The air mass over the state continues to be dry…which will limit showers for the time being. Here’s the looping radar image, showing hardly any precipitation falling anywhere in the state. Looking at this larger satellite image, which is in the looping mode, we can see those brighter white clouds to our northeast moving away. We can also see the cold front to our northwest, which is steadily pushing towards us. It will arrive early Sunday morning, first on Kauai and then Oahu. The models show it making its way down to Maui County later Sunday, before stalling there…or near the Big Island Sunday night into Monday morning.

As noted above, we’ll see the next cold front arriving Sunday, bringing another round of showers to the state. Our weather will remain generally favorable before the front arrives early Sunday. Our winds will be locally quite strong and gusty preceding the front’s arrival. This front will usher in a few showers, although nothing extraordinary. As lighter north and northeast winds arrive in the wake of the frontal passage, we’ll slip into a period of wet trade winds later Monday, with the bulk of that precipitation remaining anchored to the north and east facing windward coasts and slopes. As we get to Monday night and Tuesday, the models are showing an upper level trough of low pressure moving over the state. This trough with its cold air aloft, is expected to enhance the windward biased showers then…making them heavier. We may see some generous rainfall, especially over the eastern islands, associated with what’s left of the cold front…with a bit of lightning and thunder not out of the question. Looking even further ahead, we’ll see a brief return of the trade winds Wednesday and Thursday, before the air flow shifts back to the south and southwest, ahead of a cold front slated to arrive next Saturday. ~~~ I’ll be back Sunday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Saturday night wherever you’re spending it. Aloha for now…Glenn.

Here on Maui early this morning, at the 3,100 foot elevation, at my upper Kula weather tower, the outdoor air temperature sensor was reading 50.9F degrees. The temperature didn’t drop below 50 degrees this morning, due to the orientation of our winds coming up out of the tropics to our southwest. Nonetheless, its still pretty chilly, and the breezes have my wind chimes sounding off too. The skies are just beginning to lighten up at the time of this writing, and I see very few clouds…most of which are over the West Maui Mountains. I’m looking for another nice day, with somewhat warmer temperatures compared to the last several days. ~~~ The winds are what we call Kona now, coming ashore along our leeward beaches, and exiting over the windward sides…the opposite from our regular trade wind conditions. This makes the water choppy and rough along those south and west facing beaches, and windy too. It might be a good day to head over to the north and east shores, the windward sides, for better conditions. The only problem there however, will be the large surf, although it might be more comfortable as far as the winds go…try and find some place to sit out of the wind flow. ~~~ I just got back from the windward side of east Maui, in Paia town, and found totally clear skies, warm temperatures…and windy. As I drove back upcountry to Kula, I could see that most of the clouds in our area are located over the leeward sides, carried their on the gusty southwest wind flow. The air temperature here at my place was 64.9F degrees, while at the same time (noon), down at the Kahului airport near sea level…it was a warmer 79 degrees. ~~~ Here in Kula, at 525pm, the air temperature was 62.6 degrees with generally clear skies. The winds, which were stronger during the day, are starting to taper down now. Since its Saturday night and all, I decided to have a drink to celebrate the weekend. Today while I was down in Paia at the health food store, I bought a small bottle of organic Wild Poppy, Peach Vanilla. The ingredients are: filtered water, Peach puree, Agave nectar, Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla. It tasted good, although when I added a shot of 6 times filtered Vodka, well…it may taste even a bit better!

Friday Evening Film: I was going to skip the film that I decided to see last evening, although for some reason, at the last minute…I decided to go see it anyway. It’s called August: Osage County, starring Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ewan McGregor, Margo Martindale, Sam Shepard, Abigail Breslin, Chris Cooper, and Juliette Lewis…among others. The synopsis: AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY tells the dark, hilarious and deeply touching story of the strong-willed women of the Weston family, whose lives have diverged until a family crisis brings them back to the Midwest house they grew up in, and to the dysfunctional woman who raised them. Letts’ play made its Broadway debut in December 2007 after premiering at Chicago’s legendary Steppenwolf Theatre earlier that year. It continued with a successful international run. 

I’d seen the trailer for this film several times, and was generally attracted to it, although not greatly. The critics have been reasonably kind to this film, although it’s not off the chart by any means. It turned out to be a very interesting film in my view, unusual in many ways. I ended up liking it quite a bit, and mixed in with all the darkness, was quite a bit of humor. There was more cussing than I’ve heard in a long time, done mostly by Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts! I typically think of these women as rather conservative, and so it was interesting to hear every cuss word in the book being thrown around. The acting was very good in my estimation, a bit exhausting at times…especially in the context of this very dysfunctional family! Overall though, I very much enjoyed the film, despite all the misery that we, the audience had to wallow through. As for a grade, I have it coming in at a B+ rating. Here’s the trailer for this film.



World-wide tropical cyclone activity:


Atlantic Ocean: The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1st through November 30th. Here’s the 2013 hurricane season summary


Here’s a satellite image of the Atlantic Ocean

Caribbean Sea:

Gulf of Mexico:

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: The Eastern Pacific hurricane season runs from May 15th through November 30th. Here’s the 2013 hurricane season summary


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: The Central Pacific hurricane season runs from June 1st through November 30th. Here’s the 2013 hurricane season summary


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: There are no active tropical cyclones

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


Interesting: One quarter of all sharks and rays are threatened with extinction – One quarter of all sharks and rays are threatened with extinction, according to a new study published in the open-access journal eLife. The paper analyzed the threat and conservation status of 1,041 species of chondrichthyans—the class of fish whose skeletons are made of cartilage instead of bone which includes sharks, rays, skates and chimaeras—and found this group to be among the most threatened animals in the world.


The collaboration between 300 scientists from 64 countries reports, “the main threats to chondrichthyans are overexploitation through targeted fisheries and incidental catches (bycatch), followed by habitat loss, persecution, and climate change.”


The authors pinpoint two areas with greater than expected threat levels: the Indo-Pacific Biodiversity Triangle and the Red Sea. The former is among the most biologically and culturally diverse areas on the planet, but is also among the least-regulated.


“The Indo-Pacific Biodiversity Triangle, particularly the Gulf of Thailand, and the islands of Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and Sulawesi, is a hotspot of greatest residual threat especially for coastal sharks and rays with 76 threatened species.” The paper’s authors argue that without national and international action, the species found in this area may rapidly become extinct.


The paper cites ‘finning’—the process of cutting off the fins and dumping the body back into the ocean—as a major threat to sharks, wedgefishes and sawfishes. This practice is driven by market demands in China where shark fin soup is a highly sought-after delicacy.


“Fins, in particular, have become one of the most valuable seafood commodities,” the authors write, “It is estimated that the fins of between 26 and 73 million individuals, worth US$400-550 million, are traded each year.”


Large body size and shallow habitat are the biggest factors determining a species’ likelihood of being threatened. “The probability that a species is threatened increases by 1.2% for each 10 cm increase in maximum body length, and decreases by 10.3% for each 50 m deepening in the minimum depth limit of species,” the authors report.


In addition to targeted fishing, 20 species of shark and rays are directly threatened by pollution. 22 species are threatened by the destruction of river systems and estuaries through residential and commercial development. 12 species are at risk from the conversion of mangroves into shrimp farms, and the construction of dams and other water-control measures.