Air Temperatures The following maximum temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Thursday…and the low temperatures Thursday:

82 – 68  Lihue, Kauai
84 – 70  Honolulu, Oahu

7869  Molokai AP
8368  Kahului AP, Maui
8170  Kailua Kona
80
– 70  Hilo AP, Hawaii

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

0.18  Kilohana, Kauai
0.12  Luluku,
Oahu
0.02  Puu Alii, Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.66  Kahakuloa, Maui
1.02  Saddle Quarry, Big Island

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

18  Poipu, Kauai – NNE
32  Oahu Forest NWR,
Oahu – S
25 
Molokai – N
24  Lanai – NE

25  Kahoolawe – NE
27  Kapalua,
Maui – NNE

25  Kealakomo, Big Island – ESE

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
Low pressure systems over the ocean far to the north and
northeast…along with their frontal cloud bands draping
southwest

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/cpac/ir4.jpg
What’s left of a late season cold front remains near the Big Island…
with a large area of middle and upper level clouds to the southwest

 

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/hi/ir4.jpg
Partly cloudy skies most areas, high cirrus over the state locally…
arriving as part of the extensive cloud area southwest

 

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


~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~



Winds turning lighter Friday…into the weekend. Here’s the latest weather map, showing high pressure systems to the north and east-northeast. At the same time, there’s very weak low pressure systems to the northeast…with the tail-end of an old cold front near the Big Island.
The air flow over the state will become lighter from the east to southeast Friday into the weekend…prompting the return of volcanic haze to the smaller islands. Early next week the trades will strengthen, settling back into the moderately strong realms…quickly eliminating the vog 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

A few showers locally…which may become more numerous moving soon. The models indicate an upper level low pressure system passing over the islands Friday into the weekend, which could prompt a surface trough over the state. As a result, our winds will veer to the southeast, and move additional moisture over the state. A light wind flow then would allow for daytime sea breezes, bringing showers to the leeward upcountry areas during the afternoons…perhaps locally quite heavy in some locations. There’s a chance that these showers could become more widespread…please stay tuned. The trade winds will pick up early next week, carrying passing showers to the windward sides then.

Marine environment details: A small craft advisory (SCA) will probably be needed for the typically windy waters around Maui County and the Big Island by late Sunday…continuing into next week. Until then, winds and seas will stay below SCA levels.

A small northwest swell is expected to arrive Friday, then slowly decline over the weekend. South shores will continue to see small swells, with a small bump expected to arrive late Monday. The trade wind swell will affect east facing shores early next week…as the trade winds increase.

 

  https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/03/6d/02/036d0200e29d9734f2e6d4d9429e1ee4.jpg
A lovely pool near the ocean on Kauai


Here on Maui
– Before sunrise on this Thursday morning, we find mostly clear to partly cloudy skies. Here at my place in Kula, it’s clear and calm, with an air temperature of 50.3F degrees at 525am. At about the same time, at the Kahului AP and Maalaea Bay, they were both reporting 70 degrees, with 68 out in Hana…and 41 degrees atop the Haleakala Crater. 

Mid-afternoon, with lots of blue skies, and streaks of high cirrus clouds too. This should translate into a nice colorful sunset this evening. The weather has turned mostly dry, although with a possible change Friday into the weekend…please see above, or in today’s Maui News (third page).

Early evening under partly to mostly cloudy skies, with a couple of showers around the edges. There are lots of upper level cirrus clouds around now, which may give us some good color at sunset. It’s interesting to see that mass of clouds out to our west and southwest, on the satellite images above. I know some of you are thinking…will they bring rains to Hawaii? It looks as if the western islands of Kauai and perhaps Oahu, would have the best chance for some localized heavier showers, although the other islands could get wet with time too. By the way, these are generally higher level clouds, most of which aren’t rainfall producers…stay tuned.

 

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:
Early Earth’s air weighed less than half of today’s atmosphere – The idea that the young Earth had a thicker atmosphere turns out to be wrong. New research from the University of Washington uses bubbles trapped in 2.7 billion-year-old rocks to show that air at that time exerted at most half the pressure of today’s atmosphere.

The results, published online May 9 in Nature Geoscience, reverse the commonly accepted idea that the early Earth had a thicker atmosphere to compensate for weaker sunlight. The finding also has implications for which gases were in that atmosphere, and how biology and climate worked on the early planet.

“For the longest time, people have been thinking the atmospheric pressure might have been higher back then, because the sun was fainter,” said lead author Sanjoy Som, who did the work as part of his UW doctorate in Earth and space sciences. “Our result is the opposite of what we were expecting.”

The idea of using bubbles trapped in cooling lava as a “paleobarometer” to determine the weight of air in our planet’s youth occurred decades ago to co-author Roger Buick, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences. Others had used the technique to measure the elevation of lavas a few million years old. To flip the idea and measure air pressure farther back in time, researchers needed a site where truly ancient lava had undisputedly formed at sea level.

Their field site in Western Australia was discovered by co-author Tim Blake of the University of Western Australia. There, the Beasley River has exposed 2.7 billion-year-old basalt lava. The lowest lava flow has “lava toes” that burrow into glassy shards, proving that molten lava plunged into seawater. The team drilled into the overlying lava flows to examine the size of the bubbles.

A stream of molten rock that forms a lava quickly cools from top and bottom, and bubbles trapped at the bottom are smaller than those at the top. The size difference records the air pressure pushing down on the lava as it cooled, 2.7 billion years ago.

Rough measurements in the field suggested a surprisingly lightweight atmosphere. More rigorous x-ray scans from several lava flows confirmed the result: The bubbles indicate that the atmospheric pressure at that time was less than half of today’s.

Earth 2.7 billion years ago was home only to single-celled microbes, sunlight was about one-fifth weaker, and the atmosphere contained no oxygen. But this finding points to conditions being even more otherworldly than previously thought. A lighter atmosphere could affect wind strength and other climate patterns, and would even alter the boiling point of liquids.

“We’re still coming to grips with the magnitude of this,” Buick said. “It’s going to take us a while to digest all the possible consequences.”

Other geological evidence clearly shows liquid water on Earth at that time, so the early atmosphere must have contained more heat-trapping greenhouse gases, like methane and carbon dioxide, and less nitrogen.

The new study is an advance on the UW team’s previous work on “fossilized raindrops” that first cast doubt on the idea of a far thicker ancient atmosphere. The result also reinforces Buick’s 2015 finding that microbes were pulling nitrogen out of Earth’s atmosphere some 3 billion years ago.

“The levels of nitrogen gas have varied through Earth’s history, at least in Earth’s early history, in ways that people just haven’t even thought of before,” said co-author David Catling, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences. “People will need to rewrite the textbooks.”

The researchers will next look for other suitable rocks to confirm the findings and learn how atmospheric pressure might have varied through time.

While clues to the early Earth are scarce, it is still easier to study than planets outside our solar system, so this will help understand possible conditions and life on other planets where atmospheres might be thin and oxygen-free, like that of the early Earth.