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

77 – 63  Lihue, Kauai
78 – 68  Honolulu, Oahu
7860  Molokai AP
80 – 62  Kahului, Maui
81 – 67  Kailua Kona
82 – 66  Hilo, Hawaii

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


0.02  Kilohana, Kauai
0.05  Kawailoa, Oahu
0.00  Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.11  Hana AP, Maui
0.08  Waiakea Uka, Big Island


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


16  Puu Opae, Kauai – SW
16  Waianae Harbor, Oahu – SSW
15  Molokai – NE
18  Lanai – SW
16  Kahoolawe – SE
24  Kula 1, Maui – SW

25  PTA Kipuka Alala, Big Island – SW


Hawaii’s MountainsHere’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 large area of clouds over the ocean to the northeast, north through
northwest of Hawaii…and far southwest


http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/hi/ir4.jpg
Clouds to the north…although with clearing skies over the islands


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

Limited precipitation…with just a few showers



~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative
~~~



High Wind Warning
…Big Island Summits – west winds 40-60 mph,
with localized gusts to over 70

Wind Advisory…
portions of Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Maui and Lanai –
starting at noon Friday through Saturday afternoon / 15-30 mph
with gusts over 50 mph from the southwest

Small Craft Advisory…
for winds and rough seas – most of the state

Gale Warning…Hawaiian Offshore waters – through Saturday

High Surf Advisory…along north and west facing shores of
Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, and the north shore of Maui


Generally light air flow into Friday morning…increasingly strong and gusty kona winds later Friday into Saturday.
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 northeast and the west of Hawaii, with an associated ridge of high pressure over Maui County. At the same time, we have low pressure systems to the northeast, north, and closer to the northwest. The low to the northwest have associated cold fronts coming in our direction.
As we get into Friday, stronger and gusty kona winds will develop ahead of the next cold front, arriving Friday night into Saturday night…first over Kauai. The air coming into the state in the wake of this cold front will turn drier and cooler into Sunday. It now looks like our winds will be quite light from the south to southeast through much of next week…with the potential for lots of voggy weather.

Our placid weather conditions will give way to a rain bearing cold front into the weekend. Here’s the looping radar image showing a few showers mostly over the nearby ocean. The outlook suggests that the relatively dry conditions will persist into Friday. The forecast calls for the next cold front to arrive late Friday night on Kauai, Oahu and Maui County Saturday, and the leeward side of the Big Island Saturday night. There may be some prefrontal showers arriving as early as Friday afternoon locally. This front will bring rainfall to the state, with a few brief heavier downpours locally. Sunday will turn drier into next week, and may remain quite dry and voggy at times much of next week.I’ll be back with more information on all of the above, I hope you have a great Thursday night wherever you’re spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Here in Kula, Maui:  It’s partly cloudy (middle level altocumulus) here on Maui, with what looks like light volcanic haze still around…as it was yesterday.  The air temperature near its minimal reading was a cool 47 degrees here at my Kula weather tower.
At the same time, it was 63 degrees down at the Kahului airport near the ocean…with 36 degrees atop the Haleakala Crater. The summit of the Big Island was an even colder 25.3 degrees atop Mauna Kea. In contrast to all these cool to cold temperatures, it was a balmier  68 degrees in Hilo on the Big Island at the same time.

~~~
It’s now the middle of the afternoon, at near 3pm, with clearing skies, light breezes, a bit of haze…and an air temperature of 68 degrees. I was up the mountain this morning skateboarding, and as usual it got cloudy and foggy before I left. When I got back here to Kula, it was cloudy, although in the last 30 minutes the clouds have remarkably evaporated, and we now have mostly clear skies.

~~~
We’re now into the early evening hours at just after 6pm. Our skies have cleared remarkably, compared to earlier in the day, with just some minor clouds around the edges. There’s still some volcanic haze in our air, with generally light breezes. The air temperature was relatively cool 59.7 degrees, going down into the mid to upper 40’s again by early Friday morning.

~~~ Here’s a weather product that I produced for the Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) this morning


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:  19,500 square miles of polar ice melts into oceans each year – Sea ice increases in Antarctica do not make up for the accelerated Arctic sea ice loss of the last three decades, according to the stark findings of a new NASA study.


As a whole, the planet has been shedding sea ice at an average annual rate of 13,500 square miles since 1979, the equivalent of losing an area of sea ice larger than the state of Maryland every year.


However, the rate of sea ice loss has recently doubled to now reach an alarming rate of nearly 20,000 square miles.


“Even though Antarctic sea ice reached a new record maximum this past September, global sea ice is still decreasing,” said Claire Parkinson, author of the study and climate scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. “That’s because the decreases in Arctic sea ice far exceed the increases in Antarctic sea ice.”


Parkinson used microwave data collected by NASA and Department of Defense satellites for her study, which was published last December in the Journal of Climate. She added Arctic and Antarctic sea ice extents month by month from November 1978 to December 2013 to determine the global ice extent for each month.


Her analysis shows that over the 35-year period, the trend in ice extents was downward in all months of the year, even those corresponding to the Arctic and Antarctic sea ice maximum extents.


Furthermore, the global ice decrease has accelerated: in the first half of the record (1979-96), the sea ice loss was about 8,300 square miles (21,500 square kilometers) per year. This rate more than doubled for the second half of the period (1996 to 2013), when there was an average loss of 19,500 square miles (50,500 square kilometers) per year – an average yearly loss larger than the states of Vermont and New Hampshire combined.


“This doesn’t mean the sea ice loss will continue to accelerate,” Parkinson said. “After all, there are limits. For instance, once all the Arctic ice is gone in the summer, the Arctic summertime ice loss can’t accelerate any further.”


Sea ice has diminished in almost all regions of the Arctic, whereas the sea ice increases in the Antarctic are less widespread geographically. Although the sea ice cover expanded in most of the Southern Ocean between 1979 and 2013, it decreased substantially in the Bellingshausen and Amundsen seas. These two seas are close to the Antarctic Peninsula, a region that has warmed significantly over the last decades.