Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Wednesday…along with the low temperatures Wednesday:
82 – 72 Lihue, Kauai
84 – 75 Honolulu, Oahu
84 – 74 Molokai AP
87 – 74 Kahului AP, Maui
87 – 76 Kailua Kona
82 – 70 Hilo AP, Hawaii
Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands…as of Wednesday evening:
3.01 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.57 Manoa Lyon Arboretum, Oahu
0.39 Puu Alii, Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
1.47 West Wailuaiki, Maui
1.82 Saddle Quarry, Big Island
The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph)…as of Wednesday evening:
25 Port Allen, Kauai
35 Waianae Valley, Oahu
35 Molokai
29 Lanai
37 Kahoolawe
35 Maalaea Bay, Maui
33 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
The north Pacific storm track is far north and northwest of Hawaii
Thunderstorms far southwest of the islands…the models don’t have that large complex of thunderstorms moving towards the Hawaiian Islands as any sort of tropical system…as it moves generally westward
Scattered low clouds, with cirrus to our south…moving north over the islands
A few showers over the islands – Looping radar image
High Surf Advisory…east facing shores
Small Craft Advisory…most Hawaiian coasts and channels
~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~
Gusty trade winds…becoming slightly lighter by the weekend. Here’s the latest weather map, showing a very large and strong near 1035 millibar high pressure system, located well offshore to the north of Hawaii. This dominant area of high pressure over the Pacific will begin to lose some of its influence during the weekend. This will cause our trade wind speeds to lose a little strength…although they will continue right on into 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
We’re moving into a more normal trade wind weather pattern now. The atmosphere has become more stable now, with the threat of heavy showers now pretty much ended. As usual however, with the trade winds blowing steadily, they will carry showers our way at times…although in a more normal manner going forward. As the trade winds remain elevated in strength…some showers may spread over into the leeward sides on the smaller islands.
Marine environment details: Strong trade winds associated with a high pressure system centered north of the state will continue through the week. The roughest conditions will remain over the channels and typical windier waters, especially across the Alenuihaha Channel. As a result, the small craft advisory for all waters due to a combination of winds and seas remains in place.
The latest observations buoy observations are running higher than the latest model guidance this morning, and continue to support advisory level surf. As a result, the high surf advisory for the south facing shores has been extended today. This source should begin to ease at some point through the day and will need to be monitored. This downward trend will be expected along south facing shores through the remainder of the week and into the weekend. Late Sunday and through the first half of next week, a series of south and south-southwest swells will fill in across the waters, and will translate to small to moderate surf returning along south facing shores.
Rough surf along east facing shores will continue through the rest of the week, due to a combination of strong onshore winds and an easterly swell that has become established upstream of the islands over the past few days. The high surf advisory for the east facing shores has been extended through Thursday. Trades and surf should slightly ease over the weekend.
More typical trade wind weather pattern starting now
Here on Maui – Early Wednesday morning is dawning partly to mostly cloudy, with the usual windward clouds dropping some showers. Looking out the windows of my weather tower before sunrise, these low clouds are stretching from the windward sides over the West Maui Mountains. The air temperature was 62.6F degrees at 545am. Meanwhile, at about the same time, the Kahului airport was reporting partly cloudy skies, with a temperature of 74 degrees, while Hana was at 73, and Maalaea Bay was 75…with the summit of the Haleakala Crater registering 46 degree. / Now at 950am, clouds are once again steadily increasing across the island. The air definitely has that feel of showers in it, and here in Kula, at my place, it would surprise me to see something coming down before noon.
– Early afternoon, and that drier and less showery air has arrived over Maui. Those gather clouds earlier, have now given way to more clear blue skies. I never got a drop of rain from those clouds this morning, and it feels like it very well continue to be a generally dry day. / Now at 305pm, pretty cloudy right overhead here in Kula, with a spattering of very light sprinkles…and at 320pm it’s raining lightly with a cool breeze.
– Early evening, the showers we had earlier this afternoon are now gone, as we head into a generally pleasant night. There’s just enough high cirrus clouds around, that we may see some color around sunset time, and then again around sunrise time on Thursday.
World-wide tropical cyclone activity
>>> Atlantic Ocean: No active tropical cyclones
Here’s the 5-day Graphical Tropical Weather Outlook
Here’s a satellite image of the Atlantic Ocean
>>> Caribbean Sea: No active tropical cyclones
>>> Gulf of Mexico: No active tropical cyclones
A tropical wave located over Honduras, Nicaragua, and the adjacent waters of the northwestern Caribbean Sea is producing a broad area of cloudiness and disorganized thunderstorm activity. Development, if any, of this disturbance should be slow to occur due to interaction with land while the system moves west-northwestward around 10 mph toward the Bay of Campeche over the next few days.
* Formation chance through 48 hours…low…near 0 percent
* Formation chance through 5 days…low…10 percent
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
Showers and thunderstorms associated with a broad area of low pressure located a few hundred miles south-southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico have changed little in organization since yesterday. Environmental conditions appear to be conducive for some gradual development of this system over the next couple of days, and a tropical depression could form during the next day or two while the disturbance moves west-northwestward at 5 to 10 mph. Over the weekend, however, conditions are forecast to become less conducive for tropical cyclone formation.
Here’s a NOAA satellite image of this area, which is being referred to as Invest 93E…along with what the computer models are showing
* Formation chance through 48 hours…medium…60 percent
* Formation chance through 5 days…medium…60 percent
Here’s the 5-day graphical Outlook
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: No active tropical cyclones
No tropical cyclones expected through the next two days…
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: A Plan to Mute Ocean Noise for Marine Life – It is a pollution that few of us notice, that we cannot see and cannot truly comprehend: oceanic noise pollution. It’s easy enough to ignore, until we start seeing whales deliberately beaching themselves on our shores just to escape it.
In a must-read article in Aeon Magazine, Peter Brannen explores how ocean noises have been influencing whale behavior around the globe.
Although he is quick to point out that the ocean was never ‘quiet,’ after all, it is subjected to the noise of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and various oceanic creatures, the intense pollution humans have created in the waters have largely impacted whales’ ability to communicate.
Whale songs, notorious for their beautiful and haunting melodies, are no longer carrying the way they used to. Although some whales have the ability to project these songs hundreds, and even up to a thousand miles, scientists have noticed that in the past few years, the octaves have changed. The same whales that once sung low vibrations across the ocean are now, in essence, raising their voice to project over the sounds of ships, propeller blades and sonar.
In an article entitled ‘Whales Scream Over Noise Pollution,’ author Jennifer Viegas notes that if the noise around whales is too loud, they will abandon any attempt to communicate at all.
These blasts of human made noise can throw whales off, separating them from their pod and causing them to swim to shore, often resulting in their death.
The impact of military exercises are described in the article as such:
“Active military sonar comes in different flavors – much of it quite unlike the rasping pings of Tom Clancy-inspired Hollywood productions. There are the plaintive howls of low-frequency sonar to the almost deliberately annoying whinnies and squeals of powerful mid-frequency sonar. Deep-diving beaked whales are terrified of the noise, which they can interpret as exceptionally frightening killer whales. Mass strandings of more than a dozen beaked whales have happened in the wake of military exercises, with autopsies on the whales revealing symptoms of the bends – a strange injury for an animal accustomed to diving almost two miles down.”
Other noise pollutants such as offshore drilling, which blasts through rock and sediment on the ocean floor, reverberating for miles around, can cause huge disruptions. This is especially true now that regulations have been loosened in the Atlantic Ocean, with regular blasts heard off of Africa’s oil rich coast.
In a startling graphic created by the Monterey Institute, you can watch a simulation of how whale migrations can be disrupted by noise. It starts quietly, with just the whales communicating by sonar. But you can slowly amp up the noise levels to include natural ocean sounds, sonar, propeller noise and ship traffic.
The Center for Biological Diversity is attempting to fight the unnecessary use of underwater noise pollution. Although obviously we can’t put a halt to all man-made noises as we do need sonar capabilities aboard military crafts, we can limit the use. They’ve been able to intervene in military training exercises and limit the scope of radar used within marine reserves.
Still, much more needs to be done. It’s clear that what we’re doing out there, even though it goes largely undetected by humans, is having fatal consequences for the ocean’s ecosystem. If we are unwilling to find new, less invasive ways of communicating, the migrations and lives of whales could be permanently damaged.
Email Glenn James: 
Lloyd Shiraki Says:
Ho’okipa has head high waves+ since last Monday. Wind swell ramped up since yesterday.
~~~ Hi Lloyd, thanks for the update, I’ll add new numbers on my surf page right now!
Aloha, Glenn