Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Tuesday:
87 Lihue, Kauai
91 Honolulu, Oahu – the record highest temperature for Tuesday was 93…back in 1995
86 Molokai
90 Kahului, Maui – the record highest temperature for Tuesday was 95…in 1951
89 Kailua Kona
88 Hilo, Hawaii
Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands, as of Tuesday evening:
0.78 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.24 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.04 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.15 Puu Kukui, Maui
0.29 Pahoa, Big Island
The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph)…as of Tuesday evening:
22 Port Allen, Kauai
37 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
27 Molokai
38 Lanai
35 Kahoolawe
32 Kahului AP, Maui
27 South Point, 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
Satellite imagery above shows scattered clouds over the islands…
with thunderstorms well to the south
Moderately strong trade winds will bring localized showers –
mostly over the windward sides during the nights and
early mornings
A substantial increase in windward showers is expected late
Wednesday and Thursday…possibly into the weekend
Small Craft Wind Advisory…windiest coasts and channels
around Maui County and the Big Island
Wind Advisory…summits on the Big Island of Hawaii –
until 6pm today
~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~
Rebounding trade winds, moderately strong this week into early next week…locally stronger in gusts. Here’s the latest weather map, showing the Hawaiian Islands, and the rest of the North Pacific Ocean, along with a real-time wind profiler of the central Pacific. We find high pressure systems to the northwest and east-northeast…with the tail-end of a cold front breaking through between them. At the same time, there’s a deep storm low pressure system offshore from the west coast…with the aforementioned cold front draped southwest…to the northeast of Hawaii. There’s also troughs of low pressure located to the west, south, and east-southeast. Our winds are quite strong now, coming in from the trade wind direction…with no end in sight at this point.
Satellite imagery shows clear to partly cloudy skies...with only a few cloudy areas locally. Looking at this larger looping satellite image, it shows an area of thunderstorms pulsing well offshore to the west and south of Hawaii…along with high cirrus clouds approaching from the southwest. As the trade winds are well established now, we’ll see a few windward biased showers…mostly during the night and early morning hours. Here’s the looping radar, showing a few showers moving locally across our island chain. The outlook continues to show a marked increase in windward showers Wednesday night into Friday, and perhaps on into the weekend. I’ll be back with more updates on all of the above and below, I hope you have a great Tuesday night wherever you happen to be spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.
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
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: Tropical Depression 18E is now active, located about 285 miles south-southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico…with sustained winds of near 35 mph. Here’s a graphical track map…along with a satellite image
Here's what the computer models are showing for TD 18E
Here’s a wide satellite image that covers the entire area between Mexico, out through the central Pacific…to the International Dateline.
>>> Central Pacific: There are no active tropical cyclones
Here’s a link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)
>>> Northwest Pacific Ocean: Tropical Depression 17W (Kammuri) is now active, located about 320 miles northeast of Saipan…with sustained winds of near 35 mph. Here’s a graphical track map…along with a 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: NEW YORK — At a historic summit that enlisted climate pledges from dozens of companies, President Obama called Tuesday on all United Nation members to support an agreement to curb global warming, saying “nobody gets a pass.” “We can only succeed in combating climate change if we are joined in this effort by every nation, developed and developing alike,” Obama told the U.N. General Assembly, adding “no nation can meet this global threat alone.”
U.N. Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon organized the day-long U.N. Climate Summit to build momentum for a new international accord to be finalized during U.N. talks next year in Paris. It drew representatives from more than 120 countries, but China and India — the first- and third-largest emitters of heat-trapping greenhouse gases — did not send their heads of state.
The event comes as global emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases continue to rise despite prior U.N. agreements to reduce them.
“The climate is changing faster than our efforts to address it,” Obama said, citing impacts such as “more frequent extreme weather events” like floods and hurricanes and record-breaking temperatures. He cited his administration’s push to curb carbon emissions from power plants, develop non-polluting renewable power and increase the fuel efficiency of its vehicles.
“We will do our part, and we will help developing nations do theirs,” he said, announcing technological assistance to countries most at risk. He said the U.S. and China, as the two largest emitters, have a “special responsibility” to lead.
The summit, which featured hours of speeches in varying languages, also drew climate commitments from countries and companies. For example, dozens announced an unprecedented partnership aimed at halving the loss of the world’s forests by 2020 and ending it by 2030.
The 32 countries, including the U.S., and 39 major companies, including Wal-Mart and McDonald’s, signed on to the “New York Declaration on Forests,” signaling the vital role that forests play in climate change. Trees store carbon dioxide but when cut down, they release the heat-trapping greenhouse gas to the atmosphere.
“There is no way to crack the climate issue without the forest issues,” said Charles McNeill, senior environmental policy adviser for the U.N. Development Program. He said the pledges are voluntary but, because they’re public, signatories won’t want to back out.
If the goal is met, the U.N. estimates the impact would be equivalent to taking every car in the world off the road. The participants, including dozens of environmental and indigenous groups, also pledge to restore more than 1 million square miles of forest worldwide by 2030.
The effort has the backing of wealthy countries including Canada, France and the European Union, but its success may be hampered by the absence of Brazil, home to much of the Amazon rainforest. Brazil did not sign on although three Brazilian states — Acre, Amapa and Amazonas — did.
The participants include many well-known consumer goods makers including Cargill, Nestle, General Mills, Kellogg’s, L’Oreal, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. They agree not to source products such as palm oil, soy, paper and beef from land that has been recently or illegally cleared of trees.
Also Tuesday, six global energy companies — but not the mega-U.S.-based ones like ExxonMobil and Chevron — agreed to work with more than a dozen countries to reduce their emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. They include Norway’s Statoil, Britain’s BG Group, Italy’s ENI, Mexico’s state-owned Pemex, Thailand’s PTT and Houston-based Southwestern Energy.
“We see this effort as starting small and growing over time,” says Nathaniel Keohane, a former Obama administration energy adviser and now vice president of the Environmental Defense Fund, a private group that’s leading the initiative on behalf of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition. He says EDF has discussed it with major U.S. oil and natural gas companies, but he says “not every company is ready to do this right away.”
Keohane says emissions of methane can be 86 times as potent as carbon dioxide over a 20-year period but have not been an industry focus until recently. He says a large proportion of these emissions come from a small number of sources so fixing them can make a real difference.
Methane can leak into the atmosphere during the production or transmission of oil and natural gas. The six companies have agreed to identify uncontrolled sources of methane, take steps to fix them such as replacing leaky valves or other equipment and publicly report their experiences. They’re not committing to specific reduction targets.
Denise C. Says:
Hey Glenn-
Thanks so much for the inclusion of the report on the climate change summit at the United Nations. Since I am not a science denier and I am an island girl, I don’t have the luxury of pretending that climate change does not pose an existential threat to people across the world, particularly in the small island chains in the Pacific such as Kiribati and Tuvalu, which are at risk of becoming uninhabitable. Thus I was encouraged to hear President Obama call for the US and China, as the world’s most significant emitters, to take responsibility, and to help developing nations do their part. This is a planetary issue and we’re all in it together. On a positive note — I will be back home in Hawaii in only days and I can’t wait! As ever, Mahalo nui loa for your excellent weather coverage.
Denise~~~Hi Denise, thanks for sharing your thoughts, I totally agree. Aloha, Glenn