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

82 – 69  Lihue, Kauai
84 – 74  Honolulu, Oahu
81 – 67  Molokai
83 – 68  Kahului AP, Maui
86 – 63  Hilo, Hawaii

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

0.65  Puu Lua, Kauai
0.71  Punaluu Stream, Oahu
0.14  Molokai
0.03  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.53  Kaupo Gap, Maui
0.12  Pali 2, Big Island

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

20  Port Allen, Kauai – NW
18  Kii, Oahu – NW
14  Molokai – NW
12  Lanai – SW
22  Kahoolawe – SW
22  Maalaea Bay, Maui – SW
20  South Point, Big Island – SW

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
We see a cold front approaching to the northwest…although
now it looks like it won’t reach the islands after all

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
Tropical storm 01C (Pali) not a threat to Hawaii southwest / and
the quickly fragmenting cold front just northwest of Kauai

 

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/hi/vis.jpg
Partly to mostly cloudy, which are pre-frontal areas of
moisture…along with clear skies locally too


http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/RadarImg/hawaii.gif
Showers mostly offshore…and hardly any of them
looping radar image


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

Small Craft Advisory…most coastal and channel waters

~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~



Southwest Kona breezes ahead of a cold front…volcanic haze locally. Here’s the latest weather map, showing the Hawaiian Islands, and the rest of the North Pacific Ocean. We find a high pressure systems to our west-northwest and east-northeast. At the same time, we find storm and gale low pressure systems to our north and northwest. We see a cold front nearing Kauai, although now is expected to stall before arriving. Our winds will be breezy, mostly from the southwest ahead of the cold front. Generally light winds are expected next week, as a high pressure ridge remains over or close to the state. This light wind situation will keep lots of vog over the islands…at least at times locally.

We see large patches of clouds over the islands locally…along with clear areas. We’ll see a cold front approaching Kauai, which looks like it won’t quite make it into the island chain. This front will likely just brush Kauai, and then shift to the east and northeast. Looking ahead, these periodic cold fronts are expected to continue moving by just to our north, with the slight chance of sliding down into the state with showers next week…as is common during an El Nino winter. We should probably get used to this extended dry pattern, with the occasional wet period punctuating the upcoming serious drought in the islands.

Here in Maui County…We have a mix of clouds and clear skies early Saturday morning before sunrise…along with quite a bit of volcanic haze. The light kona breezes are coming up from the southwest this morning. Here in upcountry Kula we have an air temperature of 51.8 F degrees at 715am. The temperature was 73 degrees down near sea level in Kahului, with 63 out in Hana, 73 over at Kapalua…and 37 atop the Haleakala Crater at the same time. Meanwhile, Kahoolawe’s highest elevation was reporting 70 degrees, with 68 degrees at Lanai City, and 73 at the Molokai airport.

– We’re into the middle of the afternoon, with still all this volcanic haze sitting over us! Skies range between clear and cloudy otherwise, although radar doesn’t show any rain falling. / now at 430pm, the air is still voggy, although there are hardly any clouds in sight.

– Early evening, and a new batch of clouds have arrived, carried our way on the light Kona winds…from the southwest. As has been the case the last several days, the volcanic haze remains over us as well. The air temperature at 540pm was 64.7 degrees, while at the same time we found the readings at the Kahului airport and Maalaea Bay a warmer 79 degrees, 81 out in Hana, 77 in Kapalua, and a cool 46 atop the Haleakala Crater.

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

Friday Evening Film: This time I’ll see one that looks good, called The Danish Girl, starring Alicia Vikander, Eddie Redmayne, Emerald Fennell, Ben Whishaw, Matthias Schoenaerts, and Amber Heard…among many others. The synopis: the remarkable love story inspired by the lives of artists Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener (portrayed by Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne [“The Theory of Everything”] and Alicia Vikander [“Ex Machina”]), directed by Academy Award winner Tom Hooper (“The King’s Speech,” “Les Misérables”). Lili and Gerda’s marriage and work evolve as they navigate Lili’s groundbreaking journey as a transgender pioneer.

This film was very touching, with all the actors giving excellent performances! As noted above, this was the story of the first man to undergo gender-reassignment surgery. I’m starting to see that Eddie Redmayne is one of our great talents, with this film…after his recent Oscar win in the Stephen Hawking film. Alicia Vikander too, besides being so lovely, played an exceptional role as his wife…after being the robot in last year’s Ex Machina. Some critics complain that this film was too simplistic, and that too many of the sharp edges have been shorn from this gut-wrenching story. I can see their points, nonetheless, I was taken with the film, and feel very comfortable giving it a grade falling somewhere between an A- and B+. Here’s the trailer if you have an interest in seeing what this film looks like.


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

Out of season Tropical Storm 01C (Pali) remains active, located about 1450 miles southwest of Honolulu, Hawaii. Here’s the CPHC graphical track map, along with a satellite image...and finally what the computer models are showing.

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 06P (Ula) remains active near Fiji…in the southwest Pacific. Here’s the JTWC graphical track map, along with a satellite image of this system…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:  As gas prices fall, consumers going back to less fuel efficient vehicles – There were high-fives this week from Detroit to Washington, D.C., as car makers celebrated record auto sales.

Americans bought 17.5 million cars and trucks in 2015. That’s a huge turnaround from 2009, and the Obama administration cheered the rebound as vindication of the president’s decision to rescue General Motors and Chrysler from bankruptcy.

“Because of the policy decisions that were made by this administration to place a bet on those workers, America has won, and our economy has been better for it,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Wednesday.

There’s another element of the president’s auto agenda, though, that’s not looking so good: the drive for better fuel economy. In 2011, Obama struck a deal with automakers to sharply increase their vehicles’ efficiency. The move was designed to save money for consumers. It was also a key ingredient in the president’s recipe for reducing heat-trapping carbon pollution linked to climate change.

“By the middle of the next decade, the cars and trucks we buy will go twice as far on a gallon of gas,” Obama promised in 2013. “That means you’ll have to fill up half as often; we’ll all reduce carbon pollution.”

For a while, it worked. Automakers invested in fuel-saving technology, and consumers — burned by high gasoline prices — paid greater attention to miles per gallon. The average fuel economy of new vehicles rose from 22.6 miles per gallon in late 2011 to 25.8 mpg in mid-2014. But those improvements have now stalled.

Analysts at the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute say the average fuel economy of a new car sold in 2015 was lower than the year before. Last month, the average dipped below 25 miles per gallon.

What’s behind the decrease? Cheap gas.

“When gasoline is cheap, the motivation just isn’t there for consumers to pay a whole lot of attention to fuel economy,” says Brandon Schoettle, who compiles the University of Michigan figures with his colleague Michael Sivak.

As gas prices tumbled through 2015, car buyers increasingly turned to less fuel efficient trucks and SUVs. And while those models go farther on a gallon of gas than they used to, they’re no match for gas-sipping compacts.

“There’s kind of two competing forces here,” Schoettle says. “The automakers are doing what they can to improve the technology and the vehicles and make the fuel economy for these better and better each year. But on the other hand, you’ve also got the consumer behavior and what drivers want to purchase and drive around.”

Automakers aren’t likely to discourage consumers from switching, since trucks and SUVs are typically more profitable than cars. And if the trend continues, the U.S. will have a tough time meeting its climate goal of doubling fuel economy by 2025.