Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha Paragraphs / March 22-23, 2015

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

82 – 72  Lihue, Kauai
85 – 73  Honolulu, Oahu
80 – 66  Molokai AP
85 – 70  Kahului, Maui
84 – 73  Kailua Kona
82 – 66  Hilo, Hawaii

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

2.89  Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.48  Kamananui Stream, Oahu
0.20  Puu Alii, Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.36  Puu Kukui, Maui
0.25  Piihonua, Big Island

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

24  Port Allen, Kauai – SE
23  Kalaeloa – SE
28  Molokai – ENE
29  Lanai – NE
31  Kahoolawe – NE
32  Kahului AP, Maui – NE
28  Kealakomo, Big Island – ENE

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



Active early spring weather systems streaming eastward…
to the north of the state


Low clouds riding westward on the trade winds…higher
clouds now reaching Hawaii from the northwest

A few showers…mostly over the nearby ocean

Here’s the looping radar image for the
Hawaiian Islands

~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~

The Mauna Kea Summit…on the Big Island of Hawaii

Locally gusty trade winds…becoming lighter for a few days. 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 not far to the northeast and well to the east-northeast of the state. At the same time, we have low pressure systems well to the north and northwest of the islands. The trade wind flow will slack-off as another late season cold front begins to approach the state from the northwest during the first half of the new work week. These lighter winds, which may shift to the southeast locally, could return volcanic haze to some parts of the state, until the trade winds return after mid-week. Those trades will be accelerating significantly during the second half of the week into next weekend.

Cloudy periods and a few showers over the windward sides…although turning drier. Residual moisture from the recent dissipating cold front is now losing its influence on our islands. We’re going to be seeing generally drier weather occurring through Tuesday. A new cold front will approach the state later Tuesday, which is why our trade winds will weaken for a couple of days. This front will slip down over the islands Tuesday night into Thursday, bringing a period of showers, lingering over the Big Island end of the state into Friday. As noted above, there will be a marked increase in trade wind speeds, carrying windward biased showers in the wake of the frontal passage (fropa) Thursday through next Saturday. I’ll be back with more updates 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: The skies are mostly clear over Maui early this morning. The low temperature was 51.8 degrees here at my Kula weather tower at 610am, while it was 66 degrees down at the Kahului, 72 at the Hana airport, 61 at Kaupo Gap, and 48 degrees atop the Haleakala Crater at the same time. The warmest low temperature around the state was 74 degrees at the Honolulu airport.

~~~ It’s now Sunday afternoon, under clear to partly cloudy skies, breezy conditions, and mostly dry conditions. It’s a nice early spring day, just like its suppose to be this time of year.

~~~ We’re into the early evening hours now at 605pm, under partly cloudy skies, and what looks like some haze beginning to form too. It has been dry up here in Kula, and even looking over towards the windward side of east Maui, there are very few clouds…and lots of clear skies. There’s some high cirrus clouds starting to sneak in from the northwest, which may add a little color to the sunset.

Friday Evening Film: I was on my own Friday evening, as the friends that I usually go with, were busy doing other things. I looked at a couple of films that I thought would be good, although since it was opening night for both…I passed. There was one that I was going to skip, although it was one of the only ones left that vaguely appealed to me. It was called Run All Night, starring Liam Neeson, Ed Harris, Joel Kinnaman, Genesis Rodriguez, Common, Bruce McGill, and Patricia Kalember…among many others. The synopsis: Liam Neeson reunites with Unknown director Jaume Collet-Serra, for this Warner Bros. thriller following a mob hit-man and his estranged son (Joel Kinnaman), as they flee the wrath of a vengeful crime boss.

~~~ This film turned out to be better than I thought it was going to be, and more gnarly than I thought it was going to be as well. The critics were quite generous with their praise, and as it turned out, every seat in the theater was taken. It certainly wasn’t a film for the faint of heart, as it was a true shoot-em-up piece of work! I’d say that for how the film was billed, and the good acting throughout, it lived up to its reputation very well. I was impressed by the artistic touches that don’t usually grace heavy films such as this. As for a rating, I’m going to be generous…and lay a B+ grade on it. Here’s the rough trailer for this mystery and suspense thriller.

>>> 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: Tropical Cyclone 18P (Nathan) remains active, here’s the JTWC graphical track map…along with the NOAA satellite image 

 
>>> North and South Indian Oceans: There are no active tropical cyclones

Here’s a link to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC)

Interesting: Burmese Pythons are killing the rabbits in the Florida Everglades – Nearly 80 percent of radio-tracked marsh rabbits that died in Everglades National Park in a recent study were eaten by Burmese pythons, according to a new publication by University of Florida and U.S. Geological Survey researchers.

A year later, there was no sign of a rabbit population in the study area. The study demonstrates that Burmese pythons are now the dominant predator of marsh rabbits, and likely other mid-sized animals in the park, potentially upsetting the balance of a valuable ecosystem.

The study provides the first empirical evidence that the Burmese python caused reductions in marsh rabbit populations in the park, supporting previous studies that suggested pythons were a significant factor in declines of many other mid-sized mammals since becoming established there a few decades ago.

The estimated tens of thousands of Burmese pythons now populating the greater Everglades present a low risk to people in the park, according to previous research by USGS and NPS.

Scientists know that invasive pythons prey on native Everglades mammals, but they didn’t have experimental evidence that pythons could cause population declines or local extinction of mammals, said Robert McCleery, a UF assistant professor in wildlife ecology and conservation who led the study.

While a 2012 study showed that as pythons were proliferating, mammals were declining, it did not directly link the two phenomena. “This study does just that,” said Bob Reed, a USGS research herpetologist and study co-author.

“Mammals play an important role in the Everglades ecosystem, and so recovery of mammal populations is closely tied with recovering the overall health and functionality of this ecosystem,” McCleery said.

In most Florida wetlands, it’s easy to detect marsh rabbit populations by searching for their scat, but the researchers could not find evidence of rabbits in the of Everglades National Park they studied during intensive surveys prior to conducting their experiment.

In 2012, a group of scientists that included researchers from Davidson College, USGS and UF compared data on mammal populations from the 1990s – before pythons became widespread in Everglades National Park ? to results of population surveys conducted between 2003 and 2011. The 2012 study found that significant mammalian population declines coincided in space and time with the proliferation of invasive pythons in the Everglades.

“Previous studies implicated pythons in mammal declines in the Everglades, but those studies were largely correlative,” said Reed. “This new study moves us from correlation to causation in terms of the impact of invasive pythons on native mammals.”

To conduct the most recent study, researchers found areas outside of the park that supported large and healthy populations of marsh rabbits. They moved 31 marsh rabbits into select areas in the park in two experimental populations. They also put 15 rabbits in the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, and captured, collared and released another 49 in Fakahatchee Strand State Park, where they knew there would be few, if any, pythons ? and used those as control sites. All of the rabbits were equipped with radio-collars so that they could be regularly located.

The researchers radio-tracked the rabbits and found that 77 percent of those that died in the Everglades were eaten by Burmese pythons, and that there was no sign of a rabbit population in the areas where they released them in the park one year later. On the other hand, rabbits remained common at the control site after the experiment. Many animals eat marsh rabbits, but outside the park, they’re most often the victims of bobcats and coyotes.