Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Saturday…along with the low temperatures Saturday:
81 – 74 Lihue, Kauai
82 – 73 Honolulu, Oahu
85 – 65 Molokai AP
89 – 68 Kahului AP, Maui
87 – 76 Kailua Kona
83 – 69 Hilo AP, Hawaii
Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands…as of Saturday evening:
4.42 N Wailua Ditch, Kauai
1.55 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.02 Molokai AP, Molokai
0.34 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.51 Kaupo Gap, Maui
1.36 Saddle Quarry, Big Island
The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph)…as of Saturday evening:
15 Port Allen, Kauai
18 Kahuku, Oahu
18 Molokai
16 Lanai
28 Kahoolawe
17 Kahului AP, Maui
23 Upolu AP, 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
There’s low pressure systems far north of the state, with trailing
cold fronts, and cumulonimbus clouds…spewing high cirrus
northward from the deeper tropics
Scattered low clouds in the area of the islands…with a very late season
cold front just north, and thunderstorm activity far south
Clear to mostly cloudy…the northern edge of a large swath of
high cirrus clouds is breaking up just south of the Big Island
Some showers over the islands locally…and offshore
Looping radar image
~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~
Honoring this Memorial Holiday weekend!
We’ll find unusually light winds across the islands through this weekend…with returning trade winds later Monday into Tuesday. Here’s the latest weather map, showing moderately strong high pressure systems far northwest and northeast. At the same time, there are the tail-ends of nearly stationary cold fronts/troughs near Kauai, and further offshore to the northwest of Kauai. This surface trough of low pressure will remain in our vicinity through this weekend. The winds are expected to arrive from the east to southeast…which may carry some volcanic haze to the smaller islands locally. This light wind regime will prompt onshore sea breezes during the days, and downslope land breezes at night. In addition, this will keep rather warm and sultry conditions over the islands for the time being. Look for the return of light to moderately strong trade winds later Monday into Tuesday…lasting through the rest of 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
A weak, very late season front/trough will push down into the state…as far as the central islands Memorial Day into mid-week. As for this weekend, the winds will remain light and as a result, we’ll see most of our showers popping-up over the leeward slopes during the afternoon hours, after generally clear skies during the mornings. As the trade winds return around Tuesday or so, in the wake of this upcoming frontal cloud band Monday-Tuesday, most showers will gravitate back towards the windward coasts and slopes then. A more typical trade wind pattern will return for the second half of next week…while light to moderate trades continue. We may see fairly numerous passing showers crossing the windward coasts and slopes beginning Tuesday…for several days.
Marine environment details: Winds will remain light through at least Sunday, but increase out of the northeast as the new high pressure system builds north of the state. Winds may approach small craft advisory levels where they are funneled through the typically windier channels, but the current forecast is maxed-out at 20 knots. If a weak cold front dissipates faster then expected, or high pressure cell builds stronger, there may need to increase the wind speed forecast for a couple days into the mid-week period.
The current south swell continues to gradually diminish in size and period, and will continue to do so through the weekend. A small northwest swell arriving Sunday will peak Monday, well below the advisory threshold. Another small south swell is expected late Tuesday into Wednesday…before fading through the week.
Green Sea Turtle…Kauai coastal waters
Here on Maui – Early Saturday morning is dawning mostly clear…with just a few clouds around the edges. Here at my place in upcountry Kula, it’s calm and clear…with an air temperature of 53.9F degrees at 550am. Meanwhile, at about the same time, the Kahului AP was reporting clear skies, with an air temperature of 69 degrees, 75 at Maalaea Bay, 72 degree out in Hana…and the summit of the Haleakala Crater was 39 degrees. It’s another beautiful spring morning…although there is some smoke/haze in the central valley.
– Early afternoon, with the beaches remaining mostly sunny, a very nice day indeed! In contrast, clouds are forming over and around both the West Maui Mountains, and the Haleakala Crater.
– Early evening, still clear, as it was all day, along the beaches. The clouds that gathered around the mountains, dropping just a few sprinkles…are now already dissipating. I expect a lovely night, leading into a mostly clear Sunday morning. By the way, now at 555pm, looking down into the central valley, I see some haze…not sure of its origins just yet.
Friday Evening Film: There are two or three films that I’d like to see, although my film viewing friend Jeff and I had to whittle it down to one. We had a little difference in opinion, although ended up agreeing on the one called Nice Guys, starring Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, Angourie Rice, Matt Bomer, Margaret Qualley, and Yaya DaCosta...among many others. The synopsis: Shane Black (Iron Man 3) directs this police drama set in Los Angeles during the 1970s, and centering on a pair of detectives who stumble into a sprawling conspiracy while investigating the alleged suicide of a once-prominent female porn star. Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling top-line this Warner Bros release.
The critics were very generous to this film. It’s billed as a dramatic comedy, with violence, sexuality, language and brief drug use. It’s definitely a rough and tumble flick, although there was a tongue in cheek edge to it throughout. It was a hard core film from start to to finish. The action was constant, rarely skipping a beat, as these two good actors worked their way through tons of bad vibes coming down all around them. As one critic said, “Gosling and Crowe are great in a movie…that is only good.” Jeff and I both came down with a B+ grade, perhaps leaning slightly to the soft side of this rating. I found myself laughing quite a bit, although most of the funniest parts were kind of sick. Here’s the trailer if you’re so inclined…it’s not gentle.
Saturday night Film: My friend Bob, whose visiting here from Sacramento, and his good friend Tia, and I were invited to Jeff’s house up the mountain from here. We sat outside and drank some wine, ate dinner, and then saw the film Room, starring Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay…among many others. The synopsis: both highly suspenseful and deeply emotional, ROOM is a unique and touching exploration of the boundless love between a mother and her child. After 5-year-old Jack (Jacob Tremblay) and his Ma (Brie Larson) escape from the enclosed surroundings that Jack has known his entire life, the boy makes a thrilling discovery: the outside world. As he experiences all the joy, excitement, and fear that this new adventure brings, he holds tight to the one thing that matters most of all–his special bond with his loving and devoted Ma.
The four of us really liked this film, finding it to be a chilling, emotional and ultimately rewarding piece of work. Room may be a difficult watch, but that doesn’t mean that we weren’t completely caught up in this tough film. It wasn’t easy to watch, although I could hardly keep my eyes off the screen from start to finish. I forgot to ask the others for grades, although for me I give it a strong B+…just shy of a very high A- grade. If you are so inclined, here’s the trailer to this dramatic film.
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
Tropical Depression Bonnie remains active, now inland over the southeast United States. It was located about 30 miles north-northeast of Charleston, South Carolina.
Here’s the NHC graphical track map, along with a satellite image of this tropical storm…and with what the computer models are showing
HAZARDS AFFECTING LAND
WIND: Wind gusts to near tropical storm force are possible along the south-central coast of South Carolina today.
RAINFALL: Bonnie is expected to produce total rainfall accumulations of 2 to 4 inches with isolated maximum amounts of 8 inches from east-central Georgia into central to eastern South Carolina, and 1 to 3 inches farther north across southeastern North Carolina. Heavy rain is expected to develop well north of Bonnie’s main circulation into parts of the Mid-Atlantic and the Northeast with total accumulations of 1 to 2 inches through Monday and isolated maximum amounts of 4 inches.
SURF: Bonnie is expected to produce dangerous surf and rip current conditions along portions of the southeastern United States coast through the weekend.
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: No active tropical cyclones
Here’s a link to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC)
Interesting: Antarctic fossils show creatures wiped out by asteroid – A study of more than 6,000 marine fossils from the Antarctic shows that the mass extinction event that killed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago was sudden and just as deadly to life in the Polar Regions.
Previously, scientists had thought that creatures living in the southernmost regions of the planet would have been in a less perilous position during the mass extinction event than those elsewhere on Earth.
The research, in the journal Nature Communications, involved a six-year process of identifying more than 6,000 marine fossils ranging in age from 69- to 65-million-years-old that were excavated by scientists from the University of Leeds and British Antarctic Survey on Seymour Island in the Antarctic Peninsula.
This is one of the largest collections of marine fossils of this age anywhere in the world. It includes a wide range of species, from small snails and clams that lived on the sea floor, to large and unusual creatures that swam in the surface waters of the ocean. These include the ammonite Diplomoceras, a distant relative of modern squid and octopus, with a paperclip-shaped shell that could grow as large as 2 metres, and giant marine reptiles such as Mosasaurus, as featured in the film Jurassic World.
With the marine fossils grouped by age, the collection shows a dramatic 65-70% reduction in the number of species living in the Antarctic 66 million years ago – coinciding exactly with the time when the dinosaurs and many other groups of organisms worldwide became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous Period.
Lead author James Witts, a PhD student at Leeds University’s School of Earth and Environment, said:
“Our research essentially shows that one day everything was fine – the Antarctic had a thriving and diverse marine community – and the next, it wasn’t. Clearly, a very sudden and catastrophic event had occurred on Earth. This is the strongest evidence from fossils that the main driver of this extinction event was the after-effects of a huge asteroid impact, rather than a slower decline caused by natural changes to the climate or by severe volcanism stressing global environments.”
The study is the first to suggest that the mass extinction event was just as rapid and severe in the Polar Regions as elsewhere in the world.
Previously, scientists had thought that organisms living near the Poles were far enough away from the cause of the extinction to be badly affected – whether this was an asteroid impact in the Gulf of Mexico, where a giant buried impact crater is found today, or extreme volcanism in the Deccan volcanic province in India. Furthermore, it had been proposed that animals and plants at the Poles would have been more resilient to global climatic changes associated with an asteroid impact as a result of living in environments that were always strongly seasonal. For example, life near the Poles has to adapt to living in darkness for half of the year and to an irregular food supply.
Co-author Professor Jane Francis from British Antarctic Survey, said:
“These Antarctic rocks contain a truly exceptional assemblage of fossils that have yielded new and surprising information about the evolution of life 66 million years ago. Even the animals that lived at the ends of the Earth close to the South Pole were not safe from the devastating effects of the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous Period.”
While some previous studies have suggested that the demise of the dinosaurs and other groups was gradual, many scientists argue that the dinosaur fossil record in particular is patchy, and cannot compete with marine fossils in terms of quantity and biodiversity.
James Witts continues: “Most fossils are formed in marine environments, where it is easy for sediment to accumulate rapidly and bury parts of animals, such as bones, or bodies of creatures with a hard shell. For a dinosaur or other land animal to become fossilised, a series of favourable events are needed, such as for bones to fall into stagnant water and be buried rapidly to prevent decomposition, or be washed out to sea by rivers.
“This means that marine fossils are generally much more abundant. They can give us a much larger data set for studying how ecosystems and biodiversity change over time in the geological past, and enable us to draw robust conclusions about events during periods of rapid environmental change, like mass extinctions.”
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