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

84  Lihue, Kauai
86  Honolulu, Oahu
85  Molokai
87  Kahului, Maui
85  Kailua Kona
75  Hilo, Hawaii

Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands, as of Thursday afternoon:

0.26  Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.68  Manoa Lyon Arboretum, Oahu
0.49  Puu Alii, Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.63  Haiku, Maui
1.24  Saddle Quarry, Big Island


The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph)…as of Thursday evening:


22  Port Allen, Kauai
24  Kii, Oahu
31  Molokai
38  Lanai
38  Kahoolawe
33  Kapalua, Maui
33  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

 

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


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


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


Trade winds gradually lighter Friday into the weekend,
shifting to the southeast and south ahead of a cold
front…arriving late Sunday into Monday


Small Craft Wind Advisory…windiest coastal and
channel waters from Maui County to the Big Island



~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~




Our trade winds will be locally gusty…although gradually becoming lighter over the next couple of days. 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 a high pressure system to the northeast, which is the source of our trade wind flow. Our winds will gradually ease up later Friday, and then become even lighter through the weekend…from the southeast to south. The winds may turn to the southwest on Kauai and perhaps Oahu later in the weekend into early next week, prompted by the approaching cold front. Stronger north to northeasterly winds will arrive in the wake of the front…bringing cooler weather for a couple of days. The trade winds should return by next Wednesday, lasting for several days at least.

Satellite imagery shows the islands are mostly clear to partly cloudy, although with some cloudy areas and showers along the windward coasts and slopes. The satellite images above show fairly typical trade wind clouds being carried in our direction at the moment, in addition to the showers and clouds to the west and southwest of the Big Island. Here’s the looping radar image showing whatever showers that around tonight. There are areas of higher level clouds well to the northwest…and the south of our islands too. As we move towards the weekend, the trade winds will weaken, and shower activity will increase locally into Saturday, coming in generally from the east on the lighter trades. A cold front will arrive later Sunday into Monday, and may bring some locally heavy showers…stay tuned. I’ll be back with updates on all of the above, I hope you have a great Thursday 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.

>>> Eastern Pacific: There are no active tropical cyclones


Here’s a wide satellite image that covers the entire area between Mexico, out through the central Pacific…to the International Dateline.


Here’s the link to the National Hurricane Center (NHC)


>>> Central Pacific: There are no active tropical cyclones


Here’s a link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)


>>> Northwest 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: Researchers use social media to track air pollution – University of Wisconsin-Madison computer science researchers have developed a method for using social media posts to estimate air pollution levels with significant accuracy.


Graduate students Shike Mei, Han Li and Jing Fan analyzed Sina Weibo — a Twitter-like site that is China’s most popular social media outlet — to uncover real-time information about air pollution levels in Chinese cities. Though the approach cannot forecast future air quality, it can provide accurate, real-time information on the Air Quality Index (AQI).


Graduate students Shike Mei, Han Li and Jing Fan analyzed Sina Weibo — a Twitter-like site that is China’s most popular social media outlet — to uncover real-time information about air pollution levels in Chinese cities. Though the approach cannot forecast future air quality, it can provide accurate, real-time information on the Air Quality Index (AQI).


For 30 days, the team monitored Weibo posts from 108 cities to see how often people complained about the air. The group analyzed the text of the posts, as well as a time-and-space correlation among cities and days, since pollution flare-ups typically cover large amounts of territory and can last for days.


Between 350,000 and 500,000 Chinese citizens die prematurely each year because of air pollution, according to the medical journal The Lancet. Even as smoking rates decrease, lung cancer is on the rise. Yet, while large Chinese cities have physical monitoring stations to gauge air pollution levels, smaller cities generally do not due to the expense of establishing and maintaining them.


For Mei, the project is more than just an intellectual exercise. In the area of central China where he grew up, there is just one air quality monitoring station for an area where 60 million people live, he says.


“Anhui province, where I was born, is not very wealthy,” Mei says. “There’s not enough information about pollution, and sometimes people suffer from heavier air pollution. We wondered, ‘How can we use a new information source to help people understand [the severity of] the pollution around?'”


The group’s mathematical models did not use preselected keywords to analyze the text of Weibo posts. Rather, they developed a machine learning model to assign different weights to different words used in the posts. The team’s approach to using publicly available data could be applied to a broad range of issues, says computer sciences professor Jerry Zhu, who is working closely with the students, along with computer sciences professor Chuck Dyer.