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

79 – 66  Lihue, Kauai
79 – 66  Honolulu, Oahu

7858  Molokai AP
81 – 60  Kahului AP, Maui

82 – 69  Kona AP
86 – 66  Hilo, Hawaii

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

1.18  Kokee, Kauai
0.52  Hakipuu Mauka,
Oahu
0.35  Molokai
0.03  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.06  Haiku, Maui
0.01  Kahua Ranch, Big Island

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

27  Mana, Kauai – NNW
22  Kuaokala, Oahu – NNE
13  Molokai – SE
17  Lanai – NE

15  Kahoolawe – NW
24  Maalaea Bay, Maui – NNE

18  Puuanahulu, Big Island – W

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
Winter storm centers remain far 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
A cold front has slipped into the state from the northwest

 

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/hi/vis.jpg
The frontal cloud band has passed over Kauai, Oahu and
Maui County…with the Big Island in its sights now

 

http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/RadarImg/hawaii.gif
The front’s showers are over parts of the islands –
looping radar image


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

High Surf Advisory…north and west shore of the Big Island

Small Craft Advisory…most coasts and channel waters

~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~



Cool north to northeast breezes for a couple of days…before lighter winds arrive by the weekend. Here’s the latest weather map, showing the Hawaiian Islands, and the rest of the North Pacific Ocean. We find high pressure systems to our west-northwest and far east-northeast. Meanwhile, there’s a storm low pressure system to the north-northeast of our islands, which has an associated cold front pushing down through the state from the northwest. The forecast has a period of cooler north to northeasterly winds arriving tonight into Friday, in the wake of this weak cold front. Our winds will diminish again by the weekend, as a high pressure ridge gets pushed down over us…bringing back localized volcanic haze.

A cold front has moved into the state…bringing showers locally. This front will keep a few showers around, especially over the northern slopes of the mountains. The cloud band will likely stall its slowing progress into the state…dissipating over Maui County or the Big Island Thursday. The expected chilly northerly breezes arrive with the current cold front, then becoming light to moderate trade winds Thursday into Friday…along with a few windward biased showers. Looking ahead, we should see yet another weak cold front approaching the state this weekend into early next week, with a more or less similar influence on our local weather as the current front.

Here in Maui CountyWe have mostly clear skies early Wednesday morning before sunrise. Here in upcountry Kula we have an air temperature of 46.9 F degrees at 545am. The temperature was 62 degrees down near sea level in Kahului, with 64 out in Hana, 61 at Maalaea Bay…and 45 atop the Haleakala Crater at the same time. Meanwhile, Kahoolawe’s coolest temperature was 63 degrees, with 61 degrees at Lanai City, and 60 at the Molokai airport. / Now at 1055am, skies are still almost totally cloud free over Maui, although with some clouds stretching over the West Maui Mountains. Meanwhile, the leading edge of the approaching cold front are located just offshore to the northwest of Maui.

It’s 2pm here in Kula, and this cold front is just arriving, or at least the clouds just out ahead of it. The clouds are low enough that it’s turning foggy, which I like very much! I can feel a very faint mist in the air, while I can still see lots of sunshine down in the Central Valley. / I just got a report of rain in Kihei, and not long afterwards…it began lightly raining here in Kula too. / As this cold front arrived here in Kula, the air temperature dropped from 69 degrees to 64 degrees in a short time!

We’re into the early evening now, with the cold front’s clouds over the state from Kauai to Maui. The air in the wake of this front is chilly, coming down from higher latitudes of the Pacific. Satellite imagery shows that the leading edge of the front is over the Alenuihaha Channel between Maui and the north shore of the Big Island. I’m hoping that it will hold together, and bring some much desired showers to at least some part of that southernmost island in the chain. It’s 610pm, and here at my Kula weather tower the air temperature is 59 degrees…with fog and light showers falling. It actually looks and feels like winter for a change…not that the early mornings haven’t been very cool up here lately! Every morning has been dipping into the 40’s, which has me wearing my down jacket and pants, when I get up at 425am each morning. You may or may not know, that I always keep my windows wide open up here in my weather tower – office and sleeping area.

I’ll be back with many more updates on all of the above and below, I hope you have a great Wednesday 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 432 NM south of Pago Pago, American Samoa. 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: 

Tropical Cyclone 08S (Corentin) is now active, located about 532 miles south of Diego Garcia. Here’s the JTWC graphical track map, along with a satellite image...and finally what the computer models are showing.

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.”