Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Monday…along with the low temperatures Monday:
86 – 76 Lihue, Kauai
89 – 77 Honolulu, Oahu
89 – 76 Molokai AP
88 – 73 Kahului AP, Maui
88 – 77 Kona AP
84 – 72 Hilo AP, Hawaii
Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands…Monday evening:
3.66 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
1.52 Poamoho RG 1, Oahu
0.34 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
3.20 West Wailuaiki, Maui
2.22 Puho CS, Big Island
The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph)…Monday evening:
25 Port Allen, Kauai
32 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
28 Molokai
32 Lanai
32 Kahoolawe
29 Maalaea Bay, Maui
23 Waikoloa, 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
Minor tropical disturbances well southeast and east-southeast of Hawaii
Thunderstorms well offshore…south through southeast of Hawaii
Partly to mostly cloudy…clearing overnight leeward
Showers locally – Looping radar image
~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~
The trade winds will prevail through the next week…with fluctuations in strength and direction along the way. Here’s the latest weather map, showing a moderately strong high pressure system well northeast of Hawaii. Meanwhile, there’s several low pressure systems traveling more or less from east to west…in the deeper tropics. The gradient between the high pressure cells to our north, and the low pressure to our south, will keep the trade winds blowing across our latitudes here in the central Pacific. The trade winds will likely increase a notch Thursday for a couple of days. The long range outlook shows no distinct end to the ongoing summer trade wind flow across our area.
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 areas…although the leeward sides will get some of this locally too. We’ll move back into a fairly normal trade wind weather pattern Tuesday through Thursday. Some of the models want to bring a batch of showers to the eastern islands later this week, and also move a tropical disturbance by to our south as well. Despite this, most of the island areas will be fair…with a pretty typical trade wind weather pattern remaining in place.
Marine environment details: High pressure located far northeast of the the state will maintain moderate trade winds across the island chain for the next few days. The strongest winds are expected in most of the typically windy waters adjacent to the Big Island and the islands of Maui County. The trades will also likely strengthen starting Thursday, as a low level disturbance passes south of the islands toward the end of the work week.
The trades will continue to produce choppy surf along most east facing shores, but surf is expected to remain below the High Surf Advisory criteria. Small surf continues along south facing shores. A small south swell produced by a gale low in the South Pacific last week is expected to cause a slight bump in surf heights along south facing shores…Tuesday through Wednesday.
World-wide tropical cyclone activity
>>> Atlantic Ocean: No active tropical cyclones
Satellite images indicate that the large area of cloudiness and thunderstorms associated with a tropical wave centered about 500 miles west-southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands is gradually becoming better organized. Conditions appear to be favorable for a tropical depression to form during the next couple of days while the system moves toward the west-northwest and then northwest toward the open waters of the central Atlantic.
* Formation chance through 48 hours…high…70 percent
* Formation chance through 5 days…high…80 percent
Here’s a satellite image of the Atlantic Ocean
>>> Caribbean Sea: No active tropical cyclones
>>> Gulf of Mexico: No active tropical cyclones
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
An area of low pressure is forecast to form off of the southwestern coast of Mexico in a few days. Some subsequent development of this system is possible late in the week while it moves generally west-northwestward.
* Formation chance through 48 hours…low…near 0 percent
* Formation chance through 5 days…low…30 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
1.) A weak area of low pressure, located approximately 800 miles southeast of Hilo, Hawaii, continues to produce disorganized showers and thunderstorms. Some gradual development is possible during the next few days as the system moves westward over warm waters.
Here’s what the computer models are showing
* Formation chance through 48 hours…low…30 percent
No Tropical Cyclones expected through at least the next 2-days
Here’s a link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)
Tropical Storm 09W (Chanthu) remains active in the western Pacific, located about 64 NM east of Yokosuka, Japan…here’s the JTWC graphical track map, with a satellite image, and what the computer models are showing
>>> 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: SLAC (SLAC is a multi-program laboratory exploring frontier questions in photon science, astrophysics, particle physics and accelerator research)…Stanford gadget grabs more solar energy to disinfect water faster – In many parts of the world, the only way to make germy water safe is by boiling, which consumes precious fuel, or by putting it out in the sun in a plastic bottle so ultraviolet rays will kill the microbes. But because UV rays carry only 4 percent of the sun’s total energy, the UV method takes six to 48 hours, limiting the amount of water people can disinfect this way.
Now researchers at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University have created a nanostructured device, about half the size of a postage stamp, that disinfects water much faster than the UV method by also making use of the visible part of the solar spectrum, which contains 50 percent of the sun’s energy.
In experiments reported today in Nature Nanotechnology, sunlight falling on the little device triggered the formation of hydrogen peroxide and other disinfecting chemicals that killed more than 99.999 percent of bacteria in just 20 minutes. When their work was done the killer chemicals quickly dissipated, leaving pure water behind.
“Our device looks like a little rectangle of black glass. We just dropped it into the water and put everything under the sun, and the sun did all the work,” said Chong Liu, lead author of the report. She is a postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Yi Cui, a SLAC/Stanford associate professor and investigator with SIMES, the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences at SLAC.
Nanoflake Walls and Eager Electrons
Under an electron microscope the surface of the device looks like a fingerprint, with many closely spaced lines. Those lines are very thin films – the researchers call them “nanoflakes” – of molybdenum disulfide that are stacked on edge, like the walls of a labyrinth, atop a rectangle of glass.
In ordinary life, molybdenum disulfide is an industrial lubricant. But like many materials, it takes on entirely different properties when made in layers just a few atoms thick. In this case it becomes a photocatalyst: When hit by incoming light, many of its electrons leave their usual places, and both the electrons and the “holes” they leave behind are eager to take part in chemical reactions.
By making their molybdenum disulfide walls in just the right thickness, the scientists got them to absorb the full range of visible sunlight. And by topping each tiny wall with a thin layer of copper, which also acts as a catalyst, they were able to use that sunlight to trigger exactly the reactions they wanted – reactions that produce “reactive oxygen species” like hydrogen peroxide, a commonly used disinfectant, which kill bacteria in the surrounding water.
Molybdenum disulfide is cheap and easy to make – an important consideration when making devices for widespread use in developing countries, Cui said. It also absorbs a much broader range of solar wavelengths than traditional photocatalysts.
Solving Pollution Problems
The method is not a cure-all, for instance, it doesn’t remove chemical pollutants from water. So far it’s been tested on only three strains of bacteria, although there’s no reason to think it would not kill other bacterial strains and other types of microbes, such as viruses. And it’s only been tested on bacteria mixed with water in the lab, not on the complex stews of contaminants found in the real world.
Still, “It’s very exciting to see that by just designing a material you can achieve a good performance. It really works,” said Liu, who has gone on to work on a project in Cui’s lab that is developing air filters for combating smog. “Our intention is to solve environmental pollution problems so people can live better.”
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