Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Wednesday…along with the minimums Wednesday:
89 – 70 Lihue, Kauai – broke the record high of 87 for Wednesday…set back in 1981
87 – 73 Honolulu, Oahu
87 – 68 Molokai
91 – 71 Kahului, Maui – tied the record high Wednesday, which was 91…back in 1980
88 – 79 Kailua Kona
88 – 74 Hilo, Hawaii – broke the record high of 87 for Wednesday…set back in 1967
Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands, as of Wednesday evening:
0.01 Kilohana, Kauai
0.01 Kahana, Oahu
0.00 Puu Alii, Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.01 Kahakuloa, Maui
0.28 Kapapala RAWS, Big Island
The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph)…as of Wednesday evening:
13 Poipu, Kauai – SW
12 Kuaokala, Oahu – NNE
13 Molokai – E
14 Lanai – SE
24 Kahoolawe – SE
17 Maalaea Bay, Maui – N
24 Upolu AP, Big Island – NE
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
Low pressure system with a cold front north of the
state / to see a cold front dipping into the tropics,
along with southeast to southwest kona winds here
in Hawaii during the summer months…is truly rare!
Mostly clear with clouds are over some parts of the island chain…
high cirrus clouds south and southwest – and the edge of a
July cold front northwest of the state – Looping version
A few showers…mostly over the islands – looping radar image
~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~
Tonight’s full moon ushers in July’s ‘blue moon’
(two full moons in one month)
Our local winds will remain lighter than normal for a few more days…with localized voggy conditions. 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 far to the northwest and northeast of the state. At the same time, there’s a low pressure system to the north, along with its associated cold front not far to the north and northwest. Our winds will remain on the much softer side of normal, with onshore daytime sea breezes, and offshore flowing land breezes during the nights. This unusual weather situation is being caused by the relatively close proximity of the low pressure system, and its cold front to our north, which is pushing high pressure ridges close to the state. We should see slowly rebounding trade winds this weekend…remaining well established through next week. As a matter of fact, they may become robust and gusty, as a low pressure area associated with a tropical disturbance, moves by to the south of Hawaii during the middle of next week. This is according to the GFS model, although in contrast…the NAVGEM model shows this area of low pressure moving northward well east of the state…stay tuned.
We’ll see showers popping-up over the islands during the afternoon hours…locally. As the winds remain rather soft for the time being, we’ll see a convective weather pattern continuing. This will manifest as afternoon upcountry clouds leading to localized showers, clearing back during the nights for the most part. As the trade winds gradually return by the weekend and beyond, there will be the usual off and on passing windward biased showers. There’s the chance that the northern fringe of a tropical disturbance may bring an increase in showers during the middle of next week…stay tuned. I’ll be back with more updates on all of the above, I hope you have a great Wednesday night wherever you’re spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.
July is full of Full Moons! For the first time since August 2012, we’re having two full moons in the same month. The first is tonight, July 1, then it happens again on July 31st.
We’ll have to wait until September for the big show, a full “supermoon,” when the moon is at its closest to the Earth as it reaches fullness, thus appearing unusually large. Last year the full supermoon happened for several months right through summer and repeatedly spell bound audiences around the world. (The full supermoon comes Sunday, Sept. 27th)
Today, the moon became full at 420 pm HST, and will again on Friday, July 31st at 1243 am HST. A blue moon occurs every three or four years, when the date for one full moon falls on or near the beginning of a calendar month, so that the following full moon comes before the end of the same month.
There are several different meanings for the term “blue moon.” The phrase has been in use for nearly 400 years, but during that time its meaning has shifted around a lot. More recently, the term was cited in The Maine Farmers’ Almanac, 1937. The almanac states that when there were two full moons in a calendar month, calendars would put the first in red, the second in blue.
In astronomy, the blue moon is the second full moon to appear in a single month. However, in meteorology, the correct definition of a blue moon is the physical explanation of why, on rare occasions, the moon appears blue. The moon can also has a bluish color on very cold winter nights when ice crystals in the air form a ring around the moon The scattering of moonlight by smoke particulate causes a “blue moon.”
The red end of the spectrum is scattered more than the blue end of the spectrum, which causes light seen from the moon to look more blue: thus, a blue moon.
Despite the differences in meaning, in general terms, the rarity of seeing a moon that looks blue and/or the rarity of two full moons appearing in one month prompted the well-known saying “once in a blue moon,” which means something that happens very rarely.
The next blue moon will be in January 2018.
Here on Maui…it’s 535am Wednesday morning, with mostly clear, although with some clouds too, along with light volcanic haze (vog) over the island as well. The air temperature here in Kula, at my upcountry weather tower was 54.5 degrees, while it was 71 down at the Kahului airport, 77 out in Hana…and 45 up at the summit of the Haleakala Crater at near the same time. / It’s now late morning, and our earlier clear skies have given way to mostly cloudy conditions. These clouds over and around the Haleakala Crater are becoming darker and darker, by the minute. I was just outside, and I could discern a few faint drops beginning, although if you weren’t looking for them, like I was…you might not have noticed them.
– We’ve broken into the first afternoon of July, and its partly to mostly cloudy. These clouds might back off, although at the time of this writing…they look moisture laden plus. The temperature here in upcountry Kula is 77.5 degrees, while at the same time, it was 87 down at the Kahului AP, 86 in Hana and Kapalua…and 63 up at the summit of the Haleakala Crater. / Now that I look closely, I can see that the north shore is sunny, with no clouds at the moment. / Light rain, with big drops just started at 235pm, it’s lovely. I can see to the north, that there is a very large clear area…with no clouds at all!
– It’s now early evening, and as the afternoon clouds clear most areas of the state, we’ll be able to see the full moon coming up in the eastern horizon. It will be able to beam down magnificently through the early morning hours on Thursday. And before I forget, there’s still light to moderately thick volcanic haze in our skies too.
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
No tropical cyclones are expected through the next five days
1. An area of disturbed weather has formed about 1700 miles east-southeast of the Hawaiian Islands. Environmental conditions are forecast to become conducive for gradual development of this system over the next several days while it moves slowly west-northwestward.
* Formation chance through 48 hours…low…20 percent
* Formation chance through 5 days…medium…50 percent
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: There are no active tropical cyclones
No tropical cyclones are expected through the next two days
Here’s a link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)
>>> Northwest Pacific Ocean: Typhoon 09W (Chan-hom) remains active in the northwest Pacific. Here’s the JTWC graphical track map, along with a satellite image. Here’s what the GFS and NAVGEM computer models are showing.
Tropical Depression 10W is now active in the Philippine Sea. Here’s the JTWC graphical track map, along with a satellite image. Here’s what the GEM computer model is showing.
Here’s a satellite image showing the tropical cyclones above and below…plus a tropical disturbance
>>> South Pacific Ocean: Tropical cyclone 25P (Raquel) remains active in the southwest Pacific. Here’s the JTWC graphical track map, along with a satellite image. Here’s what the GFS and NAVGEM computer model are showing.
>>> North and South Indian Oceans: There are no active tropical cyclones
Here’s a link to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC)
Interesting: Where the Wild Things Aren’t…Cats Avoid Places Coyotes Roam– Domestic cats might be determined hunters, but they stick mostly to residential areas instead of venturing into parks and protected areas where coyotes roam. That’s the key finding from a North Carolina State University analysis of more than 2,100 sites – the first large-scale study of free-ranging cats in the U.S. published in the Journal of Mammalogy.
The study, partially funded by NASA’s Precipitation Measurement Missions, found that collecting rainwater for vegetable irrigation could reduce water bills, increase caloric intake and even provide a second source of income for people in India.
Why is it important to know where 74 million pet cats spend their time away from home?
“Domestic cats are estimated to kill billions of birds and small mammals each year,” says lead author Roland Kays, a zoologist with NC State’s College of Natural Resources and the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences. “Knowing where they hunt helps assess the risk to wildlife.”
Kays and his colleagues used camera trap data collected by hundreds of students and citizen scientists in six Eastern states. They analyzed millions of images from motion-sensitive cameras located in 32 protected sites and the urban neighborhoods of Raleigh, North Carolina.
Cats were concentrated in residential areas and small urban forests, such as those along Raleigh’s greenway trails.
“We detected cats 300 times more often in residential yards, where coyotes are rare, than in parks,” Kays says.
The more coyotes in an area, the less likely cats were to venture nearby. The one area where both cats and coyotes overlapped was small urban woodlots.
“Most parks had no cats at all,” Kays says. “Our cameras photographed a single cat at some parks, but we only found evidence for more than one cat in two of the 32 parks we surveyed.”
Another interesting finding: Cats that did venture into nature preserves kept the same nocturnal schedule as coyotes, while those in residential areas were diurnal.
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