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

82 – 62  Lihue, Kauai
82 – 66  Honolulu, Oahu
80 – 59  Molokai AP
85 – 64  Kahului AP, Maui
84 – 71  Kailua Kona
83 – 68  Hilo AP, Hawaii

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

0.01  Kalaheo, Kauai
0.01  Mililani, Oahu
0.05  Kaunakakai Mauka, Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.08  Kaupo Gap, Maui
0.15  Saddle Quarry, Big Island

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

21  Port Allen, Kauai – WNW
20  Honolulu AP, Oahu – NNE
13  Molokai – NW
17  Lanai – SW
18  Kahoolawe – SW
13  Kaupo Gap, Maui – SE
18  PTA West, 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
A new gale low pressure over the ocean northwest

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/cpac/ir4.jpg
Clear to partly cloudy…with high cirrus to the southwest

 

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/hi/ir4.jpg
Clear skies…with low clouds to the north and northeast

 

http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/RadarImg/hawaii.gif
Just a few showers falling around the state
looping radar image


Small Craft Advisory…windiest coasts and channels around the state

High Surf Advisory…north and west facing shores of Kauai, Oahu,
Molokai, north shore of Maui, and west shore of the Big Island

 

~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~



Light breezes into Friday…then returning trade winds late Friday into 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 far to the northeast and closer to the west of Hawaii. Looking further out to sea, we see gale low pressure systems far to the north, with another that’s closer to the northwest. Finally, we see a dissipating cold front now falling apart offshore to the east of the Big Island. Our local winds are light, in the wake of the recent frontal passage (fropa). We’ll end up with light to moderately strong trade winds late Friday through the weekend. An approaching cold front early next week will likely cause our winds to veer to the southeast…which in turn may bring volcanic haze back over us then.

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

Here’s the Hawaiian Islands Sulfate Aerosol…animated graphic – showing vog forecast

Generally fair weather…continuing through the rest of this week. The outlook shows mostly dry weather during the second half of this week, with fairly routine windward showers at times through the weekend. The leeward sides should have nice weather during this extended forecast period, with few showers if any…and lots of daytime sunshine. The longer range models show the chance of another spring time cold front approaching the islands early next week. This looks to be yet another of our many weak cold fronts this year, and there’s a decent chance that it may stall to the northwest of Kauai…before even arriving.

Marine environment details: A large northwest swell will have peaked today across the Hawaiian islands, and is expected to slowly decline Thursday and Friday. 

However, the expected surf generated from this swell remains large enough to extend the high surf warning for most north and west facing shores of the smaller Hawaiian islands through tonight. The high surf advisory also continues for west facing shores of the Big Island. Elsewhere, a small to moderate south swell will gradually diminish Thursday.

The large northwest swell is causing seas across most of the Hawaiian coastal waters to be 10 feet or greater. As a result, a small craft advisory remains in effect through tonight for most marine zones exposed to this large swell. This advisory may need to be extended into Thursday for some coastal waters. Winds are expected to remain below the advisory criteria at least into Friday. As the trade winds increase later this week, wind speeds may reach the advisory criteria from Friday night into this weekend over the typically windy waters adjacent to the islands of Maui County and the Big Island.

 

  https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/9d/ec/32/9dec3200469838e0a065dd4e93e89b3a.jpg
Large surf along the north and west shores


Here in Maui County…It’s clear and calm in upcountry Kula early this Wednesday morning, with volcanic haze. The air temperature 45.8F degrees. The temperature at nearly the same time was 65 degrees down in Kahului under clear skies, 66 out in Hana, and 43 atop the Haleakala summit. Meanwhile, Kahoolawe was 72 degrees, 61 at Lanai City with partly cloudy skies, with 62 at the Molokai airport…with clear skies.

– Wednesday afternoon, with hardly a cloud in the sky…although there’s plenty of haze! As there’s so much sunshine, and so little wind, the atmosphere is feeling warm, although goodness the relative humidity is generally quite low.

– Early Wednesday evening, with a bit more of a breeze than I expected there to be. At the same time, clouds have increased this afternoon, mostly due to the overall light winds, combining efforts with the daytime heating of the islands. I expect these clouds to dissipate quickly after sunset, making way for a clear night. The down slope breezes tonight, heading back towards the ocean, will carry some cool air with it. So that, temperatures early Thursday morning will be a bit on the chilly side. There continues to be quite a bit of haze in our skies as well. / 845pm, all I see up in the dark sky is stars, with a cool air temperature of 47.9 degrees.


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: No active tropical cyclones

>>> South Pacific Ocean: No active tropical cyclones


>>> North and South Indian Oceans / Arabian Sea:  No active tropical cyclones

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


Interesting: Should we be feeding food waste to livestock? – Food waste is a huge global problem. About a third of the food produced globally for human consumption, approximately 1.3 billion tons each year, is wasted or lost, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Food losses in industrialized countries add up to roughly $680 billion, with $310 billion in losses in developing countries. Produce (fruits and vegetables plus roots and tubers) have the highest rates of waste.

Taiwan has a simple solution to reduce food waste: Feed it to livestock. The Guardian reports that Taiwan is “one of a handful of countries that have institutionalized the practice” of feeding food scraps to livestock. About two-third’s of the country’s food waste is fed to its 5.5 million pigs. Pigs are Taiwan’s biggest source of meat.

“We realized there was a lot of kitchen waste and that if we put it in incinerators it would hamper incineration because it’s wet,” Chiang Tsu-nong, deputy inspector general with the government’s Bureau of Environmental Inspection, told the Guardian. “And Taiwan’s land is limited, so if you build a landfill or an incinerator people will protest.”

Food waste to livestock in the EU and U.S.

Feeding food waste to pigs in the EU could save 1.8 million hectares of global agricultural land, an area about the size of Germany, a study released several months ago by the University of Cambridge found. Feeding wasted food to pigs would provide a use for the 100 million tons of food that is wasted in the EU every year. It would also decrease the costs European pig farmers face, in addition to decreasing the amount of land the EU pork industry needs by 21.5 percent. But there is a problem. In 2001, the EU banned the practice after the foot-and-mouth disease epidemic that same year.

Contrast the EU’s ban with another Asian nation, Japan, that promotes the use of food waste as pig feed. In Japan, over 35 percent of food waste is used as livestock feed, and the label “eco-pork” is marketed as a premium product, according to the University of Cambridge study. South Korea also promotes food waste being fed to livestock and recycles 42.5 percent of its food waste as livestock feed.

“In many countries in East Asia, we have a working model for the safe use of food waste as pig feed,” said Erasmus zu Ermgassen, who led the University of Cambridge study. “It is a highly regulated and closely monitored system that recycles food waste and produces low-cost pig feed with a low environmental impact.”

Not everyone is content to just let a simple solution to reducing food waste in the EU fall by the wayside. The Pig Idea, a campaign by food waste expert Tristram Stuart and the Feeding the 5,000 team, in partnership with chef Thomasina Miers, promotes the use of food waste as pig feed and aims to overturn the EU ban.

Overturning the ban would not only reduce food waste, but also reduce costs to pig farmers. In the U.K., it might increase the amount of domestically-raised pigs. According to the campaign, although the amount of pigs in the U.K. decreased from 8.1 million in 1998 to 4.8 million in 2007, Brits are still eating the same amount of pork. However, about 60 percent of pork is now imported, coming mainly from “intensive farms” in Denmark and the Netherlands. The miles it takes to bring pork from those two countries means increased greenhouse gas emissions.

Some food manufacturers are already finding ways around the EU ban. The Pig Idea cites an example of a food manufacturer in England that saved the equivalent of $142,560 a year after it started selling bread waste as livestock feed rather than pay an anaerobic digestion plant $114 a ton to get rid of it.

In the U.S., there is no federal law regulating food waste as livestock feed. However, some states have banned the practice. As a University of Florida report states, the practice of feeding food waste to pigs used to be common in the U.S. but “has declined in recent years because of stricter federal, state, and local laws regulating animal health, transportation, and the feed usage of food waste.”

Despite the decline in the practice of feeding food waste to pigs, there are examples of food waste being sold to pig farms in the U.S. Rutgers University in New Jersey, which has the third largest student dining operation in the U.S., is one of those examples. Since the 1960s, the school has sold food scraps, collected by dining staff, to a farm less than 15 miles away. The farm charges $30 per ton of food scraps to haul them away, which is less than the approximately $60 it would cost Rutgers to haul a ton of trash to a landfill. Rutgers saved over $100,000 by avoiding hauling costs in 2007 alone.