Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Friday…along with the minimum temperatures Friday:
84 – 65 Lihue, Kauai
84 – 71 Honolulu, Oahu
81 – 60 Molokai AP
83 – 65 Kahului, Maui
84 – 71 Kailua Kona
85 – 66 Hilo, Hawaii
Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands, as of Friday evening:
0.13 Hanalei, Kauai
0.63 Poamoho RG 1, Oahu
0.00 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.10 Kula 1, Maui
0.18 Waikii, Big Island
The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph)…as of Friday evening:
33 Mana, Kauai – NW
20 Makua Range, Oahu – ENE
14 Molokai – ENE
24 Lanai – NE
14 Kahoolawe – SE
20 Kapalua, Maui – NE
14 Kohala Ranch, Big Island – WNW
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
Thunderstorms to the north of the state…associated with a cold front/trough
that swings down over Oahu, Maui County towards the Big Island
Multi-layered clouds over most parts of the state…which
will blossom into locally heavy showers at times –
with Kauai missing most of it
Light to moderately heavy showers, some locally heavy over
the ocean surrounding the islands…stretching towards
Oahu and Maui County at the moment
~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~
Flood Advisory…parts of Oahu through 9am this morning
Light and variable winds, stronger on Kauai…with trades picking up statewide Sunday into next 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 a high pressure system well to the northeast. At the same time, we have gale low pressure systems to the north and northwest…with an associated frontal boundary/trough near Oahu and Molokai. This low pressure feature is currently disrupting the trade winds. These trades should make a reappearance during the weekend…remaining in place through most of the new week ahead.
A trough of low pressure is over the islands now, which will prompt unsettled weather…with rainy conditions at times locally into the weekend. Here’s the looping radar image for the Hawaiian Islands. We’ll find a few scattered showers, giving way to heavier rains breaking out locally into the weekend…with even an isolated thunderstorm here and there. The inversion, or the capping layer keeping clouds from growing taller, is now gone. Thus, we may find some localized flooding at times here and there. It appears that most of this wet weather activity will occur from Oahu down through Maui County to the Big Island…with Kauai outside this rain field. As the trade winds return, they will bring lots of passing showers to our windward coasts and slopes into the new week. There’s the chance that some of these generous showers will stretch over into the leeward sections here and there. Looking further ahead, the models are suggesting breezy trade winds and drier weather during the second half of next week. I’ll be back with more updates on all of the above, I hope you have a great Friday night wherever you’re spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Here on Maui: The skies look clear here on Maui, as I can see stars twinkling above. Now that it’s light out, I can see clear to partly cloudy skies, with light volcanic haze prevailing. The winds are generally quite light across Maui early this morning, with a low temperature of 53 degrees here at my weather tower in Kula. It was 68 degrees down at the Kahului airport near the ocean, with a 72 degree reading at the Hana airport…with 43 degrees atop the Haleakala Crater at the same time. The warmest temperature around the state were 73 degrees at Kailua Kona on the Big Island.
~~~ It’s now early afternoon at 1235pm, under cloudy skies, near calm winds, and an air temperature of 68.2 degrees. The clouds are getting darker and darker…very quickly! The cloud bases look very loaded with rain, and just aching for the chance to upload! It’s definitely working up to some heavy rainfall not too long from now. It hasn’t quite started, although I’ve got my eye’s peeled for the first drops, that begin landing on my outdoor ping pong table…out on my weather deck. I’ll let you know as soon as those fat drops start splatting down. Oops, it just started at 1240pm, although its in the form of small drops that are very gently coming down…at least thus far. I’m to get out there and try to sneak in my afternoon walk now…will let you know if I pull it off or not. / It’s now mid-afternoon, and the light showers that began before, are now over. My deck is still a little wet, and the clouds have lightened up some, allowing me to see the haze down in the central valley.
~~~ We’ve just barely punched into the early evening hours at 515pm, under partly cloudy skies. Most of the heavy showers today occurred over the island of Oahu, where there was a flood advisory in place during a portion of the afternoon. Looking westward, I can see some towering cumulus clouds over and near the West Maui Mountains. Otherwise, after a few showers here in Kula, conditions appear to be much less shower prone than earlier in the day. The trough of low pressure, which has been the focus of today’s showers, will be slowly migrating eastward towards Maui tonight into Saturday. So, we aren’t out of the woods yet, so to speak.
~~~ Friday Evening Film – My neighbor Jeff and I, along with his daughter Jill whose visiting from New York, will be seeing the new film called Kingsman: The Secret Service, starring Colin Firth, Taron Egerton, Michael Caine, Samuel L. Jackson, Sofia Boutella, Corey Johnson, and Sophie Cookson…among many others. The synopsis: based upon the acclaimed comic book and directed by Matthew Vaughn (Kick Ass, X-Men First Class), Kingsman: The Secret Service tells the story of a super-secret spy organization that recruits an unrefined but promising street kid into the agency’s ultra-competitive training program, just as a global threat emerges from a twisted tech genius. Here’s the trailer to this film, and I’ll let you know what we thought of it Saturday 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: Tropical Cyclone 14S (Glenda) remains active in the South Indian Ocean, here’s the JTWC graphical track map…along with a Navy satellite image.
Here’s a link to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC)
Interesting: Why the sun impacts climate more in cooler periods – The activity of the Sun is an important factor in the complex interaction that controls our climate. New research now shows that the impact of the Sun is not constant over time, but has greater significance when the Earth is cooler.
There has been much discussion as to whether variations in the strength of the Sun have played a role in triggering climate change in the past, but more and more research results clearly indicate that solar activity – i.e. the amount of radiation coming from the Sun – has an impact on how the climate varies over time.
In a new study published in the scientific journal Geology, researchers from institutions including Aarhus University in Denmark show that, during the last 4,000 years, there appears to have been a close correlation between solar activity and the sea surface temperature in summer in the North Atlantic. This correlation is not seen in the preceding period.
Since the end of the Last Ice Age about 12,000 years ago, the Earth has generally experienced a warm climate. However, the climate has not been stable during this period, when temperatures have varied for long periods. We have generally had a slightly cooler climate during the last 4,000 years, and the ocean currents in the North Atlantic have been weaker.
“We know that the Sun is very important for our climate, but the impact is not clear. Climate change appears to be either strengthened or weakened by solar activity. The extent of the Sun’s influence over time is thus not constant, but we can now conclude that the climate system is more receptive to the impact of the Sun during cold periods – at least in the North Atlantic region,” says Professor Marit-Solveig Seidenkrantz, Aarhus University, who is one of the Danish researchers in the international team behind the study.
A piece of the climate puzzle
In their study, the researchers looked at the sea surface temperatures in summer in the northern part of the North Atlantic during the last 9,300 years. Direct measurements of the temperature are only found for the last 140 years, when they were taken from ships.
However, by examining studies of marine algae – diatoms – found in sediments deposited on the North Atlantic sea bed, it is possible to use the species distribution of these organisms to reconstruct fluctuations in sea surface temperatures much further back in time.
The detailed study makes it possible to draw comparisons with records of fluctuations of solar energy bursts in the same period, and the results show a clear correlation between climate change in the North Atlantic and variations in solar activity during the last 4,000 years, both on a large time scale over periods of hundreds of years and right down to fluctuations over periods of 10-20 years.
The new knowledge is a small but important piece of the overall picture as regards our understanding of how the entire climate system works, according to Professor Seidenkrantz.
“Our climate is enormously complex. By gathering knowledge piece by piece about the way the individual elements work together and influence each other to either strengthen an effect or mitigate or compensate for an impact, we can gradually get an overall picture of the mechanisms. This is also important for understanding how human-induced climate change can affect and be affected in this interaction,” she says.
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