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

87 – 78  Lihue, Kauai
88 – 74  Honolulu, Oahu
86 – 75  Molokai AP
90 – 74  Kahului AP, Maui – record high Tuesday 93…back in 1953
88 – 74  Kona AP
84 – 68  Hilo AP, Hawaii

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

0.08  Mount Waialeale, Kauai
1.21  Manoa Lyon Arbroetum, Oahu
0.31  Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.50  Puu Kukui, Maui
0.32  Pahoa, Big Island

The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph)…Tuesday evening:

30  Puu Lua, Kauai
31  Kuaokala, Oahu
25  Molokai
27  Lanai
31  Kahoolawe
35  Maalaea Bay, Maui
27  South Point, 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

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Tropical Storm Lester far north of Hawaii

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Lester is spinning away steadily

 

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A weak tropical disturbance well southeast of the state

 

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Showers…mostly windward areas and offshore – Looping radar image


Small Craft Advisory…windiest coasts and channels around Maui County and the Big Island

 

~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~

 

Moderately strong trade winds will prevail through Friday…easing up some during the weekend into early next week. Here’s the latest weather map, showing a moderately strong, near 1030 millibar high pressure system to our north, the source of our local trades. The models suggest that this high pressure cell will weaken a little towards the end of the week…with trade winds easing back into the light to moderately strong realms then.

A late summer, trade wind weather pattern will prevail over the Hawaiian Islands…through the rest of the week. A weak upper level feature is forecast to move near the islands, during the second part of the week. This may result in the overlying atmosphere becoming slightly less stable. This in turn could prompt showers to become a bit more active Thursday into the weekend. This would likely be noticed most over Maui and the Big Island Sunday into next Monday.

Here’s a wind profile…of the offshore waters around the islands – with a closer view

Here are volcanic emissions from the Big Island vents…and where they’re headed

Marine environment details: A Small Craft Advisory (SCA) remains in place for the typically windy waters around the Big Island and Maui. Trades look to ease on Sunday into early next week.

A pair of south-southwest swells will continue to produce above average surf during the next few days. The first swell has peaked, with surf just below the advisory level. Forerunners from the next pulse are due to fill in tonight, and surf should again peak near the advisory level late Wednesday and Thursday.

 

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Pleasant weather…with refreshing trade winds


World-wide tropical cyclone activity..

 

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>>> Atlantic Ocean: No active tropical cyclones

1.) A tropical wave is passing near the Cabo Verde Islands accompanied by disorganized showers and thunderstorms. No significant development is expected during the next couple of days, but conditions are forecast to become a little more favorable for gradual development of this system, and a tropical depression could form by the weekend while it moves west-northwestward toward the central tropical Atlantic.

* Formation chance through 48 hours…low…20 percent
* Formation chance through 5 days…high…70 percent

Here’s a satellite image of the Atlantic Ocean

>>> Caribbean: 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:

Tropical Storm 15E (Newton), remains active over Mexico, located about 135 miles south of Tucson, Arizona. Here’s a satellite image…and what the computer models are showing.

1.) An area of low pressure located about 1000 miles southwest of the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula continues to produce disorganized shower activity. Development of this system is becoming less likely to occur as it moves northward and then northwestward during the next few days.

This disturbance is being referred to as Invest 91E, here’s a satellite image and what the computer models are showing

* Formation chance through 48 hours…low…20 percent
* Formation chance through 5 days…low…20 percent

2.) A tropical wave located well south of Acapulco, Mexico, is producing cloudiness and disorganized showers. A low pressure system is expected to form from this wave in a couple of days several hundred miles southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico. Slow development of this system is possible, and a tropical depression could form over the weekend while the low moves west-northwestward.

* Formation chance through 48 hours…low…near 0 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:

Tropical Storm Lester remains active in the Central Pacific, located about 1215 miles north-northwest of Honolulu, Hawaii…here’s a satellite image…along with computer models are showing

1.) A weak surface trough is located about 1000 miles southeast of Hilo, Hawaii. Showers and thunderstorms continue to develop along the trough, but show little signs of organization. Environmental conditions, however, do support some gradual organization over the next couple of days as it drifts toward the northwest.

* Formation chance through 48 hours…low…near 10 percent

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: Climate change could make coffee extinct by 2080 – The sun may be setting on a popular morning brew. According to a new report issued by the Climate Institute, global warming will underpin an estimated 50 percent drop in coffee production by 2050. Bad news for coffee lovers, but catastrophic for the 120 million people in dozens of mostly developing nations who depend on the coffee trade to make ends meet.

The report predicts that worldwide coffee production will drop by half over the next three decades due to climbing temperatures and changing rainfall patterns, rendering regions historically suited for coffee cultivation unable to meet global demand. Production may be forced to move away from low-level equatorial regions and higher up into forested mountains causing new negative ecological impacts. Significantly altered micro-climates will affect both coffee quality and yield sizes.

“It’s not just the heat, which is a big factor which is driving some of the regions where coffee is produced uphill,” John Connor, Climate Institute’s chief executive officer, told ABC. “We’re also seeing extra diseases increasing and being able to go up into those areas.”

The overall outlook is bleak, although earlier studies had indicated that Honduras, Indonesia and Vietnam are producing more coffee than usual. Mexican coffee fields will become “nonviable” first, followed quickly by Nicaragua; both regions are expected to lose commercial productivity by 2050. Brazil, the world’s largest coffee grower, has been crippled by heat waves since 2014, which have devastated harvests and prompted retail price hikes.

Beans most affected have been popular Robusto and Arabica, the latter requires sequential rainy and dry seasons to mature. This is noteworthy since Arabica beans, which originated in mountainous regions of Ethiopia and Yemen, are the basis for 75 percent of the world’s coffee. Robusta – so named as it is more tolerant of climactic differences – is expected to become extinct in the Congo (its birthplace) by 2050.

Currently, according to the folks at Climate Institute, we drink about 2.25 billion cups of coffee daily, and global demand is rising. The report concludes that unless climate change is addressed, wild coffee could become extinct worldwide by 2080.

“We have a cloud hovering over our head. It’s dramatically serious. Climate change can have a significant adverse effect in the short term,” Mario Cerutti, a director at Lavazza, one of Italy’s top coffee roasting companies, told Think Progress. “It’s no longer about the future; it’s the present.”

Industry officials have been issuing warnings for years. In 2011, Starbucks director of environmental affairs, Jim Hanna told the Guardian, “What we are really seeing as a company as we look 10, 20, 30 years down the road?—?if conditions continue as they are?—?is a potentially significant risk to our supply chain.” Hanna pointed out that farmers were already seeing how climate change was creating severe hurricanes and more resistant bugs.

While big business forms coalitions to press governments to tackle a changing climate, what can the individual coffee drinker do? The report urges consumers to choose carbon-neutral brands and also demand action from companies and governments to ensure all products, business models, and economies are carbon neutral or carbon negative. Green Prophet suggests you also cultivate an appreciation for plain water.

“Our concern is primarily for the 25 million farmers out there whose entire livelihoods depend on this incredibly important global commodity,” Molly Harriss Olson, chief executive of Fairtrade Australia and New Zealand, which commissioned the report, told ABC. “We’ve got to build a new economy that doesn’t threaten things in our lifestyle such as our coffee.”

Consider coffee brand Maxwell House and its iconic slogan, Good to the Last Drop!, which may turn out to be the world’s most prescient advertising motto.