Air Temperatures (current temperature data unavailable for the time being)
Lihue, Kauai
Honolulu, Oahu
Molokai AP
Kahului AP, Maui
Kailua Kona
Hilo AP, Hawaii
Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands (current rainfall data unavailable for the time being)
Kauai
Oahu
Molokai
Lanai
Kahoolawe
Maui
Big Island
The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph) (current wind data unavailable for the time being)
Kauai
Oahu
Molokai
Lanai
Kahoolawe
Maui
Big Island
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
Low pressure system over the ocean far to the north…
with it’s frontal cloud band draping southwest
We see a cold front to the northwest of the state…
with a few thunderstorms far south
Lots of higher clouds…which are the brighter white clouds
Showers falling locally…mostly over the windward areas
Looping radar image
Small Craft Advisory…Alenuihaha Channel
~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~
Moderately strong trade winds, weakening slightly Thursday…then picking up again Friday into the weekend. Here’s the latest weather map, showing a strong high pressure system well to the north-northeast of Hawaii…with a ridge of high pressure very near the islands. At the same time, there’s a gale low pressure system north-northwest of the state, with its comma shaped cold front draping southwest from its center. This late season cold front will approach the state, although won’t get into our area. However, it will get close enough to weaken our trade winds a little tonight through Thursday night…before picking up again Friday into the weekend. The models now show some fluctuations in wind speeds next week.
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
Clouds and showers will favor windward and mountain areas…with an occasional shower drifting into leeward sides. Satellite imagery shows partly to mostly cloudy skies in place across the state, much of which is of the high and middle level variety. These can light up nicely at sunset and sunrise both…if they’re still in the area. There’s some enhanced cloud cover over windward and mountain areas, where radar imagery shows scattered showers moving through our island chain. The periods of enhancement will prompt locally heavier showers at times into the weekend. It appears we can look for somewhat wetter than normal weather to extend into Thursday, especially over the Maui and Big Island side of the chain.
Marine environment details: Moderate to strong trade winds will prevail this week. Although with the winds on a temporary decline, the small craft advisory was trimmed back to cover only the Alenuihaha Channel through tonight. Winds will be at border line advisory strength over the typically windy waters around the Big Island and Maui County into Friday morning. Small craft advisories will almost certainly be posted for these typically windy waters heading into the weekend, and additional waters may need to be included as winds peak on Saturday and Sunday.
Surf will remain below advisory levels on all shores through the weekend. A mix of south and southwest swells have been holding today. Expect small to moderate surf to persist on south facing shores for the next couple of days, extending over onto the west shores locally. Rough surf along east facing shores will continue through much of the weekend, although with slightly lower surf expected late Thursday and Friday.
Big Island
Here on Maui – Before sunrise on this Wednesday morning, we find partly to mostly cloudy skies. Here at my place in upcountry Kula, it’s calm…with an air temperature of 54.1F degrees at 530am. Now that the sun is up, and I can that it’s a nice looking day for the most part. There’s a sugar cane fire that has just been lit down in the central valley…with smoke rising into the air above it.
– Mid-afternoon, with the mountains cloudy with a few showers, while the sea level beaches are clear to partly cloudy. Here in Kula, the clouds are dark and threatening, although so far…only a few drops have arrived.
– Early evening, under clear to partly cloudy conditions, with some localized cloudy areas…along with a few showers here and there. We should see a nice sunset this evening, at least in those areas that have the higher level clouds overhead or nearby.
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: No active tropical cyclones
Tropical cyclone formation is not expected during the next 5 days.
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)
>>> South Pacific Ocean: No active tropical cyclones
>>> North and South Indian Oceans / Arabian Sea:
Tropical Cyclone 01B is active in the Bay of Bengal, offshore from India. Here’s the JTWC graphical track map, along with a satellite image…and what the computer models are showing.
Here’s a link to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC)
Interesting: How do trees sleep? – Most living organisms adapt their behavior to the rhythm of day and night. Plants are no exception: flowers open in the morning, some tree leaves close during the night. Researchers have been studying the day and night cycle in plants for a long time: Linnaeus observed that flowers in a dark cellar continued to open and close, and Darwin recorded the overnight movement of plant leaves and stalks and called it “sleep”. But even to this day, such studies have only been done with small plants grown in pots, and nobody knew whether trees sleep as well. Now, a team of researchers from Austria, Finland and Hungary measured the sleep movement of fully grown trees using a time series of laser scanning point clouds consisting of millions of points each.
Trees droop their branches at night
“Our results show that the whole tree droops during night which can be seen as position change in leaves and branches”, says Eetu Puttonen (Finnish Geospatial Research Institute), “The changes are not too large, only up to 10 cm for trees with a height of about 5 meters, but they were systematic and well within the accuracy of our instruments.”
To rule out effects of weather and location, the experiment was done twice with two different trees. The first tree was surveyed in Finland and the other in Austria. Both tests were done close to solar equinox, under calm conditions with no wind or condensation. The leaves and branches were shown to droop gradually, with the lowest position reached a couple of hours before sunrise. In the morning, the trees returned to their original position within a few hours. It is not yet clear whether they were “woken up” by the sun or by their own internal rhythm.
“On molecular level, the scientific field of chronobiology is well developed, and especially the genetic background of the daily periodicity of plants has been studied extensively”, explains András Zlinszky (Centre for Ecological Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences). “Plant movement is always closely connected with the water balance of individual cells, which is affected by the availability of light through photosynthesis. But changes in the shape of the plant are difficult to document even for small herbs as classical photography uses visible light that interferes with the sleep movement.” With a laser scanner, plant disturbance is minimal. The scanners use infrared light, which is reflected by the leaves. Individual points on a plant are only illuminated for fractions of a second. With this laser scanning technique, a full-sized tree can be automatically mapped within minutes with sub-centimeter resolution.
“We believe that laser scanning point clouds will allow us to develop a deeper understanding of plant sleep patterns and to extend our measurement scope from individual plants to larger areas, like orchards or forest plots,” says Norbert Pfeifer (TU Wien).
“The next step will be collecting tree point clouds repeatedly and comparing the results to water use measurements during day and night”, says Eetu Puttonen. “This will give us a better understanding of the trees’ daily tree water use and their influence on the local or regional climate.”
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