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

82 – 69  Lihue, Kauai
82 – 73  Honolulu, Oahu
80 – 62  Molokai AP
79 – 65  Kahului, Maui
85 – 69  Kailua Kona
83 – 62  Hilo, Hawaii

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

0.53  Waialae, Kauai
0.30  Schofield Barracks, Oahu
0.00  Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.01  Kahoolawe
0.34  Kula 1, Maui
3.48  Keaumo, Big Island


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


42  Lihue, Kauai – SW
36  Kii, Oahu – SW
37  Molokai – SSW
35  Lanai – SW
27  Kahoolawe – SW
35  Kahului, Maui – SW
36  Nene Cabin, Big Island – NW


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 large area of clouds over the ocean to the north and northeast
of Hawaii…along with a cold front just to the northwest of Kauai

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/hi/ir4.jpg
Clear to partly cloudy…with some cloudy areas locally


http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/RadarImg/hawaii.gif
Light to moderately heavy showers, mostly over the ocean…
although coming ashore around Oahu and Maui County at
the time of this writing



~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~



High Wind Warning…Big Island Summits – west winds 55-90 mph,
with localized gusts to near 105 / portions of Kauai and Oahu –
30-40 mph with localized gusts over 60 mph

Wind Advisory…portions of Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Maui, Lanai and
the Big Island, and the Haleakala Crater – through this afternoon /
25-35 mph with gusts over 55 mph from the southwest 

Small Craft Advisory…for winds and rough seas – statewide

High Surf Advisory…south and west shores

Gale Warning…waters around Kauai and Oahu  –
and over offshore Hawaiian waters


Increasingly strong and gusty kona winds 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 far to the northeast of Hawaii, with an associated ridge of high pressure over Maui County. At the same time, we have two low pressure systems to the northwest. These low pressure centers both have associated cold fronts extending southward. Strong and gusty kona winds will develop ahead of the cold front, with the front arriving tonight into Saturday night…first over Kauai. The air coming into the state in the wake of this cold front will turn drier and cooler Sunday into Monday. It now looks like our winds will be quite light through mid-week…with the potential for voggy weather.

A rain bearing cold front will arrive tonight…working its way down through the state through Sunday morning. Here’s the looping radar image showing an area of showers heading towards Oahu and Maui County at the time of this writing. This cold front will arrive tonight into early Saturday morning on Kauai and Oahu, Maui County during the day Saturday, and the Big Island Saturday night. This front will bring rainfall to the state, with a few brief heavier downpours locally, with a slim chance of a few thunderstorms. Our weather will turn drier, with light and variable winds, and possibly voggy conditions through the first half of next week. Some of the computer models are showing another cold front arriving around next Thursday or Friday. I’ll be back with more information on all of the above, I hope you have a great Friday night wherever you’re spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Here in Kula, Maui: It’s partly cloudy here on Maui, although still too dark to know for sure. The winds are strong and gusty here in Kula, with big pile driver gusts at times. The looping radar image above shows an area of showers over the ocean just to the southwest of here, which should bring them over our area this morning. The air temperature near its minimal reading was a quite warm 64 degrees here at my Kula weather tower. At the same time, it was 73 degrees down at the Kahului airport near the ocean…with 37 degrees atop the Haleakala Crater. The summit of the Big Island was a cold 26.1 degrees atop Mauna Kea. The warmest temperature around the state at the same time was a balmy 74 degrees at both Lihue, Kauai, and Honolulu, Oahu.

~~~ It’s now into the early afternoon hours, and the main weather feature continues to be the strong and gusty winds. I’ve had to disassemble my wind chimes to some degree, as it kept me awake last night…and is just clanging too much. I would estimate the wind speeds to be somewhere in the range between 25-35 mph…with an occasional gust topping 40 mph. We haven’t seen the strongest winds yet, and that might be at some point late tonight into Saturday here on Maui. Did you notice that winds are expected to gust up over 105 mph atop the summit of Mauna Kea on the Big Island? They are gusting up to 72 mph at the time of this writing, with an air temperature up there of 29 degrees at about 115pm.

~~~ We’re into the evening hours, and this isn’t exactly the calm before the storm! Well, there is a storm coming, or actually a cold front, which will bring lots of clouds and rain…perhaps even an isolated thunderstorm. The main thing though, is the gusty winds that are preceding this strong cold front. We’ll see more of those pile driver gusts around tonight into Saturday, so if you haven’t already done it…batten down the hatches! At 6pm, it was gusty here in Kula, with a relatively warm 66.4 degrees, and nothing more than a few wind driven very light sprinkles so far. The winds aren’t quite as strong, at the moment, as they have been during the last 18 hours or so. Although, it’s far from light breezes…that’s for sure! An update at 645pm, and its very windy again!


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 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 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.