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

77 – 57  Lihue, Kauai
76 – 57  Honolulu, Oahu
74 – 55  Molokai AP
77 – 58  Kahului, Maui
79 – 63  Kailua Kona
80 – 60  Hilo, Hawaii

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

0.03  Anahola, Kauai
0.01  Kamananui Stream, Oahu
0.00  Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.01  Kahakuloa, Maui
0.01  Kahua Ranch, Big Island


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


14  Mana, Kauai
23  Waianae Harbor, Oahu
04  Molokai
12  Lanai
14  Kahoolawe
12  Kula 1, Maui
18  Kealakomo, 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
A weak cold front is moving down through the state

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/hi/ir4.jpg
Dry and stable air is over the state, which will limit the front’s
showers… although will usher in cool northerly winds


http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/RadarImg/hawaii.gif
Limited showers, although a weak cold front passing
through the state…will bring a modest increase

 


~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~


Small Craft Wind Advisory…rough seas and strong winds

High Surf Advisory…north facing shores – starting tonight

Wind Advisory…Big Island summits – 35-50 mph with
gusts near 60

 



More gusty and cool northerly winds…arriving in the wake of a weak cold front. 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 far northeast of the state. At the same time, we have a storm low pressure system to the north…with a cold front draping southward into the area north and northwest. We’ll find northerly breezes, which will increase in strength Tuesday. Strong and gusty trade winds will return by mid-week…lasting for several days. Our winds will then become lighter from the southeast Friday into the weekend…potentially bringing volcanic haze (vog) over the smaller islands…and finally warmer temperatures during the days.

The weak cold front will bring clouds…although not very many showers. Here’s the looping radar image showing hardly any showers falling anywhere in the state at the time of this writing. The models are showing more normal trade wind weather conditions returning Wednesday, along with very few windward biased showers. Then, later in the week we may see our winds veering to the southeast, ahead of another weak cold front, arriving during the weekend…stay tuned. I’ll be back with more updates on all of the above, I hope you have a great Monday night wherever you’re spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

An unusually dynamic cold front: A well advertised cold front sweep through the Hawaiian Islands recently, bringing all manner of inclement weather. Friday started off by sporting 130 mph wind gusts atop the near 14,000 foot Mauna Kea summit…on the Big Island. When I saw the nature of those winds during the morning hours, I had a good idea that things would be getting much worse across the state as the day continued into the night. By the way, the top gust atop that tall mountain reached an amazing 155 mph! The front arrived first over Kauai, with gusty winds and locally heavy rains. During the afternoon hours the front, along with an upper level trough of low pressure, swept down over Oahu, bringing that island the same heavy weather conditions that Kauai saw. It took until later in day, and into the night hours, before this serious frontal cloud band reached Maui County. It came on like gang busters, first on Lanai, then Molokai and Kahoolawe, West Maui…and finally forced its will upon east Maui. It eventually reached the Big Island, although other than the very serious winds over the mountains, that island didn’t get quite the heavy duty punch that the others felt.


I wasn’t sure if the winds or the rains would win, in terms of being the most serious weather issue. As it turned out, they were about equal, although I think the blustery winds definitely had the edge in the end. There were power outages on each of the islands, as the very strong winds blew trees down, and toppled power poles. It seemed that the central islands from Oahu to Maui County took the brunt of the strongest winds. My power, and internet connectivity was off and on all night. I just talked to a friend over in Haiku, on the windward side of Maui, and she still doesn’t have power this afternoon…and it went off last night! When my neighbors and I drove down to Paia to shop this morning, there were several roads closed, due to trees being blown down across them. As we drove back upcountry to Kula, we could see snow atop the Haleakala Crater, which is the first snowfall of 2015.

All things considered, it was the most intense cold front that I remember in quite some time. The winds ahead of and along the frontal boundary, were coming up from the southwest. These Kona winds attained very strong gusts, topping out in the 40-60+ mph range, with some gusts over hurricane force! While I was out this morning, I saw some huge trees down, along with countless branches, and trillions of leaves scattered in every direction. Thinking back I recall another storm back in 1980 that was similar, which had winds over 100 mph across the state. You know, folks are always concerned with hurricanes, as they should be, however, these very intense cold fronts, or Kona storms that form to our west or northwest…can be dangerous too!

I was laying in bed Friday night, after the power went off for the third or fourth time…finally having to submit to discontinuing my website updates. It was completely dark, and yet I could see well enough out through my windows, and just watched the trees being whipped around…as if I was watching a video of a major hurricane in progress. Just when I thought the cold front had passed through my area, we started to have lots of lightning and thunder associated with the actually frontal passage. Shortly thereafter, conditions finally began to mellow out…and I fell fast asleep. I was fortunate to waken early to find that the power was back on, and the internet was back up too. Thus, I launched into gathering all the latest weather information, and getting things updated once again. I have sympathy for those of us who have hours or days of clean up to do, so that we can get back to normal. By the way, I just checked to see how many folks logged onto this website January 2, 2015…and the number was 22,796.

Saturday night film: The big storm Friday evening kept me home, and away from the theater. However, last evening my neighbors Jeff and Svetlana got down to Kahului, to see one of several good lookin’ films. The one we chose was called The Gambler, starring Mark Wahlberg, Brie Larson, Michael K. Williams, Leland Orser, Jessica Lang, and John Goodman…among others. Synopsis: Jim Bennett (Academy Award (R)-nominee Mark Wahlberg) is a risk taker. Both an English professor and a high-stakes gambler, Bennett bets it all when he borrows from a gangster (Michael Kenneth Williams) and offers his own life as collateral. Always one step ahead, Bennett pits his creditor against the operator of a gambling ring (Alvin Ing) and leaves his dysfunctional relationship with his wealthy mother (Academy Award (R)-winner Jessica Lange) in his wake. He plays both sides, immersing himself in an illicit, underground world while garnering the attention of Frank (John Goodman), a loan shark with a paternal interest in Bennett’s future. As his relationship with a student (Brie Larson) deepens, Bennett must take the ultimate risk for a second chance.

We found this film to be entertaining, although not completely understandable in several places. The performance by Wahlberg holds the film up in large measure, although with great supporting characters throughout. The film was all about the self destruction of the main actor, with him losing big bets, huge ridiculous sums of money over and over, which was fun to watch…although had me rolling my eyes more than once. It all came down to his addiction to losing at the card table, and otherwise…with an occasional trumped up win. Nonetheless, I felt it was well worth seeing, pretty slick in places…and what I considered to be a B+ film. Svetlana came in with a B grade, while Jeff gave a stronger A- rating.

We had a rousing conversation in the car coming back up the mountain, which is always fun. By the way, I’ve never been a particular Wahlberg fan, although I’m beginning to appreciate his acting abilities more these days. I thought one critic summed this film up well: “No, this isn’t a race against time where Wahlberg’s Jim Bennett has to scrounge up enough cash to free himself of his loan sharks thumb, but rather this is about Bennett being able to get to a state of being, that lets him be okay with continuing to live, with continuing to win…rather than constantly riding the thrill of the loss and hoping for the seeming peace of death.”

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: 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: Flavor and quality of wine impacted by Climate Change – It has been a challenge at times to get well-heeled and sometimes highly influential people to care about climate change. After all, having a great deal of money can serve to insulate someone from problems that afflict those less fortunate. Food prices going up, for example, not that big a deal. Coastal areas flooding out, go somewhere else for vacation. Many of those at the top of the heap are finding that business-as-usual is working very well for them, thank you very much. Besides, they might have significant investments in industries that could be threatened by changing to a more sustainable model.


Perhaps, what is needed to get their attention is something that hits closer to home. Here is an item in England’s The Telegraph that might fit the bill: Apparently, rising temperatures in areas like France, Italy and Spain are affecting the flavor of certain wines. The grapes that are used in the production of certain wines, like pinot noir, are growing more quickly than before.


What that means, according to Kimberly Nicholas, a wine industry consultant, is that “as the atmosphere warms, the desired ratio of acid to sugar occurs earlier in the season.” That challenges the vineyards to deduce the ideal time to pick the grapes. Ms. Nicholas, an associate professor of sustainability science at Lund University in Sweden, warned that vineyards are finding it difficult to know the perfect moment to pick the grapes in order to retain a wine’s signature taste. The grapes may no longer produce the unique flavors that wine fanciers have come to associate with their favorite reds and whites.


One university study of the impact of a changing climate on the wine industry, performed in Pennsylvania, found that: “The sugar levels mature too quickly, while the flavors lag behind. As the vintner waits to harvest the grapes until the flavor is fully developed, they sacrifice the acidity, resulting in a ‘flabby’ wine (high alcohol content as a result of high sugar levels with very little returned acidity).”


A number of vineyards in California and southern Europe are dropping pinot noir for other varieties of grape that are more tolerant to higher temperatures. While that might not seem like a tragedy for many who are ambivalent about which wines they drink, this is a development that is bound to get the attention of wine lovers around the world.


The value of the global wine business is estimated at close to $200 billion. This is not to say that people are going to suddenly stop drinking wine, but if their favorite varieties are no longer available, some people might look elsewhere for their enjoyment.


Many aspects of our modern lifestyle will require these kinds of adjustments, particularly food and drink. But few things have come to epitomize the good life as much as a glass of fine wine.


Another study, in Australia, found that wine grape quality could be expected to reduce by anywhere between 7 percent and 39 percent by 2030 and by as much as 76 percent by 2050. Of course, new varieties will likely be developed that can hopefully provide better quality in these new conditions. But this will take some time, and in the meantime some people might turn away from wine as their drink of choice, especially if prices go up.


Will this represent a wake up call, a message delivered into the inner sanctum of those benefiting the most from our status quo and least inclined to want to change? Only time will tell. But as time goes on, more and more of these changes will continue to exert pressure on every aspect of life.