Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Friday:
81 Lihue, Kauai
84 Honolulu, Oahu
79 Molokai
87 Kahului, Maui
85 Kailua Kona
77 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 1010pm Friday evening:
Honolulu, Oahu – 77
Hilo, Hawaii – 69
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
Active trade winds right on into the new week…
locally strong and gusty
Windward showers arriving in an off and on
manner through the next week…a few quite
generous here and there
Small Craft Wind Advisory…windiest coasts and
channels – Maui County and the Big Island
around Maui County and the Big Island
The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph), along with directions…as of Friday afternoon:
22 Poipu, Kauai – NE
39 Kuaokala, Oahu – NE
29 Molokai – NE
35 Lanai – NE
35 Kahoolawe – NE
30 Kahului, Maui – NE
35 Pali 2, Big Island – NE
Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands…as of Friday evening (845pm totals):
1.45 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
1.16 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.11 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.49 Puu Kukui, Maui
2.50 Honaunau, 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 ~~~
Typical trade wind flow across our islands…or just a bit stronger than that. 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 have a moderately strong, near 1030 millibar high pressure system located far to our northeast…with its associated ridge extending southwest and west to the north of the state. At the same time, we have a small trough of low pressure located offshore well northwest of Kauai. Our winds will remain the gusty late spring trades, with only small daily variations in speed and direction…well into the future.
Satellite imagery shows high level cirrus clouds now moving east, away from the state…with scattered lower level clouds locally. Looking at this larger satellite image, we see an area of high level clouds having moved further away to the east of Hawaii. At the same time, we find a counterclockwise rotating upper level low pressure system to the north-northwest. As the higher level cirrus clouds move away, we’ll see more sunshine beaming down during the days. Here’s a looping radar image, showing mostly light to moderately heavy showers being carried along in our trade wind flow, impacting the windward sides here and there…which typically increase again during the nights into the early morning hours.
Fairly typical trade wind conditions…with somewhat more windward showers than normal. The windward sides, as the trade winds remain somewhat stronger than usual, will bring those showers our way in an off and on manner. Our weather will follow climatology quite closely through the next week at least, which means the trade winds will be our dominant weather feature…along with those passing windward biased showers. The leeward sides will find lots of sunny weather through the weekend. I’ll be back again Saturday morning with your next new weather narrative from paradise, I hope you have a great Friday 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 56.7 degrees at 545am on this Friday morning. Skies are partly cloudy overhead, made up of the lower level cumulus clouds traveling along our windward coasts and slopes…and the high cirrus that lit up a pretty pink at sunrise this morning!
We’re into the early afternoon hours now at 1235pm, under partly cloudy skies, light breezes, and an air temperature of 75.2 degrees. Clouds are spreading across the island more so than yesterday, brought our way on the trade winds, and those of which are gathering around the mountains…and slipping down towards the coasts locally. Update at 130pm, under mostly cloudy skies, a light shower, light winds…and an air temperature of 75.4 degrees.
We’re into the early evening now at 525pm, under clear to partly cloudy skies, light breezes, and an air temperature of 74.7 degrees. Most of the high and middle level clouds have pulled out to the east now, although I can still see a few streaks around…which could provide a little at sunset. Otherwise, a fair night, with those windward biased showers, and another nice day Saturday. The surf will come up some along our south and west shores, which will be a treat for our local surfing community. The surf shouldn’t be so large, at least in most areas, that it will be overly dangerous.
Friday Evening Film: There’s no shortage of films playing now, although to tell you the truth, there’s not that many that greatly appeal to me. There is one however, called Edge of Tomorrow, starring Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton, Jonas Armstrong, Charlotte Riley, and Lara Pulver…among many others. The synopsis: the epic action of “Edge of Tomorrow” unfolds in a near future in which an alien race has hit the Earth in an unrelenting assault, unbeatable by any military unit in the world. Major William Cage (Tom Cruise) is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously dropped into what amounts to a suicide mission. Killed within minutes, Cage now finds himself inexplicably thrown into a time loop-forcing him to live out the same brutal combat over and over, fighting and dying again…and again. But with each battle, Cage becomes able to engage the adversaries with increasing skill, alongside Special Forces warrior Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt). And, as Cage and Rita take the fight to the aliens, each repeated encounter gets them one step closer to defeating the enemy.
The ratings are very good, ranging between 89% liking it of the critics…and 91% of the audiences liking it. I was pleased and entertained, which is exactly what I want from seeing any film. I found this sci-fi thriller, all of the following…smart, engaging, witty, exciting, and quite a joyride from start to finish. I always have some difficulty with the creatures, you know, the weird enemy things that fly around, and are generally nasty and vicious, which this film had plenty of, oh well…I guess its difficult not to have them flying around killing people. I enjoyed seeing Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt doing their thing, they worked well together in my opinion. As for a grade, I’m coming down with a B+, well deserved I’d say. Here’s the trailer in case you are interested.
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 cyclones
Surface observations and satellite imagery indicate that the low
pressure area previously near Veracruz, Mexico, has moved farther
inland and is dissipating. However, the remnants of this system
could continue to produce gusty winds and heavy rains, along with
life-threatening flash floods and mud slides, over portions of
southeastern and eastern Mexico during the next day or two.
* Formation chance through 48 hours…low…0 percent.
* Formation chance through 5 days…low…0 percent.
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: No tropical cyclones are expected through the next 5 days
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: No tropical cyclones are expected through Monday morning
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: Massive rocky planet challenges traditional views of planet formation – Astronomers have discovered a rocky planet that weighs 17 times as much as Earth and is more than twice as large in size. This discovery has planet formation theorists challenged to explain how such a world could have formed. “We were very surprised when we realized what we had found,” said astronomer Xavier Dumusque of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Massachusetts, who led the analysis using data originally collected by NASA’s Kepler space telescope.
Kepler-10c, as the planet had been named, had a previously measured size of 2.3 times larger than Earth, but its mass was not known until now. The team used the HARPS-North instrument on the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo in the Canary Islands to conduct follow-up observations to obtain a mass measurement of the rocky behemoth.
It was thought worlds such as this could not possibly exist. The enormous gravitational force of such a massive body would accrete a gas envelope during formation, ballooning the planet to a gas giant the size of Neptune or even Jupiter. However, this planet is thought to be solid, composed primarily of rock.
“Just when you think you’ve got it all figured out, nature gives you a huge surprise — in this case, literally,” said Natalie Batalha, Kepler mission scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. “Isn’t science marvelous?”
Kepler-10c orbits a sun-like star every 45 days, making it too hot to sustain life as we know it. It is located about 560 light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco. The system also hosts Kepler-10b, the first rocky planet discovered in the Kepler data.
The finding was presented this week at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Boston.
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