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

80 – 69  Lihue, Kauai
84 – 72  Honolulu, Oahu
80 – 71  Molokai AP
82 – 71  Kahului AP, Maui
86 – 77  Kailua Kona
82 – 71  Hilo AP, Hawaii

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

1.42  Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.41  Tunnel RG, Oahu
0.14  Puu Alii, Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
1.02  Kahakuloa, Maui
1.16  Saddle Quarry, Big Island

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

18  Port Allen, Kauai
33  Makua Range, Oahu
23  Molokai
27  Lanai
28  Kahoolawe
27  Maalaea Bay, Maui
22  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

http://weather.unisys.com/satellite/sat_ir_enh_west_loop-12.gif
There’s a low pressure system far north-northeast of the state…
with a trailing cold front

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/cpac/ir4.jpg
Low clouds in the area of the islands, with a streak of
high cirrus clouds moving over the state from the
deeper tropics to our southwest…thunderstorms south

 

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/hi/ir4.jpg
Partly to mostly cloudy…high cirrus clouds over parts of the state

 

http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/RadarImg/hawaii.gif
Showers falling mostly over the nearby ocean…
a few locally onshore – Looping radar image

~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~

Moderately strong trade winds…turning lighter into the weekend. Here’s the latest weather map, showing high pressure systems northwest and northeast of Hawaii. A surface low pressure system, with its associated trough, will take over duty through the next several days, moving over us from the northeast. In response, look for the trade winds to get lighter through Friday, and then even lighter over the weekend into Monday. We’ll find daytime sea breezes, and offshore flowing land breezes at night. It will feel rather hot and muggy during the days, once we get into the heart of this unusual light wind regime. The models show the trade winds returning Monday, bringing refreshing relief from this sultry reality…continuing at least through the middle 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

Still a few showers along the windward sides…although turning lighter and less frequent now. Moisture left behind by the recent front will keep those few showers in the forecast, especially across windward sections of the islands. However, most of the leftover moisture, brought our way by the late season cold front earlier this week, has moved south of the state. As the winds ease up again now through the rest of this week, we will slip into a convective weather pattern, with clear mornings giving way to afternoon clouds…and localized interior showers through Sunday. As the trade winds return Monday, so will the windward biased showers.

Marine environment details: No marine advisories are expected through at least the weekend. Moderate trade winds will decrease over the next 24 hours then become light and variable over the eastern end of the state for the weekend. Trades will rebuild early next week, with small craft advisory level winds possible over the typical areas around Maui and the Big Island by midweek.

Small swells are due through most of the upcoming week. Energy from the current mix of south-southeast and southwest swell has dropped slightly today and will fade during the weekend. A larger south-southwest swell is possible during the middle of next week. A small northwest swell is also possible this weekend.

 

  https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/99/10/f7/9910f78ae858e5e3d1e4446f406be423.jpg
Maui…Hawaii


Here on Maui – Early Thursday morning is dawning mostly clear to partly cloudy, with a majority of the low clouds strung out along the windward coast and slopes. A wonderful display of high cirrus clouds were overhead this morning, which lit up a wonderful pink and orange color! Here at my place in upcountry Kula, the air temperature was 54.3F degrees at 535am. Meanwhile, at about the same time, the Kahului AP was reporting cloudy skies, with an air temperature of 72 degrees, as was Maalaea Bay, while out in Hana it was 70…with the summit of the Haleakala Crater reporting 48 degrees.

– Early evening, with layered clouds over and around the island. There are some light showers falling here and there, although nothing like what we’ve been seeing the last several days. Here at my place in upper Kula, I was actually able to wash and line dry my laundry. This is the first time I’ve been able to do this for quite a while. There are, and have been some showers along the windward coasts and slopes, although they have been less frequent…and of lighter intensity for the most part. By the way, there’s a decent chance of some color around sunset, if there are still enough cirrus around then.

 

World-wide tropical cyclone activity:

>>> Atlantic Ocean: Tropical Depression Bonnie (02L)

Tropical Cyclone Bonnie is located about 200 miles east-northeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Here’s the NHC graphical track map…along with what the computer models are showing

Here’s a satellite image of this Tropical Cyclone

Here’s a satellite image of the Atlantic Ocean

>>> Caribbean Sea: No active tropical cyclones

>>> Gulf of Mexico: No active tropical cyclones

An area of showers and thunderstorms has developed over the western Caribbean Sea. This system is moving west-northwestward toward the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, and a low pressure area is expected to form over the Yucatan or the adjacent waters by late this weekend. This low could develop into a tropical cyclone as it subsequently moves across the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the Florida Peninsula early next week. Regardless of development, locally heavy rains and flooding are possible over portions of the Yucatan Peninsula, western Cuba and the Florida Peninsula during the next several days.

* Formation chance through 48 hours…low…10 percent
* Formation chance through 5 days…medium…60 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

A broad but well-defined area of low pressure is located about 975 miles south-southwest of the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula. Although the associated showers and thunderstorms remain disorganized, a tropical depression could still form during the next few days while the low moves west-northwestward.

Here’s a satellite image of this disturbance…along with what the computer models are showing

* Formation chance through 48 hours…medium…40 percent
* Formation chance through 5 days…medium…60 percent

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)

>>> 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: NASA studies details of a greening Arctic – The northern reaches of North America are getting greener, according to a NASA study that provides the most detailed look yet at plant life across Alaska and Canada. In a changing climate, almost a third of the land cover – much of it Arctic tundra – is looking more like landscapes found in warmer ecosystems.

With 87,000 images taken from Landsat satellites, converted into data that reflects the amount of healthy vegetation on the ground, the researchers found that western Alaska, Quebec and other regions became greener between 1984 and 2012. The new Landsat study further supports previous work that has shown changing vegetation in Arctic and boreal North America.

Landsat is a joint NASA/U.S. Geological Survey program that provides the longest continuous space-based record of Earth’s land vegetation in existence.

“It shows the climate impact on vegetation in the high latitudes,” said Jeffrey Masek, a researcher who worked on the study and the Landsat 9 project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Temperatures are warming faster in the Arctic than elsewhere, which has led to longer seasons for plants to grow in and changes to the soils. Scientists have observed grassy tundras changing to shrublands, and shrubs growing bigger and denser – changes that could have impacts on regional water, energy and carbon cycles.

With Landsat 5 and Landsat 7 data, Masek and his colleague Junchang Ju, a remote sensing scientist at Goddard, found that there was extensive greening in the tundra of western Alaska, the northern coast of Canada, and the tundra of Quebec and Labrador. While northern forests greened in Canada, they tended to decline in Alaska. Overall, the scientists found that 29.4 percent of the region greened up, especially in shrublands and sparsely vegetated areas, while 2.9 percent showed vegetation decline.

“The greening trend was unmistakable,” the researchers wrote in an April 2016 paper in Remote Sensing of Environment.

Previous surveys of the vegetation had taken a big-picture view of the region using coarse-resolution satellite sensors. To get a more detailed picture of the 4.1 million square-mile area, scientists used the Landsat 5 and Landsat 7 satellites.

Landsat, like other satellite missions, can use the amount of visible and near-infrared light reflected by the green, leafy vegetation of grasses, shrubs and trees to characterize the vegetation. Then, with computer programs that track each individual pixel of data over time, researchers can see if an area is greening – if more vegetation is growing, or if individual plants are getting larger and leafier. If, however, the vegetation becomes sparser, the scientists would classify that area as browning.

Researchers have used similar techniques to study Arctic and northern vegetation with other satellite instruments, such as the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR). But Landsat can see smaller differences across a landscape – it takes one measurement for each 30-by-30 meter (98-by-98 foot) parcel of land, which is about the size of a baseball diamond. AVHRR collected one measurement for each 4-by-4 kilometer (2.5-by-2.5 mile) area.

“We can see more detail with Landsat, and we can see the trend more reliably,” Ju said. With finer-resolution and better calibrated data from Landsat, the researchers were able to mask out areas that burned, or are covered in water, to focus on vegetation changes. The more detailed look – now available to other researchers as well – will also let scientists see if a correlation exists between habitat characteristics and greening or browning trends.

“The resolution with Landsat is drastically improved, it lets you look at the local effects of things like topography, such as in areas where you might have small woodlands or open areas,” Masek said. “You can do detailed studies of how climate impacts vary with geography.”

Adding the Landsat study to previous studies using the AVHRR sensor also adds to the certainty of what’s going on, Masek said. While the two tools to measure the northern vegetation did produce different results in some places, overall the trend was the similar – more plants, or bigger plants, in the Arctic reaches of North America.

With the higher resolution Landsat data, the researchers also found a lot of differences within areas – one pixel would be brown, and its neighbors green, noted Ju. “It’s very localized,” he said. “The vegetation is responding to the microclimates. That’s the benefit of using Landsat data, is that we can reveal this spatial variation over very short distances.”

With the large map complete, researchers will focus on these short distances – looking at the smaller scale to see what might control the greening patterns, whether it’s local topography, nearby water sources, or particular types of habitat. They also plan to investigate forested areas, particularly in the greening Quebec.

“One of the big questions is, ‘Will forest biomes migrate with warming climate?’ There hasn’t been much evidence of it to date,” Masek said. “But we can zoom in and see if it’s changing.”