Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Wednesday…along with the minimum temperatures Wednesday:

76 – 63  Lihue, Kauai
86 – 66  Honolulu, Oahu
81 – 57  Molokai AP
83 – 60  Kahului, Maui
85 – 68  Kailua Kona
82 – 63  Hilo, Hawaii

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

1.19  Hanalei, Kauai
0.65  Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.00  Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.00  Maui
0.61  South Point, Big Island


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


17  Poipu, Kauai
32  Makua range, Oahu
18  Molokai
30  Lanai
35  Kahoolawe
10  Kaupo Gap, Maui
30  Kona Intl AP, 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

Gusty trade winds arriving with some windward showers, as a weak
cold front moves down through the state into Thursday…followed
by another weak cold front with its showers this weekend…
bringing stronger and gusty trade winds into early next week

High Surf Warning…north and west shores of Kauai, Oahu
and Molokai / north shores of Maui

Small craft Advisory…for high surf and strong trade winds 



 



~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~







We’ll find quickening trade winds into Thursday…becoming even stronger this weekend. 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 far east-northeast, and northwest…with associated high pressure ridges not far offshore. At the same time, we have a low pressure system far to the northeast…with an associated cold front swinging down through the state now. The trade winds are picking up statewide, becoming quite gusty for a day or two. The trades will ease up a little again Friday, with another batch of strong and gusty trade winds arriving in the wake of a second cold front during the weekend.
 
A cold front has passed over Kauai and Oahu, heading for Maui County…and then stalling over the Big Island.  Here’s the looping radar image showing showers associated with the cold front over parts of Kauai and Oahu.  These windward biased showers are being generated by a weak cold front passing down through the state. This front arrived over Kauai this morning,  pushing down through Oahu this afternoon, with Maui County in line for a passage this evening…before dissipating over the Big Island Thursday. Gusty trade winds will blow through this shallow front, and strengthen further in the wake of the front tonight into Thursday, bringing some passing windward showers into Friday. As we get into the weekend, another rather weak cold front will bring some more showers, with blustery trade winds into early next week. I’ll be back with more updates on all of the above, I hope you have a great Wednesday night wherever you happen to be spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.
 

World-wide tropical cyclone activity:



>>> Atlantic Ocean: The last regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlook of the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season…has occurred. Routine issuance of the Tropical Weather Outlook will resume on June 1, 2015. During the off-season, Special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued as conditions warrant.



Here’s a satellite image of the Atlantic Ocean 

>>> Caribbean Sea: The last regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlook of the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season…has occurred. Routine issuance of the Tropical Weather Outlook will resume on June 1, 2015. During the off-season, Special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued as conditions warrant.



>>> Gulf of Mexico:  The last regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlook of the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season…has occurred. Routine issuance of the Tropical Weather Outlook will resume on June 1, 2015. During the off-season, Special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued as conditions warrant.





Here’s a satellite image of the Caribbean Sea…and the Gulf of Mexico. 



>>> Eastern Pacific: The last regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlook of the 2014 North Pacific hurricane season…has occurred. Routine issuance of the Tropical Weather Outlook will resume on May 15, 2015. During the off-season, Special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued as conditions warrant.



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:  The central north Pacific hurricane season has officially ended. Routine issuance of the tropical weather outlook will resume on June 1, 2015. During the off-season, special tropical weather outlooks will be issued as conditions warrant.





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



>>> Northwest Pacific Ocean: Tropical storm 22W (Hagupit) remains active…moving over the South China Sea towards yet another landfall over southern Vietnam. Here’s a JTWC graphical track map…along with a NOAA 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: Will more use of natural gas minimize or exacerbate climate change? – Natural gas power plants produce substantial amounts of gases that lead to global warming. Replacing old coal-fired power plants with new natural gas plants could cause climate damage to increase over the next decades, unless their methane leakage rates are very low and the new power plants are very efficient.





 These are the principal findings of new research from Carnegie’s Ken Caldeira and Xiaochun Zhang, and Nathan Myhrvold of Intellectual Ventures that compares the temperature increases caused by different kinds of coal and natural gas power plants. Their work is published in Environmental Research Letters.



There is an ongoing debate among people concerned with power plants and the future of energy policy and greenhouse gas emissions. Does it makes sense to replace old coal-fired power plants with new natural gas power plants today, as a bridge to a longer-term transition toward near zero-emission energy generation technologies such as solar, wind, or nuclear power? A key issue in considering the decision has been the potential climate effects of natural gas versus coal. Studies have yielded different results by focusing on power plants with different characteristics and using different definitions of what it means to be “better” for climate.



Carnegie’s Caldeira and Zhang, along with Myhrvold, aimed to identify the key factors that are responsible for most of the difference in greenhouse gas emissions between individual gas and coal plants. The key factors, they found, are power plant efficiency and, in the case of natural gas plants, methane leakage during the supply process. They used these factors to derive a simple model for resulting temperature change caused by the carbon dioxide and methane released by a particular plant.



The team chose a simple and understandable way to compare climate effects of different types of power plants. They predicted how much global warming would be produced by different kinds of power plants during and after their period of operation.