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

83 – 70  Lihue, Kauai
86 – 70  Honolulu, Oahu
8262  Molokai AP
85 – 63  Kahului, Maui
84 – 71  Kailua Kona
83 – 66  Hilo, Hawaii

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


0.07  Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.10  Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.00  Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.00  Maui
0.27  Laupahoehoe, Big Island


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


21  Port Allen, Kauai – ESE
20  Kalaeloa, Oahu – SE
24  Molokai – E
25  Lanai – NE
27  Kahoolawe – NE
20  Hana, Maui – NE

24  Upolu AP, 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 northwest of the state, along
with a cold front…which will reach the state Thursday


http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/hi/ir4.jpg
Clear to partly cloudy conditions in general


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

A few showers, mostly over the ocean tonight into Tuesday morning



~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative
~~~


High Surf Advisory…west shores of Kauai and the Big Island

Small Craft Advisory…winds and seas will increase tonight for
waters around parts of Maui County and the Big Island

Wind Advisory…Big Island summits
northeast winds 30-45
mph, localized gusts over 60 mph


Light to moderately strong east to southeast winds…through most of this week. 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, with a ridge of high pressure extending southwest…to over Kauai. At the same time, we have gale low pressure systems to the northwest…with an associated cold front over the ocean to the northwest. Our winds will be generally light to moderately strong east to southeast. The southeasterly component of this wind flow will keep volcanic haze over some parts of the state. 

A few showers will fall locally, with precipitation increasing as a cold front or trough moves down into the state starting Thursday…where it will stall over the islands for several days. Here’s the looping radar image for the Hawaiian Islands…and elsewhere. This cold front is nearly stationary at the moment. The outlook has this front/trough slowly pushing down into the state during the second half of the week…where it will park itself. The atmosphere will become shower prone, so clouds and off and on showers will persist, perhaps through early next week…stay tuned. I’ll be back with more information on all of the above, I hope you have a great Monday night wherever you’re spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Here on Maui: It’s still too dark to see what’s happening yet, I’ll let you know once it gets light enough to see. The winds are calm at the moment, with a low temperature of 48.6 degrees here at my weather tower, at 550am on this Monday morning. It was 64 degrees down at the Kahului airport near the ocean…with 48 degrees atop the Haleakala Crater at the same time. The summit of the Big Island was a colder 32 degrees atop Mauna Kea. The warmest temperature around the state was 75 degrees in Kailua Kona on the Big Island. / Now an hour later, at 650am, I can see that skies are mostly clear over east Maui (other than some low clouds along the windward side), while middle level altocumulus clouds are above the west side of Maui. These clouds are lighting up a nice pink color just before sunrise! There’s still some light to almost moderately thick volcanic haze over the island too.

~~~ It’s now early evening, under partly cloudy skies, light breezes, lightly voggy skies…with a warm 72 degrees. / It’s now 620pm, with generally clear skies, and those afternoon clouds around the mountains still around. I expect the clouds over the Haleakala Crater will clear tonight, making way for a clear start of the day Tuesday. The air temperature had cooled to 66.6 degrees, with still some of that light haze still around at sunset.

~~~ 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: Understanding the Forces of Abrupt Climate ChangeBy studying African lake sediments from the past 20,000 years, scientists are learning more about abrupt climate shifts, advancing their understanding of changing weather patterns.


In a recent paper published in Nature Geoscience, co-author on an NAU assistant professor Nicholas McKay analyzes core samples from Lake Bosumtwi in Ghana. The isolated lake was formed by a meteor and sits like a bowl on the landscape giving scientists a clear view of environmental changes.


The lake samples were obtained by drilling 1,000 feet to the lake’s bottom and another 1,000 feet into the meteor impact structure. The sediments span 1-million years but the paper focused on the past 20,000 years.


McKay and co-authors describe how Africa changed from a humid environment to the more arid region of today. Earlier studies show the Sahara Desert and other north African regions shifted from lush to dry between 5,000 and 6,000 years ago. Analysis of Lake Bosumtwi reveals humid conditions remained until about 3,000 years ago, providing supportive habitats for humans, animals and plants.


“We saw a complex response in climate changes, not this uniform picture with all of Africa doing the same thing,” McKay said.


By analyzing isotopes from leaves in lake sediments, the researchers gained an understanding of monsoonal changes. In other parts of Africa, these changes are measured by blowing dust. “Rapidly, it went from no dust to lots of dust, instead of being a gradual transition from being wet to being dry. That is what we are working to understand,” added McKay, who said Africa’s complexities reveal clues to future climate change.


Although the large scale, north-to-south change was gradual, McKay and his team focused on areas where the change happened much quicker than expected. The researchers suggested the anomalies were created by the reactions of soil moisture and plants to the diminishing monsoon.


“The plants do a good job of reinforcing their own existence by making it a little moister and bringing more rain,” McKay said. “But if you cross the moisture threshold where the plants die, then it also stops raining and it sort of snowballs really fast and that is how you can get these really rapid changes,” McKay said.


While the paper focused on the Holocene geologic time period, the abrupt localized climate changes provide insights to existing weather models and could benefit analysis of present and future climate shifts.