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

84 – 72  Lihue, Kauai
87 – 73  Honolulu, Oahu

8371  Molokai AP
8671  Kahului AP, Maui
85 74  Kailua Kona
83 – 70  Hilo AP, Hawaii

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

1.01  Wainiha, Kauai
0.65  Nuuanu Upper,
Oahu
0.31  Puu Alii, Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.82  Puu Kukui, Maui
0.94  Saddle Quarry, Big Island

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

27  Port Allen, Kauai – NE
37  Kuaokala, Oahu – ENE
32 
Molokai – ENE
28  Lanai – NE

38  Kahoolawe – NE
30  Maalaea Bay, Maui – N 

31  Pali 2, Big Island – SW

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
A low pressure system over the ocean far to the north…along
with its trailing cold front

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/cpac/ir4.jpg
Thunderstorms far south-southwest of Hawaii

 

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/hi/ir4.jpg
Clear to partly cloudy…a few cloudy areas

 

http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/RadarImg/hawaii.gif
Showers falling locally –
Looping radar image

Small Craft Advisory…for the windiest coasts and
channels around Maui County and the Big Island

 

~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~



Trades winds continuing…well into the future. Here’s the latest weather map, showing the Hawaiian Islands, and the rest of the North Pacific Ocean. We find high pressure systems well offshore to the north and northeast…with an associated ridge extending westward to the north of the state.
At the same time, we see a gale low pressure system far north, along with a trailing cold front well offshore to the northwest of the islands. Moderate to locally strong trade winds will continue through  the weekend…and then continue right on into next week. I see no distinct end to our ongoing trade wind regime, which is typical for the spring months here in Hawaii. There will be those common fluctuations in strength on a daily basis, and of course lightest at night into the early morning hours.

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

The trade winds will keep most showers focused along the windward sides…arriving generally during the night and early morning hours. The leeward sides will remain less showery, with a few exceptions here and there at times on the smaller islands. There may be possible afternoon and early evening showers along the leeward slopes, above Kona coast as well. Otherwise, there are no unusual weather circumstances expected in our weather for the time being…and likely through the rest of this week. A trade wind weather pattern is well established, with no plans to lose its influence on our area well into the future. There’s a chance for some modest increase in windward showers around next Tuesday or Wednesday.

Marine environment details:  A small craft advisory /SCA/ remains in place for the typically windy waters and channels around the Big Island and Maui County, while conditions are border line elsewhere. A decline in winds is expected Thursday into Saturday. This will lead to marginal conditions in the areas covered by the current SCA, and could lead to a cancellation of the SCA entirely. By Sunday, SCA winds will likely be in place again for the typically windy areas.

Mainly small swells from the northwest and south-southwest are in store this week, while moderate, trade wind swell continues. There is a chance of seeing moderate surf along south facing leeward shores this weekend…though confidence is low.

 

   https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/24/ce/4e/24ce4e2345c483fe4844507e53a2f2b1.jpg
Big Island of Hawaii


Here on Maui
– Before sunrise on this Wednesday morning, we find partly to mostly cloudy skies along the windward coasts and slopes…stretching up over the West Maui Mountains as usual. These clouds are dropping a few showers, although mostly on the light side. Elsewhere around the island, skies were mostly clear to partly cloudy. Here in upcountry Kula, it was calm and clear, with an air temperature at my weather tower of 50.7F degrees. At near the same time, the Kahului AP was registering 72 degrees under cloudy skies, while it was 73 out in Hana, and 46 atop the Haleakala Crater.

Early evening, conditions look almost exactly like the last several days at this same time of day. There are some clouds stacked-up over and around the mountains…with clear skies over the nearby beaches into the ocean. I see little change in this pattern through Thursday at least, if not right through the weekend into early next week.

 

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:
 Coral Reef Discovered Near Mouth of Amazon River
– While currently more than half of the world’s coral reefs are potentially threatened by humans, scientists just made an incredible discovery: a coral reef the size of Delaware flourishing near the mouth of the murky and Amazon River in Brazil.

Coral reefs don’t typically thrive in murky waters, which makes the discovery even more shocking.

“Beautiful, Colorful Reef Animals” Discovered

The researchers documented their discovery in the journal Science Advances. As reported in the Los Angeles Times, the researches believe the reef stretches approximately 3,700 square miles — larger than the state of Delaware.

The Amazon reef is also home to “beautiful, colorful reef animals,” describes study co-author Patricia Yager, an oceanographer at the University of Georgia, to the Los Angeles Times. Some of these beautiful coral creatures may be newly discovered species, too.

Yager believes that the reefs may serve as “steppingstones between the Brazil reefs and the Caribbean reefs and might serve as a temporary refuge for some of the animals that live between them,” reports the Los Angeles Times. The researchers also hope that the newly discovered Amazon reef can advance our understanding of how coral reefs survive in these unstable times. Worldwide, coral reefs are struggling to combat warming temperatures and increased ocean acidification.

Is the Amazon Reef Safe?

The big question now is: Will the Amazon reef be around long enough for the researchers to study? The Amazon River’s reef isn’t fighting warming temperatures and ocean acidification like other reefs. The threat to the discovered reef ecosystem is big oil — more specifically oil drilling and exploration. Unsustainable fishing activities near the mouth of the Amazon River are also threatening the reef ecosystem.

As the Los Angeles Times reports:

“In the past decade, a total of 80 exploratory blocks have been acquired for oil drilling in the study region, 20 of which are already producing,” the study authors wrote. “These blocks will soon be producing oil in close proximity to the reefs.” The study authors go on to recommend that these oil companies complete “a more social-ecological assessment.”

Big Oil is Already a Big Problem in the Amazon

According to Mongabay, beginning in 1978, over 289,000 square miles of Amazon rainforest have been destroyed. Big oil is part of that destruction — one estimate says that oil exploration covers a section of the Amazon rainforest comparable to the size of Germany.

Deforestation aside, research from 2014 conducted in the Peruvian Amazon showed how toxic oil exploration can be: “Nearly 70 percent of the river water samples exceed Peru’s limits for lead, and 20 percent exceed cadmium limits,” Antoni Rosell-Melé, an environmental chemist at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain, told LiveScience. Moreover, oil exploration is also a human rights struggle because many indigenous Amazonian tribes are displaced and exposed to contaminants, like lead and cadmium, that jeopardize their health.