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

79 – 62  Lihue, Kauai
80 – 63  Honolulu, Oahu
82 – 58  Molokai
83 – 63  Kahului AP, Maui
82 – 71  Kona AP
84 – 66  Hilo, Hawaii

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

0.01  Lihue, Kauai
0.02  Nui Valley, Oahu
0.00  Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.00  Maui
0.02  Pahala, Big Island

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

16  Waimea Heights, Kauai – WNW
15  Waianae Harbor, Oahu – NW
06  Molokai – SW
10  Lanai – NW
10  Kahoolawe – SSW
12  Maalaea Bay, Maui – NNW
18  PTA Range 17, Big Island – NW

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
Winter storms remain well to our north

Here’s a wind profile…of the offshore waters
around the islands – with a closer view

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/cpac/vis.jpg
The next cold front is approaching to the northwest

 

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/hi/vis.jpg
Mostly clear to partly cloudy…with the cold front
about to pass over Kauai on its way to Oahu

 

http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/RadarImg/hawaii.gif
Some showers locally – looping radar image

High Surf Warning…north and west shores of Kauai, Oahu,
Molokai and the north shore of Maui

High Surf Advisory…west shore of the Big Island of Hawaii

Small Craft Advisory…most coasts and channel waters

~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~



Light and variable breezes…then cooler northerlies with a cold front. Here’s the latest weather map, showing the Hawaiian Islands, and the rest of the North Pacific Ocean. We find high pressure systems far to our west-northwest and far east-northeast. Meanwhile, there’s a storm low pressure system to the north of our islands, which has an associated cold front about to pass down into the state from the northwest. The models show a period of slightly cooler north to northeasterly winds arriving Wednesday into Friday, in the wake of this weak cold front, which should finally help to sweep the haze away more fully…at least temporarily. Our winds will diminish again by the weekend, as a high pressure ridge gets pushed down over us again…bringing back localized vog once again.

A cold front will move into the state overnight into Wednesday…bringing showers locally. A new weak cold front continues moving towards us at about 10 mph. This front will bring a few showers tonight into Wednesday over Kauai and Oahu, and then stall over Maui County…likely before reaching the Big Island. Cool northerly breezes arrive with the cold front, with light to moderate trade winds returning thereafter into Friday, along with a few windward showers. All of the above continues to point the finger towards our strong El Nino winter conditions. You’ll be hearing more and more about drought conditions as we move forward into the spring season. By the way, we should see yet another weak cold front approaching the state this coming weekend.

Here in Maui County…We have mostly clear to partly cloudy skies early Tuesday morning before sunrise…along with some volcanic haze. Here in upcountry Kula we have an air temperature of 46.5 F degrees at 545am. The temperature was 65 degrees down near sea level in Kahului, with 66 out in Hana, 61 at Maalaea Bay…and 46 atop the Haleakala Crater at the same time. Meanwhile, Kahoolawe’s highest elevation was reporting 62 degrees, with 61 degrees at Lanai City, and 62 at the Molokai airport./ Now at 850am here in Kula, looking down into the Central Valley, and the West Maui Mountains, I don’t see any vog…or at least very little!

– Now it’s 1215pm, under foggy skies, and a cool breeze, with an air temperature of only 66.3 degrees here in Kula. Meanwhile, it was a warmer 81 degrees down at the Kahului AP, and 59 up at the summit of the Haleakala Crater. At 1230pm we had a very light brief shower. / 440pm, foggy and cool…near calm here in Kula

– 555pm, it’s partly cloudy around the mountains, with clearer skies near the beaches. These clouds will clear back soon after sunset, with little if any showers overnight.

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


World-wide tropical cyclone activity:

>>> Atlantic Ocean: The last regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlook of the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season…has occurred. Routine issuance of the Tropical Weather Outlook will resume on June 1, 2016. During the off-season, Special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued if conditions warrant. Here’s the 2015 hurricane season summary

Here’s a satellite image of the Atlantic Ocean

>>> Caribbean Sea: The last regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlook of the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season…has occurred. Routine issuance of the Tropical Weather Outlook will resume on June 1, 2016. During the off-season, Special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued if conditions warrant.

>>> Gulf of Mexico: The last regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlook of the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season…has occurred. Routine issuance of the Tropical Weather Outlook will resume on June 1, 2016. During the off-season, Special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued if conditions warrant.

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: The last regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlook of the 2015 North Pacific hurricane season…has occurred. Routine issuance of the Tropical Weather Outlook will resume on May 15, 2016. During the off-season, Special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued if conditions warrant. Here’s the 2015 hurricane season summary

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, 2016. During the off-season, special tropical weather outlooks will be issued if conditions warrant. Here’s the 2015 hurricane season summary

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 07P (Victor) remains active, located about 360 miles east of Tonga. Here’s the JTWC graphical track map, along with a satellite image...and finally what the computer models are showing.


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

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


Interesting: To clean up ocean plastics focus on coasts, not the Great Pacific garbage patch – The most efficient way to clean up ocean plastics and avoid harming ecosystems is to place plastic collectors near coasts, according to a new study.

Plastic floating in the oceans is a widespread and increasing problem. Plastics including bags, bottle caps and plastic fibers from synthetic clothes wash out into the oceans from urban rivers, sewers and waste deposits.

Larger plastics are broken down into smaller fragments that can persist for hundreds or even thousands of years, and fragments of all sizes are swallowed by animals and enter the food web, disrupting ecosystems.

One area of open ocean in the North Pacific has an unusually large collection of microscopic plastics, or micro-plastics, and is known as the Great Pacific garbage patch. The patch is enclosed by ocean currents that concentrate the plastics into an area estimated to be larger than twice the size of the United Kingdom.

The patch has gained international attention, and there is now a project called The Ocean Cleanup that plans to deploy plastic collectors to clean up the region. However, a new analysis by Dr Erik van Sebille and undergraduate physics student Peter Sherman from Imperial College London suggests that targeting the patch is not the most efficient way to clean up the oceans.

Dr van Sebille, from Imperial’s Grantham Institute, and Sherman used a model of ocean plastic movements to determine the best places to deploy plastic collectors to remove the most amount of micro-plastics, and to prevent the most harm to wildlife and ecosystems. The study is published today in Environmental Research Letters.

They found that placing plastic collectors like those proposed by The Ocean Cleanup project around coasts was more beneficial than placing them all inside the patch. The project proposes a system of floating barriers and platforms to concentrate and collect plastics and remove them.

For a ten-year project between 2015 and 2025, the team found that placing collectors near coasts, particularly around China and the Indonesian islands, would remove 31 per cent of micro-plastics. With all the collectors in the patch, only 17 per cent would be removed.

“The Great Pacific garbage patch has a huge mass of micro-plastics, but the largest flow of plastics is actually off the coasts, where it enters the oceans,” said Sherman.

“It makes sense to remove plastics where they first enter the ocean around dense coastal economic and population centers,” added Dr van Sebille. “It also means you can remove the plastics before they have had a chance to do any harm. Plastics in the patch have traveled a long way and potentially already done a lot of harm.”