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

81  Lihue, Kauai
84  Honolulu, Oahu
79  Molokai
87  Kahului, Maui
85  Kailua Kona
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 943pm Saturday evening:

 

Kailua Kona – 80
Hilo, Hawaii – 71


Haleakala Summit –    46 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit –  41 (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

 

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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 at times

Small Craft Wind Advisory…windiest coasts and
channels – around Maui County and  the Big Island




The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph), along with directions…as of Saturday evening:

25  Port Allen, Kauai – NE
27  Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu – NNE
27  Molokai – NE
36  Lanai – NE
30  Kahoolawe – NE
37  Kahului, Maui – NE
29  South Point, Big Island – NE


Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands…as of Saturday evening (845pm totals):

0.77  Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.11  Luluku, Oahu
0.02  Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.68  Puu Kukui, Maui
0.83  Honokaa, 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 ~~~



Gusty trade winds well into the future. 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 very large, moderately strong, near 1031 millibar high pressure system located far to our northeast, with its associated ridge extending southwest…to the north and northwest of the state. Our local winds will remain gusty, with only small daily variations in speed and direction.

Satellite imagery shows scattered lower level clouds…mostly upstream of the islands. Looking at this larger looping satellite image, we see areas of high level clouds well north, west and southwest of Hawaii. At the same time, we find an upper level low pressure system to the north. Meanwhile, the lower clouds are riding along in the trade wind flow…from east to west. 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 some during the night and early morning hours.

Fairly typical trade wind weather pattern…with no issues on the horizon. The windward sides, as the trade winds remain active, we’ll continue to see a few showers coming our way at times. Our weather will follow climatology quite closely through the next week at least, which means the trade winds will be active…along with those off and on passing windward biased showers. The leeward sides will find lots of sunny weather during the days, with fair and warm nights prevailing. I’ll be back again 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, at the 3,100 foot elevation, at my upper Kula, Maui weather tower, the air temperature was a cool 53.6 degrees at 605am on this Saturday morning. Skies are clear overhead, with only a few minor cumulus clouds around the edges. It’s actually a lovely morning, and should continue on this way through the day. The gusty trade winds will continue to be the major player in our Hawaiian Island weather picture. The surf will be somewhat larger than it has been lately, along our south and west shores…although there’s no high surf advisory posted by any means. Our local surfing community will be enjoying this southern hemisphere surf through Sunday.

It’s now early afternoon at 1250pm, under partly to mostly cloudy skies, light winds, and an air temperature of 79 degrees. I just got back from my weekly trip to the health food store in Paia, where it was much warmer than up here. As I drove up Baldwin Ave from Paia towards Makawao, I ran into a light to moderately heavy shower. I can still see those showery clouds over in that direction from here, although the clouds overhead don’t feel showery at the moment.

We’re now pushing into the evening hours at 540pm, under partly cloudy skies, light breezes…and an air temperature of 77.5 degrees. Glancing around the island from my weather office now, I don’t see anything unusual, with all the classic signs of a late spring trade wind weather pattern. There’s the clouds over the mountains, and stretching along the windward sides, while the leeward beaches look more sunny. The trade winds are blowing of course, although up here in Kula, we are mostly blocked from the gusty winds, with generally mild breezes prevailing.

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 that looks good, it’s 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 to be 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.  This film had plenty of them, uncountable numbers of them, oh well…I guess its difficult not to have them flying around killing people in these types of films. 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’re interested.


World-wide tropical cyclone activity:


Atlantic Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones expected through the next 5 days

Here’s a satellite image of the Atlantic Ocean

Caribbean Sea: There are no active tropical cyclones expected through the next 5 days

Gulf of Mexico: There are no active tropical cyclones expected through the next 5 days

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 cyclones

A broad low pressure area located a couple hundred miles south- southwest of Acapulco, Mexico, is producing a large area of disorganized showers and thunderstorms. Environmental conditions are conducive for gradual development, and a tropical depression will likely form during the next few days while the low moves northwestward at 5 to 10 mph.


* Formation chance through 48 hours...medium...40 percent.
* Formation chance through 5 days...high...80 percent.


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 Tuesday 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: Archaeological expedition reveals first fossil-record evidence of forest fire ecology – Fossils can reveal an incredible amount of information. From what kind of organisms lived when and where to how they may have evolved over time. And now a new discovery of plant fossils with abundant fossilized charcoal reveals something new about prehistoric forest fires.


Forest fires affect ecosystems differently and despite the fact that organisms and plant life have had to adapt to cope with these natural phenomena, new research shows that forests have been recovering from fires in the same manner as they did 66 million years ago.


According to researchers at McGill University and the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, an expedition in southern Saskatchewan, Canada revealed a snapshot of the ecology on earth just before the mass extinction of the dinosaurs. The researchers also found evidence that the region’s climate was much warmer and wetter than it is today.


“We were able to reconstruct what the Cretaceous forests looked like with and without fire disturbance”, says Hans Larsson, Canada Research Chair in Macro-evolution at McGill University.


The researchers’ discovery revealed that at the forest fire site, the plants are dominated by flora quite similar to the kind that begin forest recovery after a fire today. Ancient forests recovered much like current ones, with plants like alder, birch, and sassafras present in early stages, and sequoia and ginkgo present in mature forests.


“We were looking at the direct result of a 66-million-year old forest fire, preserved in stone,” says Emily Bamforth, of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum and the study’s first author. “Moreover, we now have evidence that the mean annual temperature in southern Saskatchewan was 10-12 degrees Celsius warmer than today, with almost six times as much precipitation”.


“The abundant plant fossils also allowed us for the first time to estimate climate conditions for the closing period of the dinosaurs in southwestern Canada, and provides one more clue to reveal what the ecology was like just before they went extinct”, says Larsson, who is also an Associate Professor at the Redpath Museum.


The team’s finding of ancient ecological recovery from a forest fire will help broaden scientists’ understanding of biodiversity immediately before the mass extinction of dinosaurs. “We won’t be able to fully understand the extinction dynamics until we understand what normal ecological processes were going on in the background,” says Larsson.