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

84 – 76  Lihue, Kauai
82 – 73  Honolulu, Oahu
82 – 72  Molokai
83 – 74  Kahului AP, Maui 
84 – 80  Kailua Kona
80 – 76  Hilo, Hawaii

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

5.43  Kapahi, Kauai
6.83  St. Stephens, Oahu
5.29  Kaunakakai Mauka, Molokai
3.30  Lanai
4.51  Kahoolawe
6.64  Hana AP, Maui
4.96  Pali 2, Big Island

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

18  Barking Sands, Kauai – SE
27  Kuaokala, Oahu – SE
12  Molokai – SE
18  Lanai – SE
30  Kahoolawe – NE
20  Hana, Maui – SE 
14  Lower Kahuku, 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://weather.unisys.com/satellite/sat_ir_enh_west_loop-12.gif
 Tropical Depression 12E is now spinning over the ocean
well to the east-southeast of Hawaii

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/storm_graphics/EP12/refresh/EP1215W5_NL+gif/024011W5_NL_sm.gif

The area recently referred to as Invest 95E, has now spun-up
into newly formed Tropical Depression 12E…with the forecast
track pointing towards our Hawaiian Islands

 

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/cpac/vis.jpg
There are numerous large areas of disturbed weather here
in the central Pacific…in almost all directions

Here’s a real time wind profile…so we can keep an eye on
what’s happening here in the central Pacific


http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/hi/vis.jpg
Partly to mostly cloudy skies, thunderstorms locally…
with a large area of precipitation near the Big Island


http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/RadarImg/hawaii.gif
There are some showers, although far fewer now…
with thunderstorms near the Big Island
looping radar image

Flash Flood Watch…across the entire state –
through this evening

 

~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~



Our winds will remain on the light side, although not always, generally from the southeast direction…with light trades returning probably during the weekend. 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 north and northeast of the state. At the same time we see low pressure troughs northwest and well southeast and east-southeast…with tropical cyclone Kilo far away to our southwest. Our winds will be kept on the lighter side of normal, by an area of low pressure located to the north of the state now. There will be individual cells, often with thunder, that will speed up our winds from different directions at times too. This light wind regime will keep very muggy conditions over us for several more days. The trades, although on the lighter side of normal, should return later this week…probably by the weekend.

Unsettled weather will remain over the state into Tuesday or Wednesday. The general air flow over our area, continues to carry copious amounts of moisture up from the deeper tropics. The air will feel very sultry during the days and nights too. There will continue to be off and on heavy rains, and some serious thunderstorm cells over the islands for another couple of days. We continue to have a Flash Flood Watch covering the entire state…which runs through Tuesday evening. Whatever thunderstorms and locally heavy rains that move over the islands, will continue to prompt flood advisories and flash flood warnings here and there. As the trade winds return by the weekend, the focus for showers will gradually shift over to the windward sides. However, these trades will be on the light side, so we may continue to see afternoon showers over the leeward interior sections well into the future. 

I must admit, I’m reluctant to beginning speaking about newly formed Tropical Depression 12E…which has now come to life in the eastern Pacific. I would probably give it a few more days, and let the fizz fade from recently passing tropical depression Kilo. Geez, first we had a close call with Tropical cyclone Guillermo a few weeks ago, then it was Hilda, and Kilo…and now we’ll need to focus on what may turn out to be tropical storm Ignacio. The good news, if there is any with this new situation, is its not expected to become a hurricane, at least we have that at the moment! Unfortunately, I’ll have lots more to say about this next system going forward, although at the moment, there is absolutely no reason for great concern. The reason behind my saying this is, simply because we’ve seen 3-4 tropical cyclones lately, which were at some point a threat to the islands, and they all passed harmlessly by offshore. However, it only takes one to cause a problem, and we’ve certainly been up in arms lately about that!

Before we get all worked up about TD 12E, let me take a moment and interject a little brag – there have been 76,569 page impressions shared on this site during the last 36 hours…and for the last seven days there have been 318,677 as of this evening. That’s ah lot of you stopping by for an eyeful or two of weather information! I want to sincerely thank you for choosing my website, it’s a lot of work, and yet it makes it all worthwhile knowing that you’re finding what you need here! I’m proud and privileged to represent the weather in this way.

I’ll be back with more updates on all of the above and below, I hope you have a great Monday night wherever you’re spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Here on Maui…It’s 545am Monday morning, and still too dark for me to see what’s going on out there. My ears are telling me however, that the rain continues to fall, and we’ve had lots of lightning and thunder, which of course are byproducts of active thunderstorm cells…which continue to roam our skies! / It’s a little lighter now, and with it I’m seeing that our winds are blustery, and I’ve had to close some of the windows in my Kula weather tower…to keep the rain from coming in. I can still hear thunder, and see flickers of lightning off in the distance too. / Just heard that the Hana School is closed today.

–  It’s now 1215pm, and the rain just stopped, after many, many hours of steadily coming down! There’s still lots of higher level clouds, but all of the lower stuff has cleared. I can see Molokai, Lanai in the distance, and the top of the West Maui Mountains from here in Kula too…its a nice feeling for a change. We aren’t out of the woods yet though, as the NWS forecast office in Honolulu just extended the Flash Flood Watch from this evening…until tomorrow evening. / Now at 3pm, the clouds have stopped dropping rain, and I can actually see a little blue sky off in the distance towards Molokai. It’s finally drying out, and the temperature is rising, making it feel pretty muggy I’m afraid…even here in upcountry Kula.

– It’s now early evening, and there’s such a beautiful sunset out there! I’ve got to eat dinner now, although I’ll be back a little later to sign off for the day. By the way, the vog seems to have gone away now too, which is a nice thing. I must admit there are times that I’m feeling a little exhausted, although there are other times that I feel full of energy too. It’s just me here writing all this, although I rely on many different weather sources for inspiration and information. My hat goes off to all those, and most of all the great folks at the National Weather Service office in Honolulu…who work around the clock to provide the latest information about all things weather! I don’t want to forget to thank my Mom too, who helps me proof read all these words many times a day, and she is very good at it too!


World-wide tropical cyclone activity:

>>> Atlantic Ocean:

Tropical Storm 05L (Erika) remains active in the Atlantic Ocean, with sustained winds of 45 mph…and is located about 740 miles east of the Leeward Islands. Here’s the NHC graphical track map, and a satellite image. Here’s what the computer models are showing.

1.)    A tropical wave and associated low pressure area located a few hundred miles west of the Cape Verde Islands continues to produce disorganized showers and thunderstorms. Environmental conditions are not expected to be conducive for the development of this system while it moves westward to west-northwestward at around 15 mph.

* Formation chance through 48 hours…low…near 0 percent
* Formation chance through 5 days…low…near 0 percent

Here’s a satellite image of the Atlantic Ocean

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

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

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

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

>>> Eastern Pacific: 

Tropical Depression 12E remains active in the northeast Pacific, with sustained winds of 35 mph…and is located about 1565 miles east-southeast of Hilo, Hawaii. Here’s the NHC graphical track map, and a satellite image. Here’s what the computer models are showing

1.)   Cloudiness and thunderstorms associated with a low pressure area located several hundred miles south-southwest of the coast of southwestern Mexico are slowly becoming better organized. Environmental conditions are conducive for additional development of this system, and a tropical depression is likely to form in a couple of days while the low moves west-northwestward at 10 to 15 mph.

* Formation chance through 48 hours…medium…40 percent
* Formation chance through 5 days…high…80 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:

Tropical Depression 03C (Kilo) remains active, with sustained winds of 30 mph, and is located about 640 miles west-southwest of Honolulu, Hawaii. Here’s the CPHC graphical track map, and a satellite image. Here’s what a couple of the computer models are showing.

Hurricane 04C (Loke) remains active, with sustained winds of 75 mph, and is located about 335 miles east-southeast of  Midway Island. Here’s the CPHC graphical track map, and a satellite image. Here’s what the computer models are showing.

>>> Here’s a satellite image showing these areas

Here’s a link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)

>>> Northwest Pacific Ocean:


Tropical storm 16W (Goni) is now dissipating with sustained winds of 60 knots, and is located about 128 NM north of Iwakuni, Japan. Here’s the JTWC graphical track map…and a satellite image…and what the computer models are showing – Final Warning

Tropical Storm 17W (Atsani) is now dissipating with sustained winds of 60 knots, and is located about 1065 NM south of Petropavlovsk, Russia. Here’s the JTWC graphical track map…and a satellite image…and what computer models are showing – Final Warning

>>> 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:  How a warming climate is impacting wild boar in Europe – Increasingly mild winters have caused an abundance of acorns and beech nuts in Europe’s woodlands, writes Paul Brown, triggering a wild boar population explosion – just one of the effects of warming climate on wildlife populations.

Wild boar populations in Europe are getting out of control – and scientists are blaming climate change.

There are now millions of wild boar spreading out from their preferred woodland habitat, moving into city suburbs, and even crossing national boundaries to countries that had thought they were extinct.

In some countries, notably France and Germany, which have always had wild boar populations in their forests, they are a major cause of road accidents.

France has an estimated two million boar, and the German state of Hesse alone has 180,000. Berlin, the German capital, is erecting boar fencing around its borders in an attempt to keep the animals out of the city.

Scientists from the Research Institute for Wildlife Ecology at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, Austria, report in the journal PLOS ONE that they chose the animal to study because “the wild boar has an enormous reproductive capacity, and thus the potential for remarkable population growth when environmental conditions become more favorable.”

Wild boar can have five or more young in a litter, can live as long as 12 years, and females can reach sexual maturity within their first year if there is plenty of food available.

Warmer weather means more nuts and acorns

The scientists believe that the increasingly frequent mild winters in Europe and the extra production of acorns and beechnuts by trees are aiding boar survival rates. Both factors are the result of climate change, they say.

The number of animals has been increasing since the 1980s. Because boars are secretive, nocturnal animals, the scientists had to use hunting records and road accidents to help count the animals in 12 European countries.

“Doing this, we were able to depict the growth of the wild boar population”, says the report’s lead author, Sebastian Vetter, an evolutionary biologist. “As mild winters are becoming more frequent, boar populations are also growing exponentially.”

Climate change is also having a direct effect on food supply, the authors say, with the increasing frequency of ‘mast years’ – years when trees produce huge quantities of acorns and nuts – also aiding the animals’ survival. They attribute the phenomenon to warming climate.

In severe winters, a large number of young from the previous summer used to die of cold and hunger, but the extra food supply available, even in cold spells, is enabling more to survive.

“Our analysis showed that the frequency of beech masting years has increased over the last decades, presumably due to climate change. This finding, together with the fact that cold winters had no negative effect on population growth when food resources were abundant, shows that the effect of climate change on population growth of wild boar is two-fold:

“Cold winters have become rarer and, on top of this, the remaining severe winters became increasingly ineffective in diminishing wild boar populations because of the increasing frequency of masting years. In such years, beech or oak trees produce vast amounts of energy rich seeds that are available from autumn until spring in the following year.

“If abundant, this food source likely enables juveniles to cope even with high thermoregulatory costs in a severe winter, and adults to accumulate high amounts of body energy reserves for reproduction in the following year. This result also indicates that low survival in cold winters is apparently not caused by a limited thermogenic capacity.

“Instead, increased winter mortality seems to be caused by a negative energy balance, i.e., when high thermoregulatory costs, due to severe cold, cannot be matched by the available food, especially when high caloric seeds are absent.”

From Italy to Sweden, populations surge

Wild boars are one of the most widely distributed of animals, with their numbers varying between northern and southern latitudes. However, the survival rate of boar populations in Europe seems to be increasing across all countries.

One of the reasons for the wider spread of boar populations has been the fashion for their meat. Wild boar farms have been established in countries where the species had long ago been hunted to extinction. But farmers, unfamiliar with the animals, were not prepared for their ability to break down or jump fences as high as two metres, and many boars escaped into the wild.

Sweden, for example, had no wild boar 10 years ago, but now has an estimated 150,000 in its forests. The UK also has a small but well-entrenched boar population for the first time in 500 years.

Italy, well to the south, has always had wild boar, but has also seen a huge growth in their numbers. There are now estimated to be between 600,000 and 1 million animals. Some are seen on the outskirts of Rome, Genoa and Naples, where they eat from dustbins.