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

79  Lihue, Kauai
84  Honolulu, Oahu
82  Molokai
87  Kahului, Maui
82  Kailua Kona
84  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 Sunday evening:

 

Kahului, Maui – 77
Poipu, Kauai
– 73


Haleakala Summit –   43
(near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 36 (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


http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/hi/ir4.jpg


http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/RadarImg/hawaii.gif


A weather change has taken place, as a slow moving and weakening
frontal cloud band has moved into the state, with
increased showers
locally, mostly along the windward
sides, along with light to moderate
trade winds…which will continue
into the new week as well 




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


28  Lihue, Kauai – NNE
30  Kuaokala, Oahu – NE
22  Molokai – NNE
27  Lanai – NE
13
  Kahoolawe – SW
22  Kapalua,
Maui – NE
24  Upolu airport, Big Island – NE


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


6.30  Kilohana, Kauai
1.95  Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.02  Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.40  Ulupalakua, Maui
1.93  Kaloko-Honokohau, 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 ~~~



The trade winds have returned…with light to moderately strong breezes continuing through most of the new week ahead. Here’s the latest weather map, showing the Hawaiian Islands, and the rest of the North Pacific Ocean, along with a real-time wind profile of the central Pacific…focused on the Hawaiian Islands. ~~~ We see moderately strong high pressure systems far to the northeast and northwest of our islands. They have ridges of high pressure located offshore to the north  and northeast of the state. At the same time, we see a gale low pressure system to our north-northeast, with an associated frontal boundary breaking through this ridge…located near Oahu. Our local winds have begun coming out of the trade wind direction now…which will continue into the new week.

Satellite imagery shows the leading edge of this slow moving, late season frontal boundary…which is becoming fragmented as it slowly pushes down into the state.
Looking at this larger satellite image, we see that there are lower level cloud patches over and around the state locally…along with the clouds associated with this weakening cloud band over Oahu, heading towards Maui County. Here’s a looping radar image, showing generally light to moderately heavy showers falling, as they spread across our windward coasts and slopes…with the primary axis of showers over the central islands at the time of this writing.

We’ve seen the end of the prolonged light winded muggy episode, as clouds and showers have increased, along with the return of our refreshing trade winds.  This frontal cloud band, although weakening and becoming more fragmented, has been able to drop quite a bit of rainfall over the mountains of Kauai. Case in point, the 6.30 inch amount that got deposited in the Kilohana rain gauge! This heavy downpour will be an extreme spike though, as most of the rainfall over the next couple of days will be lighter. This front will stall over the central islands, and as the trade winds are returning, will keep showers falling over the windward coasts and slopes over the next few days. The leeward sides on Kauai and Oahu may see a few showers, especially as the trade winds rebound a bit more going forward. The leeward sides on Maui and the Big Island however, should have decent weather, with more sunshine prevailing into the new week. I’ll be back again early Monday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Sunday night wherever you’re spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Here on Maui, at the 3,100 foot elevation, at my upper Kula, Maui weather tower, the air temperature was 57.2 degrees at 610am on this Sunday morning. Skies were clear to partly cloudy, along with still some residual light haze. I’ve gotten a report from the north shore of east Maui, telling me that the trade winds have returned there. This is good news, as it will help to ventilate the leftover vog away, taking it out to sea to our southwest. I can see quite a few clouds over the windward sides, while the leeward sides look like they’re starting the day with generally clear skies. As I was mentioning above, most of the showers are occurring up on Kauai and Oahu, while radar shows a few light showers heading towards our coasts and slopes from Haiku out towards Hana here on Maui.

Here it is mid-morning, at 1015am, and it just started to rain, which kind of caught me off guard. I could see it was getting cloudier, but the sky didn’t take on that darker tone before it started…as it often does. I can see a bit of sunshine down in the central valley, although it appears to be quite cloudy in all directions at the moment. BTW, there’s still some vog around this morning, and looks a bit thicker than it did earlier. The rain that quickly started a bit ago, has just as quickly ended…with an air temperature of 69.1 at 1110am.

We’re now into the early afternoon hours at 1245pm, under mostly cloudy skies, off and on showers, and an air temperature of 69.4 degrees. There are no winds to speak of here in Kula at the moment, or at least they are very light. I’m impressed with the 3-5+ inch rainfall amounts that have occurred on Kauai! I’m now wondering if Oahu may get into this locally heavy rain situation as well. The radar images show rain now focusing its efforts over Oahu at the moment. It will be interesting to see just how far into the state this shower bearing front will be able to go. I’m hoping that it will make it through the entire state, as we could use the moisture. The models keep suggesting that it will falter in its progress southeast, over Maui County…stay tuned. Update at 210pm, under partly cloudy skies, with an air temperature of 76.5 degrees. The moderately heavy rains we had a bit earlier this afternoon, has totally gone away, with large sections of clear blue skies having taken their place!

It’s now 6pm on this Mother’s Day, under clear to partly cloudy skies, light trade winds, and a warm 78.8 degrees. The showers that we had earlier completely disappeared, leaving mostly sunny skies overhead later in the afternoon, which was an amazingly quick change. At the same time, as the trade winds have arrived, bringing their refreshing air back into the state…and helping to whisk the long lasting voggy conditions downstream out to sea. I can see the clouds up near Molokai that are associated with this frontal boundary, which is inching its way in our direction. I’m afraid that this front won’t reach the Big Island, or at least it doesn’t seem like it will have enough punch to push that far into the state. I’m hoping that this cloud band will have just a bit more energy to make it completely over our central islands.

~~~ As we all know, today was Mother’s Day, a very important occasion to celebrate for all of us! I just talked to my Mom there in Long Beach, and I’m so glad to have her still in my life. She was going outside to pot a new plant she bought, as she loves all of her roses, and the many different plants that she nurtures each day. My sisters family is going over later today, to be with her, and to share a nice dinner together. My Mom proof reads this page each morning, looking for spelling errors and such, and I often get an early telephone call, letting me know of a mistake I’ve made. Since I know she will be looking at this today, I want to say I love you Mom, I’m very proud of you, and thrilled that you’re doing so well in life. Happy Mother’s Day to you…and to all the other great Mom’s that are reading these words now too!

Friday Evening Film: This time I went to see the new blockbuster called The Amazing Spider-Man 2, starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Fox, Dane DeHaan, Paul Giamatti, Chris Cooper, Felicity Jones, Sarah Gadon…among many others. The synopsis: We’ve always known that Spider-Man’s most important battle has been within himself: the struggle between the ordinary obligations of Peter Parker and the extraordinary responsibilities of Spider-Man. But in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker finds that a greater conflict lies ahead. It’s great to be Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield). For Peter Parker, there’s no feeling quite like swinging between skyscrapers, embracing being the hero, and spending time with Gwen (Emma Stone). But being Spider-Man comes at a price: only Spider-Man can protect his fellow New Yorkers from the formidable villains that threaten the city. With the emergence of Electro (Jamie Foxx), Peter must confront a foe far more powerful than he. And as his old friend, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), returns, Peter comes to realize that all of his enemies have one thing in common: OsCorp.

The critics are being pretty good to this film, although there are not exceptional reviews by any means. I saw the first Spider-Man film several years ago, and remember liking it quite a bit. As it turned out, this newest version of the film was well worth seeing, although not a super star film for me. As I thought, it was a good, almost summer blockbuster film, full of all the good action one would want, perhaps over the top at times. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it, and liked the love story between Spider-Man and his girlfriend Emma Stone…it was sweet. As for a grade, let’s see, I guess in this case I’ll give it a soft B+. If you have any interest in taking a quick look, here’s the trailer for this very well advertised 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)


North 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: President Obama details an Action Plan on Climate – On the heels of the administration’s release of the Third National Climate Assessment report, President Barack Obama today announced an array of executive actions and public and private sector commitments to increase solar installations and energy efficiency improvements, strengthen energy efficiency standards, and bolster the solar industry workforce. The actions and pledges that Obama laid out will deploy enough solar energy to power nearly 130,000 homes, cut carbon emissions by the equivalent of taking 80 million cars off the road and save businesses $26 billion on their energy bills, the White House said in a statement.


“We don’t look backwards. We look forward. We don’t fear the future,” Obama said on why it’s time to conserve energy, promote renewables and take action on climate change.


Speaking at a Walmart store in Mountain View, Calif., Obama said that more than 300 public agencies, multifamily and affordable housing organizations, rural electric cooperatives, and businesses like Home Depot, Ikea, Google, Wal-mart and Goldman Sachs have signed on to install solar panels — representing a total of 850 megawatts of solar energy. Twenty-five public agencies, multifamily housing organizations, businesses and manufacturers are also joining the president’s Better Building Challenge, pledging to increase the energy efficiency of more than 1 billion square feet of their buildings — an area the size of 17,000 football fields — by at least 20 percent by 2020.


To help build the growing green economy, the Department of Energy (DOE) will launch community college programs across the U.S. to train 50,000 workers to enter the solar industry by 2020, Obama said, building on the DOE’s Solar Instructor Training Network of almost 400 community colleges in 49 states that have provided solar workforce training for over 22,000 students since 2010.