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

85 – 75  Lihue, Kauai
90 – 74  Honolulu, Oahu – tied the all time maximum…set back in 1981
8873  Molokai
89 – 68  Kahului, Maui
87 – 74  Kailua Kona
86 – 72  Hilo, Hawaii

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

0.16  Kilohana, Kauai
0.38  Punaluu Stream, Oahu
0.00  Puu Alii, Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.02  Hana AP, Maui
0.16  Saddle Quarry, Big Island

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

14  Poipu, Kauai – NE
22  Kuaokala,
Oahu – NE
22  Molokai – NE
29  Lanai – NE

29  Kahoolawe – NE
30  Kahului AP, Maui – NE

27  Kealakomo, Big Island – ENE

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://weather.unisys.com/satellite/sat_ir_enh_west_loop-12.gif
Low pressure systems with a cold front north of the islands
with a tropical disturbance well east-southeast of the Big Island


http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/hi/ir4.jpg
A few clouds being carried our way on the trade wind flow,
with a few high cirrus clouds to our south –
Looping version


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

A few showers…mostly over the interior sections, and
over the nearby ocean – here’s the looping radar image


~~~
Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~



Trade winds will continue…losing some strength into the new 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 moderately strong high pressure systems to the northwest, north and northeast of the state. At the same time, there’s a low pressure system well to the northeast, with its associated cold front evident to the north of the islands. Our trades will soften some this weekend, with onshore daytime sea breezes, and offshore flowing land breezes during the nights. This somewhat unusual weather situation, caused by the relatively close proximity of the cold front to the north, should be fairly short-lived however. Climatology would strongly suggest rebounding trade winds by Tuesday or Wednesday…becoming rather strong and gusty by next weekend.

As the trade winds weaken some…we’ll begin to see showers popping-up over the islands during the afternoon hours locally. The windward sides will still see a few showers too, although not all that many are expected. There will continue to be some interior showers during the afternoon hours…especially on the larger islands. As the trades weaken into the new week ahead, we’ll see a convective weather pattern taking over. This will manifest as afternoon upcountry clouds leading to localized showers, clearing back during the nights for the most part. As the trade winds rebound with time, we’ll see returning off and on passing showers along our windward sides. I’ll return 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.

A tropical disturbance will be moving into our central Pacific soon…and is being given a low 20 percent chance of developing during the next two days. This area is hovering near the 140 degree line of longitude, which is the interface between the central and eastern Pacific Ocean. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) and the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC) is giving this area of disturbed weather a low 20% chance of developing this weekend. Although this disturbance will migrate over into our central Pacific now, although there’s no cause for alarm here in Hawaii. I continue to run both the GFS and Navy’s NAVGEM models on this area, neither of which spin this up into a tropical depression. The expectation is that upper level winds will limit this areas development…although there may be some additional organization for the next day or two before that happens. Looking into the longer range, there’s a chance that we could see some increasing showers over some parts of the state around next Wednesday…loosely associated with this tropical disturbance. Here’s a satellite image of this area, marked with an X. Here’s what the hurricane models are showing for this area…along with this looping satellite image.  I will keep an eye on this situation, and provide updates as it slowly moves west-northwestward into our central Pacific.

Here on Maui…it’s 550am Saturday morning, with mostly clear conditions, along with some light haze as well.
The air temperature here in Kula, at my upcountry weather tower, was 53.2 degrees, while it was 70 down at the Kahului airport, 73 out in Hana…and 46 up at the summit of the Haleakala Crater at near the same time.

It’s now 210pm Saturday afternoon, under partly to mostly cloudy skies…although it looks very sunny down by the beaches. The trades are blowing, and I’d be hard pressed to find any showers falling at the moment. Glancing at the looping radar image above, I see that there may be a few spotty showers near Ulupalakua, and perhaps over on the windward side of west Maui.

We’ve pushed into the early evening hours, now at 515pm, under partly cloudy skies in general. There continues to be some light haze around the edges, and we may see increased amounts of volcanic haze as we get into the new week. Here in Kula the air temperature was 76.5 degrees, while it was 82 at the Kahului airport, 84 at Kapalua, and 81 out in Hana…with a cooler 57 up at the summit of the Haleakala Crater near the same time. / Now at 610pm it’s gotten cloudy, and I forgot to mention that we had a very light little sprinkle this afternoon…although it didn’t amount to much at all, and what reminded me was that we’re having a very light mist again now.


World-wide tropical cyclone activity:


>>>
Atlantic Ocean:
There are no active tropical cyclones

>>>
Caribbean Sea:
There are no active tropical cyclones

>>>
Gulf of Mexico:
There are no active tropical cyclones

Here’s a satellite image of the Atlantic Ocean

Here’s a satellite image of the Caribbean Sea…and the Gulf of Mexico

Tropical cyclone formation is not expected during the next 5 days over the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea or Atlantic Ocean


Here’s the link to the
National Hurricane Center (NHC)

>>> Eastern Pacific: There are no active tropical cyclones

Here’s a wide satellite image that covers the entire area between Mexico, out through the central Pacific…to the International Dateline.

No tropical cyclones are expected through the next five days

Here’s the link to the
National Hurricane Center (NHC)

>>>
Central Pacific
: There are no active tropical cyclones

1.)  Scattered thunderstorms associated with a broad area of low pressure was located around 1000 miles southeast of Hilo, Hawaii. Although very little organization has been observed over the past six to 12 hours, some development will remain possible for another day as it drifts toward the west-northwest.

* Formation chance through 48 hours…low…10 percent

Here’s a satellite image with this area marked with an X

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: 
Beijing growing explosively…impacting weather and climate – A new study by scientists using data from NASA’s QuikScat satellite has demonstrated a novel technique to quantify urban growth based on observed changes in physical infrastructure. The researchers used the technique to study the rapid urban growth in Beijing, China, finding that its physical area quadrupled between 2000 and 2009.

Data from NASA’s QuikScat satellite show the changing extent of Beijing between 2000 and 2009 through changes to its infrastructure. Gray and black indicate buildings, with the tallest and largest buildings in the city’s commercial core appearing lighter gray. Other colors show changes in areas not yet urbanized (for example, clearing land or cutting down trees), with the rate of change indicated by color. Blue-green indicates the least change, yellow-orange more change, and red the greatest change. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A team led by Mark Jacobson of Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, and Son Nghiem of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, used data from QuikScat to measure the extent of infrastructure changes, such as new buildings and roads, in China’s capital. They then quantified how urban growth has changed Beijing’s wind patterns and pollution, using a computer model of climate and air quality developed by Jacobson.

New infrastructure alone — the buildings and roads themselves, not including additional pollution created by the new city dwellers and their vehicles — created a ring of impacts around the older parts of Beijing. The impacts included increasing winter temperatures by about 5 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit (3 to 4 degrees Celsius) and reducing wind speed by about 2 to 7 mph (1 to 3 meters per second), making the city air more stagnant.

“Buildings slow down winds just by blocking the air, and also by creating friction,” Jacobson explained. “You have higher temperatures because covering the soil reduces evaporation, which is a cooling process.” Roads and roofs heat up more during the day than soil or vegetation would because they are drier. The heat and more stagnant air create a cascade of consequences, such as increased ground-level ozone pollution.

Beijing’s official city limits enclose an area larger than the state of Connecticut, but much of that real estate is undeveloped and likely to remain so — nature preserves and rugged mountains, for example. The Chinese capital is far from the only world city whose official area differs from its actual footprint.

“There are so many definitions of urban extent, both legislative and administrative,” Nghiem pointed out. “To learn how physical change affects the environment, you cannot use an arbitrary political definition. The reality is what’s happening on the ground.” The new method allows researchers to pinpoint just that.

Other satellites such as Landsat, operating since 1972, and the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite on the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite also track urbanization in various parts of the world. These mostly use visible evidence, such as changes in the extent of city lights or clearing of vegetation, as stand-ins for growth. These measures have recognized limitations, however. For example, city neighborhoods without streetlights may be indistinguishable from the countryside at night. Nghiem’s technique can enhance and complement existing measurements.

Nghiem used advanced data-processing techniques on measurements from NASA’s QuikScat scatterometer, a satellite radar managed by JPL that operated from 1999 to 2009. Like all radars, QuikScat sent pulses of microwaves toward Earth and recorded the waves that bounced back, called backscatter. Nghiem’s technique takes advantage of the fact that human-built structures produce stronger backscatter than soil or vegetation. The more, larger or taller the buildings are, the stronger the backscatter. His data-processing method improves the “focus” of the QuikScat image from a pixel size of about 15 miles (25 kilometers) per side to 0.6 mile (1 kilometer) per side, allowing the researchers to capture detail at the scale of a few city blocks.

Nghiem emphasized that the study set only the lower bounds for the impacts of urbanization on local weather and pollution. “If you were to develop a city that didn’t allow any pollution sources, not even a single gas-powered car, you would still have these bad effects.”