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

81 – 69  Lihue, Kauai
82 – 71  Honolulu, Oahu
78 – 68  Molokai AP
77 – 65  Kahului, Maui
81 – 71  Kailua Kona
82 – 65  Hilo, Hawaii

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

1.65  Hanalei, Kauai
4.69  Punaluu Pump, Oahu
4.00  Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
2.16  Haiku, Maui
0.48  Nene Cabin, Big Island


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


17  Mana, Kauai – NW
28  Makua Range – ENE
18  Molokai – NNE
30  Lanai – NE
24  Kahoolawe – N
17  Kahului AP, Maui – NNE
25  South Point, Big Island – NNE


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
Thunderstorms to the northeast of the state…associated with a cold front/
trough that extends down over the eastern islands

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/hi/ir4.jpg
Multi-layered clouds over the central islands, drifting towards the
Big Island…which will blossom into locally heavy showers or even
thunderstorms – with Kauai remaining quite dry


http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/RadarImg/hawaii.gif
Light to moderately heavy showers, some locally heavy over
the ocean surrounding the islands…stretching onshore over
parts of Oahu down through Maui to the Big Island



~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~


Winter Weather Advisory…Big Island summits 

Small Craft Wind Advisory…for trade winds blowing
over the waters around Maui and waters west of Kauai


Strengthening trades into Sunday onwards. 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 and northwest of the islands. At the same time, we have gale low pressure systems well to the north…with an associated frontal boundary/trough over the Big Island. The trades have rebounded across the state today…reaching the Big Island tonight.

An area of low pressure is over Maui and the Big Island, which is keeping unsettled weather in place…with rainy conditions at times locally over the eastern islands. Here’s the looping radar image for the Hawaiian Islands. We currently have heavy rains falling over the Big Island. It appears that most of this wet weather activity will occur from Maui County to the Big Island…with Kauai and Oahu outside this rain field at the moment. As the trade winds return now, 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 the new week…stay tuned. I’ll be back with more updates on all of the above, I hope you have a great Saturday night wherever you’re spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Here on Maui: The skies are mostly cloudy here on Maui, with light showers falling in places. The winds are generally quite light across Maui early this morning, with a low temperature of 59 degrees here at my weather tower in Kula. It was 73 degrees down at the Kahului airport near the ocean, 72 in Kapalua…with a 68 degree reading at the Hana airport…with 37 degrees atop the Haleakala Crater at the same time. The warmest temperature around the state was 74 degrees at Kailua Kona on the Big Island.

~~~ It’s now around 1pm on this Saturday afternoon, under mostly cloudy skies. I recently got back from a shopping trip down to Paia, where it was raining at times…while I was in the health food store. The trade winds have pushed in over Maui late this morning, and now have my wind chimes sounding off. There are a few light showers, although the skies haven’t opened up as anticipated just yet. The temperature is a mild 70 degrees at the moment. / Now at 130pm I’m hearing thunder rumbling, which of course means there’s a thunderstorm relatively nearby…I like that!

~~~ We’re into the early evening hours now at 6pm, under cloudy skies, with most of the showers out along the northeast side of the island…the windward coasts and slopes. Here in Kula, it looks like we could have a shower any minute, as the clouds darken and lower. The air temperature was 66.7 degrees, with no wind to speak of.


~~~ Friday Evening Film – My neighbor Jeff and I, along with his daughter Jill whose visiting from New York, went to see 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. ~~~ This wasn’t a bad film, although the three of us were throwing around the words...kind of stupid. I’d have to say that it was entertaining, although certainly wasn’t my favorite film of late. Jeff and I were a little more generous than Jill, who found it much less favorable. I’d be hard pressed to give it anything much above a B grade. The bottom line here is that it was definitely generally fun to watch, punctuated by a ton of killing. It was rude, stylish, and with more than enough to offend just about everyone watching! It was definitely a spoof on the James Bond concept of a dapper gentleman, involved in international intrigue. Here’s the trailer to this film, which left out most of the heavy stuff. There’s a few sprinkles, and the winds coming up some too.


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: 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.