Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha Paragraphs / May 11-12, 2015

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

82 – 71  Lihue, Kauai
81 – 71  Honolulu, Oahu
79 – 66  Molokai AP
82 – 70  Kahului, Maui
84 – 73  Kailua Kona
77 – 67  Hilo, Hawaiiii

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

0.74  Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.09  Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.04  Puu Alii, Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.01  Puu Kukui, Maui
0.70  Kawainui Stream, Big Island

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

29  Port Allen, Kauai – NE
39  Kuaokala, Oahu – ENE
30  Molokai – ENE
35  Lanai – NE
35  Kahoolawe – ENE
29  Kapalua, Maui – NE
38  Pali 2, 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



High cirrus clouds moving over the state from the southwest

Partly to mostly cloudy conditions, with lots of high
clouds…except Kauai

Showers are falling over the nearby ocean…spreading
onto the windward sides locally – especially Maui
and the Big Island

Here’s the looping radar image for the Hawaiian Islands

Small Craft Advisory…strong trade winds across coastal
and channel waters around Maui County and the Big Island

~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~

Strong and gusty trade winds will continue into mid-week…then easing-up in strength. 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 large and strong high pressure system located to the north-northeast of the state. As a result of these high features, and low pressure well to the south in the deeper tropics, our winds will come in from the trade wind direction. These trade winds will remain strong and gusty in our exposed locations. The outlook shows no definite end to this long lasting trade wind episode…although finally decreasing some around the middle of this new week. The extended outlook calls for the trade wind weather pattern to continue into next week.

Showers will continue in an off and on manner…mostly along the windward coasts and slopes. The windward sides will see the most notable shower activity. Most of the incoming showers will arrive during the cooler night and early morning hours…although not exclusively. There may be a couple of showers carried over into the leeward sides at times on the smaller islands, and a few falling in the upcountry area during the afternoon hours on the Big Island and perhaps Maui. Meanwhile, the upper winds are carrying lots of high clouds over the state from the deeper tropics to our southwest. These cirrus dimmed and filtered our sunshine Monday, and will still be around on Tuesday, at least locally. I’ll be back with more updates 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...early Monday morning before sunrise, skies are at least partly cloudy, and the high clouds turning pink briefly just before sunrise.  The air temperature here in Kula at 550am was a cool 49.6 degrees, with a light down slope breeze from the summit of the Haleakala Crater…which was showing a 43 degree temperature. At the same time, it was a warmer 71 at the Kahului airport, 72 at the Hana airport, and 55 degrees at the Kaupo Gap.

– We’re now into the early afternoon, with lots of high and low level clouds overhead. There are some light breezes here in Kula, enough to get my wind chimes sounding off at times. The more exposed areas here on Maui are windier, gusting up into the 30+ mph range. The winds are even stronger on Oahu and the Big Island…where there were gusts topping 40+ locally. Glancing down into central valley I see a fair amount of haze. The clouds that have hung along the windward sides today…still look pretty showery this afternoon.

– Cloudy evening, with still passing showers along our windward side, and rather balmy temperatures as well. These pesky high cirrus clouds are gradually moving eastward, having cleared Kauai, and soon Oahu. Maui County and the Big Island will likely start our Tuesday morning with them around.

>>> 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.

>>> 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: Tropical Storm 06W (Noul) is dissipating over the waters south of the Japanese Islands. Here’s the JTWC graphical track map…along with a looping satellite image – Final Warning

Tropical Storm 07W (Dolphin) remains active, and will gradually strengthen…as it moves by to the north Pohnpei and then very near Guam. Here’s the JTWC graphical track map…along with a satellite image. Here’s what the global models are showing for this strengthening tropical cyclone

>>> 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: Coffee roasting produces useful by-products – The coffee industry plays a major role in the global economy. It also has a significant impact on the environment, producing more than 2 billion tonnes of coffee by-products annually. Coffee silverskin (the epidermis of the coffee bean) is usually removed during processing, after the beans have been dried, while the coffee grounds are normally directly discarded.

It has traditionally been assumed that these by-products ? coffee grounds and coffee silverskin, have few practical uses and applications. Spent coffee grounds are sometimes employed as homemade skin exfoliants or as abrasive cleaning products. They are also known to make great composting agents for fertilizing certain plants. But apart from these limited applications, coffee by-products are by and large deemed to be virtually useless. As such, practically all of this highly contaminating ‘coffee waste’ ends up in landfills across the globe and has a considerable knock-on effect on the environment.

However, a UGR research team led by José Ángel Rufíán Henares set out to determine the extent to which these by-products could be recycled for nutritional purposes, thereby reducing the amount of waste being generated, as well as benefiting coffee producers, recycling companies, the health sector, and consumers.

In an article published in the academic journal Food Science and Technology,the researchers demonstrate the powerful antioxidant and antimicrobial properties of the coffee grounds and silverskin, which are highly rich in fiber and phenols. Indeed, their findings indicate that the antioxidant effects of these coffee grounds are 500 times greater than those found in vitamin C and could be employed to create functional foods with significant health benefits.

Moreover, Professor Rufián Henares points out: “They also contain high levels of melanoidins, which are produced during the roasting process and give coffee its brown colour. The biological properties of these melanoidins could be harnessed for a range of practical applications, such as preventing harmful pathogens from growing in food products.” However, he also adds: “If we are to harness the beneficial prebiotic effects of the coffee by-products, first of all we need to remove the melanoidins, since they interfere with such beneficial prebiotic properties.”

The researchers conclude that processed coffee by-products could potentially be recycled as sources of new food ingredients. This would also greatly diminish the environmental impact of discarded coffee by-products.

The Ministry of Economics and Finance has recently allocated a new research project to the team under the ‘State R&D programme’, in order to enable them to conduct further studies in the area and re-assess the potential value of coffee by-products.