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

81 – 71  Lihue, Kauai
81 – 66  Honolulu, Oahu
8263  Molokai AP
85 – 64  Kahului, Maui
83 – 72  Kailua Kona
81 – 69  Hilo, Hawaii

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


0.01  Anahola, Kauai
0.03  Waianae Valley, Oahu
0.00  Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.01  Hana AP, Maui
4.60  Piihonua, Big Island


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


15  Mana, Kauai -SE
15  Kii, Oahu – ESE
23  Molokai – SE
12  Lanai – NE
35  Kahoolawe – NE
17  Hana, Maui – SE

25  South Point, Big Island – NE


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
Large cloud field to the west through north of the state, along
with a cold front…which likely won’t reach the state


http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/hi/ir4.jpg
Mostly clear…with a few exceptions


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

Just a few showers…mostly over the nearby ocean



~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative
~~~




Easterly winds into the new week ahead…southeast locally at times. 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 high pressure system to the northeast, moving away towards the northeast. At the same time, we have numerous gale and storm low pressure systems to the northeast, north and northwest. Our winds will be generally light to moderately strong trades, veering southeast locally…into the first half of the new week. The southeasterly component of this wind flow will bring volcanic haze over some parts of the state. It’s unclear what the winds will do later in the new week, with the trades possibly continuing, or giving way to lighter breezes…stay tuned.

A few light showers will fall along the windward sides…along with a few during the afternoons on the upcountry leeward slopes here and there.  Here’s the looping radar image for the Hawaiian Islands…and elsewhere. We have yet another cold front pushing in our direction to the northwest, although it will stall before reaching Kauai. Looking further ahead, the east to southeasterly winds will continue through Wednesday or Thursday, bringing a few windward biased showers our way. The models continue to deviate in their outlooks later in the week, with potential unsettled wet weather Friday into next weekend…stay tuned. I’ll be back with more information on all of the above, I hope you have a great Sunday night wherever you’re spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Here on Maui: It’s a beautiful morning here on Maui, with a nice colorful sunrise….although there is starting be some volcanic haze (vog) around now. The winds are calm, with a low temperature of 51 degrees here at my weather tower, at 7am on this Sunday morning. It was 71 degrees down at the Kahului airport near the ocean…with 43 degrees atop the Haleakala Crater at the same time. The summit of the Big Island was a colder 37 degrees atop Mauna Kea. The warmest temperature around the state was 73 degrees in Kailua Kona on the Big Island, and Lihue, Kauai. / Now at 11am, the earlier clouds have cleared almost completely, leaving a mostly sunny reality in their place…although there continues to be light haze.

~~~ We’ve pushed into the early afternoon hours now at 1230pm, under sunny to partly sunny skies, light breezes, light haze…and an air temperature of a near perfect 68.9 degrees. 

~~~ It’s now 530pm here in Kula, Maui, under partly cloudy skies, light breezes, moderately thick volcanic haze…and an air temperature of 70 degrees.

~~~ Saturday Evening Film – My neighbor Jeff and I went to see the new film called Kingsman: The Secret Service, although when we tried to buy the tickets it was sold out! So, rather than leave, we looked to see what else was starting about the same time, and it turned out to be the new film called 50 Shapes of Grey, starring Jamie Dornan, Dakota Johnson, Jennifer Ehle, Luke Grimes, Marcia Gay Harden, and Eloise Mumford…among many others. The synopsis:  E.L. James’ kinky best-seller gets the big screen treatment with this Universal Pictures/Focus Features co-production. The steamy tale details a masochistic relationship between a college student and a businessman, whose desires for extreme intimacy pen from secrets in his past – We’ll, Jeff and I both liked this film very much, although thought it was like a glorified TV production, brought very successfully to the theaters. I don’t see TV generally, although know that things like this are quite common on Netflix or HBO, or at least I think they are. Here’s the trailer for this intriguing film, which captured very well the current times we live in, the pop culture, rather than drawing us forward or backward…as many films do these days. The bottom line here, is that Grey comes in many different shades, and I appreciated them all in this classy effort! As for a grade, I’m afraid this will have to get N/R under the circumstances.


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: The best-and worst-places to drive your electric car – For those tired of winter, you’re not alone. Electric cars hate the cold, too. Researchers have conducted the first investigation into how electric vehicles fare in different U.S. climates. The verdict: Electric car buyers in the chilly Midwest and sizzling Southwest get less bang for their buck, where poor energy efficiency and coal power plants unite to turn electric vehicles into bigger polluters.


Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, began their research by pulling public data from FleetCarma, a company that tracks vehicle performance among car fleets operated by governments and businesses. The study looked at 7000 all-electric Nissan Leafs across the country and how their driving ranges varied with temperature. Cold reduces a battery’s oomph whether it lives in your car or smart phone. “We then combined those performances with regional reports on weather and drivers’ habits to build a nationwide map of car efficiency for every hour of every day within a typical year,” says co-author and CMU mechanical engineer Jeremy Michalek.


In terms of driving range, electric cars in California and the Deep South travel the farthest, as the balmy temperatures yield the best energy efficiency and therefore longer trips before they must be plugged in again. (That’s a lucky break for Golden Staters, who also purchase the most green vehicles in the nation.) Vehicles in cold places, in contrast, have less battery capacity and thus shorter range. The average range of a Nissan Leaf on the coldest day drops from 112 km in San Francisco to less than 72 km in Minneapolis, according to the study, published online this month in Environmental Science & Technology.


The reason is straightforward. When batteries are cold, they have a lower electrical capacity, which limits the duration in which they can pump power. But extremely hot cities, like Phoenix, were almost as bad as chilly towns. Heat improves battery efficiency, but too much can degrade its overall life span and output.


These temperature extremes require drivers to charge their cars for longer. So the team measured the greenhouse gas emissions that would be generated by power grids as a result of plugging in electric vehicles at home. Average energy consumption by electric cars was 15% higher in the upper Midwest and Southwest versus the Pacific Coast.


“We knew that vehicle range was influenced by AC and heater use in extreme climes, but I was surprised by the size of the cold weather effect on battery efficiency,” says David Greene, an energy and environmental policy expert at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who was not involved with the study.


“But future electric car owners shouldn’t be discouraged by these environmental shortcomings, Greene says. Electric vehicles are still in their infancy, and the findings offer policymakers new insights into how best to introduce electric cars across the country. For example, he says, America’s power plants are “the biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions” in the country. Cleaning up the grid would be the cheapest way to cut greenhouse gases, Greene says (along with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency), and lower the climate impact of electric vehicles. In the meantime, policymakers could push incentives, like access to high-occupancy vehicle lanes or tax breaks for charging stations, in regions where electric cars already perform well (such as the Southeast and Pacific Coast) and spend less effort outside those regions. Such incentives could boost electric car sales overall. “More money equals a greater investment into technology, like improved batteries and power stations, which reduces barriers for all consumers,” Greene says.