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

77 – 71  Lihue, Kauai
73 – 69  Honolulu, Oahu
74 – 67  Molokai AP
78 – 61  Kahului, Maui
81 – 69  Kailua Kona
77 – 65  Hilo, Hawaii

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

0.74  Mount Waiaeale, Kauai
3.39  Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.80  Puu Alii, Molokai
0.46  Lanai
0.12  Kahoolawe
0.56  Puu Kukui, Maui
0.61  Kawainui Stream, Big Island


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


22  Port Allen, Kauai
20  Kii, Oahu
18  Molokai
27  Lanai
24  Kahoolawe
09  Kaupo Gap, Maui
21  Upolu 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


Our trade winds will become lighter over the next few days,
with increasing high clouds arriving from the west…along
with generally light to moderate passing windward showers
coming in from the east through the weekend

The computer models are pointing towards localized afternoon
upcountry showers, with lighter winds, and some vog early next
week…with windward showers returning with the trade winds
around mid-week

Small Craft Wind Advisory…all coastal and channel waters

High Surf Advisory…east shores of the main Hawaiian Islands



 



~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~







The trade winds will continue to be active through the end of this week…although moderating in strength going forward. 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 moderately strong high pressure system in the area northwest of our islands…moving in our direction. At the same time, we have gale low pressure systems to the northeast, north and west of the state. Gusty northeast winds will continue to move over the islands…although are in the process of moderating now. Moderately strong trade winds will likely continue through the rest of this week, then get softer and veer to the southeast early next week. The trade winds should bounce back around the middle of next week…lasting for several days.
 
Considerable low level clouds with showers are arriving from the east…with an extensive area of high clouds pushing over us from the west.  Here’s the looping radar image showing showers falling over the nearby ocean, which are impacting our windward sides in many areas…which will increase tonight. There’s a large area of high cirrus clouds to our west, which will remain over our area into the weekend, dimming and filtering our Hawaiian sunshine during the days…helping to keep cloudy skies in place. In sum: continued trade winds, lots of high clouds, off and on passing windward showers, with fewer showers along our leeward sides. I’ll be back with 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: Super Typhoon 22W (Hagupit) remains active, moving through the Philippine Sea…towards the Philippine Islands. 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: New Report Shows Little Hope of Reaching ‘Sustainable Population’ in Next Century – According to recent projections, the number of people living on Earth could exceed ten billion by the end of this century. Now, a new study has examined what it would take to reverse that unrelenting growth and achieve a sustainable population that is less threatening to biodiversity and ecosystems around the world. Short of a global catastrophe, scientists say, the only way to halt this population momentum is to institute a planet-wide one-child policy within a few decades.





 The new study comes on the heels of a statistical projection released in September. It analyzed U.N. data from July and calculated how likely population is to end up in different ranges. In particular, it found an 80 percent chance for a population between 9.6 billion and 12.3 billion by century’s end, with the most likely figure at around 10.9 billion.



 That number is not sustainable, according to Corey Bradshaw, a biologist at the University of Adelaide in Australia.



 “Things like forest elephants? Kiss ’em goodbye. Tigers in India? They’re gone,” Bradshaw told mongabay.com.



 Bradshaw and his Adelaide colleague, Barry Brook, examined whether it’s possible to rein in population growth in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They found that without draconian limits on the number of children per family, population growth is “virtually locked in.”



 The researchers studied computer models of population over the next century, focusing particularly on how different parameters—or levers—affected their models.



 “We’re not out there trying to predict there will be X number of people on the planet as of 2100,” Bradshaw said. “What we didn’t really know is the strength of the different levers one can pull.”



 Bradshaw and Brook pulled on three levers. First was fertility: the average number of children women have. Next was mortality: the likelihood that people die by a certain age. And the last was primiparity: the average age at which women have their first child. They modeled “what if?” scenarios that adjusted these levers. 



For instance, in a scenario that kept levers at 2013 levels, they found that population reached 10.42 billion by 2100, right in the middle of the statistical projections released in September. In a scenario the authors dubbed “realistic,” they cut mortality in half by 2100 to model improving diets and the availability of medicine. Additionally, they shifted primiparity to older ages and lowered fertility from its 2013 value of 2.37 children per woman to 2. Their model still predicted 10.35 billion people by 2100, a negligible difference in terms of sustainability.



To model what would happen if all governments globally restricted families to just one child, they examined two scenarios: smoothly reducing global fertility to 1 child by 2100, or more aggressively by 2045. In the former case, the population peaked in the middle of the century and then declined to around seven billion by 2100. In the more draconian case, population by 2100 shrank more quickly, ending at 3.45 billion.



Even this last figure is still bigger than some estimates of a sustainable human population, which fall between one and two billion. Those numbers are difficult to estimate because they depend heavily on social and technological developments, as well as how much people consume. But what’s clear is that population won’t even begin to approach these numbers in the coming decades, short of utter catastrophe.



“Our point was merely that in the short term our biggest gains in sustainability will be held by reducing per capita consumption, although underneath all that we must also reduce population,” Bradshaw said. “It will just take a lot longer to achieve.”



The point was well made, said biologist Thomas Lovejoy of George Mason University in Virginia, who coined the term “biological diversity” in the 1980s.