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

77 Lihue, Kauai
80 Honolulu, Oahu
80 Molokai
83 Kahului, Maui
83 Kona, Hawaii
82 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 810pm Thursday evening:

 

Kailua Kona – 75
Hilo, Hawaii – 67


Haleakala Summit –   37
(near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 30 (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.

 


Aloha Paragraphs


 

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We’ll see a few showers locally, a couple of which
may be heavy on the the Big Island, although
fewer showers overall statewide for the time being

Winds becoming lighter from the southeast through
southwest Friday into the weekend

The forecast calls for the next cold front…bringing
widespread showers this weekend – with continued
off and on wet weather through next Wednnesday





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


15  Makaha Ridge, Kauai – SE
14  Waianae Valley, Oahu – SW
12  Molokai – SE
12  Lanai – NW
18  Kahoolawe – NE
14  Kaupo Gap, Maui – SSE
23  Upolu airport, Big Island – NE


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


2.22  Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.40  Poamoho, Oahu
0.09  Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.34  Kaupo Gap, Maui
0.69  Pahoa, 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 become lighter from the southeast…and then south to southwest Friday into the weekend. 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 the tail-end of a cold front to the northeast of the state. At the same time we see a high pressure center, with a trailing ridge to the northeast, and moving further northeast. Finally, we find a developing gale low pressure system to the northwest, with its trailing cold front. The winds will ease up into Friday morning. The next cold front, forecast to arrive this weekend, will prompt south through southwest winds…which will become a bit gusty later Friday ahead of the front. The trade winds are forecast to arrive early next week briefly, and then give way to more southerly winds, ahead of the next cold front…arriving next Tuesday and Wednesday.

Satellite imagery shows that most of the state was clear at the time of this writing
…although with lots of clouds in the distance. There are patchy low clouds scattered over the state, although skies remain quite clear, compared to the last several days. Most of the clouds that we see, especially the brighter white ones, are high and middle level clouds. Here’s the looping radar image, showing most of the showers falling over the ocean, offshore from the islands. Some of these light to moderately heavy showers will make their way to our islands, although the threat of heavy rains has now ended. Looking at this larger satellite image, which is in the looping mode, we can see a blossoming of those brighter white, deep shower clouds…although they’re pulling away from the state now to the northeast. Using this last satellite image, we can see the next cold front, to the northwest, approaching the state now.

An upper level trough of low pressure is finally pulling away from the state…as our next cold front approaches to the northwest. This trough with its cold air was still close enough to enhance showers locally, especially around the Big Island. The air flow is shifting back to the southeast now, and then south and southwest Friday, ahead of the next cold front slated to arrive this weekend. These southeast winds are already beginning to carry volcanic haze (vog) over the smaller islands. This weekend’s cold front will migrate through the island chain, bringing another round of widespread showers…although not be as long lasting, or intense as the recent wet weather situation. The weather models continue pointing out that we’ll have a short break in the showery weather, before the next wet weather event arrives next Tuesday into Wednesday. ~~~ I’ll be back early Friday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Thursday night wherever you’re reading from. Aloha for now…Glenn.

Here on Maui early this morning, at the 3,100 foot elevation, at my upper Kula, Maui weather tower, the outdoor air temperature sensor was reading 52.2F degrees at 550am this morning.
Skies were mostly clear, with lots of stars shining for a change. I’ll have more information as soon as the skies get light enough for me to see what’s going on here on Maui.

~~~
It’s now 8am HST, and the sun is just now coming in through my weather tower windows here in Kula. This fact of course, lets you know that the sun, yes that thing we haven’t seen for several days…is finally back! It feels so good to have that warm ball of light beaming us warmth, and good cheer too…at least that’s how it feels to me. The air temperature is still chilly, with my thermometer reading 53.6 degrees. Skies are almost totally clear, with just a few minor clouds offshore to the north. I can hardly wait to get out there for my early morning walk!

~~~ It’s 10am, and I’m just making tea and putting it in a thermos, as I get ready to drive up the mountain about 15 minutes. I have several spots, where I have a great view down to the ocean in all directions, and I look up and see the top of the Haleakala Crater too. I like to go up there and walk around, sit and sip tea, and of course skateboard! I’ll be down again early this afternoon, in time for lunch, have a nice time whatever you’re doing between now and then! Oh yeah, its still very clear, and the air temperature has risen to 63.9 degrees.

~~~ Hi again, I’m back down from the slopes of the Crater, having had a good time up there. It started out being almost totally clear, although as the sunshine started baking the slopes, all that moisture on the ground, from the recent rains began to evaporate…with clouds forming quickly. I got in some really good skateboarding, and once again, thank goodness, I didn’t fall. I’m always, or at least most of the time, very careful. I’ve certainly fallen many times in the past, although back then…I was a younger gent than now! At any rate, I’m back home, and it won’t be long before I have lunch, oh what will I eat you’re wondering? Oh maybe you’re not, although I’ll tell you anyway, for that 1 person who might be curious what a Maui weatherman eats. Well, I’ll go out in the garden and pick some organic parsley, quite a lot of it as a matter of fact. I’ll grate a carrot and a piece of beet, and mix that all together. I’ll add some organic extra virgin olive oil, and a dash of organic tamari. I’ll place some avocado, next to some organic cottage cheese on a plate, and sit myself down for some good chewing. I’ll be back a bit later with more weather information, and a bit more of this and that too. / Now at 145pm, not that long later, the sky has gotten very dark, and its begun to rain again, little spurts, not a full-on downpour…but more rain nonetheless…although it stopped shortly thereafter.

~~~ Ok, this will likely be my last update for the day here on Maui, as sunset draws near, and I see volcanic haze beginning to arrive. We had one quick little shower today, although more substantial rainfall occurred down on the Big Island during the afternoon. The air temperature at 545pm, under partly cloudy skies, was 67.5 degrees…warmer than it has been for several day here in upper Kula. I’m expecting a change in our weather to occur Friday, with southerly winds carrying deep moisture up from the tropics. This will bring some spotty showers, although once the upcoming cold front arrives this weekend, we’ll get quite a bit wetter. This front is expected to stall over the central islands, with showers falling along this frontal axis. As we get into early next week, another front, or a trough of low pressure, is expected to re-invigorate this first front, and in the process continue the off and on weather weather into the middle of next week. You know, this is the first winter in many years, that we’ve had such an active rainfall season, the state can really utilize this water…we very much needed it!



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: Tropical Cyclone 02W (Kajiki) is active in the Philippine Sea…heading towards the Philippine Islands. Here’s the JTWC graphical track map…along with a NOAA satellite image


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: Amazing discovery in Antarctica: sea anemones found living upside down under ice –
Sea anemones are supposed to sit on the bottom of the ocean, using their basal disc (or adhesive foot) to rest on a coral reef or sand. So, imagine the surprise of geologists in Antarctica when they discovered a mass of sea anemones hanging upside from the underside of the Ross Ice Shelf like a village of wispy ghosts. The researchers weren’t even there to discover new life, but to learn about South Pole currents through the Antarctic Geological Drilling (ANDRILL) Program via a remotely-operated undersea robot.


“When we looked up at the bottom of the ice shelf, there they were,” says Frank Rack, executive director of ANDRILL, who calls the discovery “total serendipity.” The scientists have named the new upside down anemones Edwardsiella andrillae after the program. Named after the flower, anemones are actually predatory marine animals distantly related to corals and jellyfish.


In 2010, scientist deployed a robot known as the Submersible Capable of under-Ice Navigation and Imaging (SCINI) into the waters beneath the Ross Ice Shelf, the largest off the continent. The robot employed a hot water drill to melt an 850-foot hole through the ice shelf before being dropped into open water. But instead of surveying barren waters, the camera on the robot reveled “an unexpected and astonishing glimpse into this subsurface world, discovering an unusual and likely unique marine biological community dominated by anemones living inside burrows in the lower surface of the ice shelf,” write the scientists in a new paper in PLOS ONE describing the species. In fact, the camera recorded tens-of-thousands of these never-before witnessed ice anemones.


Although the anemones shrunk back from the infiltrating robot, the researchers were able to collect a few specimens by stunning the anemones with a hot water cannon on the robot and transferring them to McMurdo Station.


“This is the first species of sea anemone reported to live in ice,” the scientists write. “Previously described species of sea anemones from Antarctica are reported from hard or soft substrates, but always below the anchor ice.”


In addition, this is the first time scientists have ever discovered anemones in the Edwardsiella genus (also known as burrowing anemones) near the continent. The bone-white, ghostly anemones are a few inches long when fully extended and sport 20 to 24 tentacles.