Air Temperatures – The following high temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Sunday…along with the low temperatures Sunday:
76 – 69 Lihue, Kauai
77 – 71 Honolulu, Oahu
76 – 71 Molokai
80 – 71 Kahului AP, Maui
81 – 71 Kona Int’l AP
75 – 64 Hilo AP, Hawaii
Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Sunday evening:
0.45 Kilohana, Kauai
0.52 Poamoho RG 1, Oahu
1.02 Molokai
0.12 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
1.45 West Wailuaiki, Maui
1.47 Honokaa, Big Island
The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph) as of Sunday evening:
24 Port Allen, Kauai
42 Kuaokala, Oahu
29 Molokai
39 Lanai
47 Kahoolawe
37 Maalaea Bay, Maui
50 Kohala Ranch, Big Island
Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of our tallest mountain Mauna Kea (nearly 13,800 feet high) on the Big Island of Hawaii. This webcam is available during the daylight hours here in the islands, and at night whenever there’s a big moon shining down. Also, at night you will be able to see the stars — and the sunrise and sunset too — depending upon weather conditions.
Aloha Paragraphs
A weakening cold front has reached the Big Island and beyond
This front is bringing cooler and windy weather in its wake
Mostly to partly cloudy…with a few clear areas locally
Showers locally along north to northeast slopes…and offshore – Looping radar image
Small Craft Advisory…all coasts and channels
Gale Warning…Maalaea Bay, Pailolo and Alenuihaha Channels (30-35 knots)
Wind Advisory…windiest areas around Maui County and the Big Island (20-35 mph with gusts to over 50)
High Surf Advisory…north and west shores of Kauai, Molokai, and north shores of Oahu and Maui
~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~
A weak cold front has moved past the Big Island, with cool and gusty north winds…following in its wake across the state. Clouds and showers will mainly affect the north slopes and windward areas, although with only light to moderate rainfall totals expected. A few showers will reach leeward locations on the smaller islands, as the strong winds push moisture over there…although these will be brief in nature.
This cold front will continue moving south…now over the waters south of the Big Island. Chilly north winds are filling in behind the front, as high pressure builds in from the northwest. Winds will accelerate, and as a result, a Wind Advisory is active over the windiest sections of Maui County and the Big Island. This advisory includes the higher terrain of Lanai…and over the Kohala Mountains on the Big Island.
North winds in the wake of the front…will bring dry air over the islands. This will limit most clouds and showers to the windward slopes through Monday. Gusty trade winds will blow through Wednesday, with a few showers over windward and mountain areas. While another high pressure system is expected to build northwest of the islands later in the week, a developing low pressure system northeast of Hawaii…which will likely limit an increase in wind speeds. Models indicate that these light to moderate northerly winds will keep a cool and relatively dry weather pattern in place.
Here’s a wind profile of the Pacific Ocean – Closer view of the islands / Here’s the vog forecast animation / Here’s the latest weather map
Marine environment details: Strong high pressure will continue to build north of the state in the wake of a cold front currently moving over the Big Island. This will maintain strong to gale force winds over the waters through Monday. Gales are expected across the Pailolo and Alenuihaha Channels, as well as Maalaea Bay through Monday, before gradually trending down Tuesday through Wednesday. Local winds out of the north will veer to the northeast through Monday…and more toward the east Tuesday. These winds will generate very rough seas across the local waters through the early part of this new week.
In addition to the winds and rough seas, a large north-northwest swell will peak this overnight, then gradually ease Monday through Tuesday. This swell is associated with a storm force low just under 1000 nautical miles north of the state.
Surf along exposed north and west facing shores will near advisory levels, as the north-northwest swell fills in. The surf is expected to peak tonight, before trending down later Monday. It looks unlikely that widespread advisory level surf will impact the north shores of the Big Island with this event. Surf along east facing shores will gradually rise through the week, and near advisory levels Tuesday through Wednesday as the winds veer out of the east.
On Wednesday, a moderate west-northwest swell, associated with a developing gale east of Japan is expected to fill in, peaking late Wednesday through Wednesday night. This swell will gradually lower Thursday, before a reinforcing swell from the same direction builds in early Friday morning. If this source comes in slightly higher than predicted, advisory level surf along north and west facing shores will become a possibility beginning Wednesday and Wednesday night.
Cool and windy weather through Monday
World-wide tropical cyclone activity
>>> Atlantic Ocean: The 2017 hurricane season begins June 1st
Here’s a satellite image of the Atlantic Ocean
>>> Caribbean: The 2017 hurricane season begins June 1st
>>> Gulf of Mexico: The 2017 hurricane season begins June 1st
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: The 2017 hurricane season begins May 15th
Here’s the NOAA 2016 Hurricane Season Summary for the Eastern Pacific Basin
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 2017 hurricane season begins June 1st
Here’s the NOAA 2016 Hurricane Season Summary for the Central Pacific Basin
Here’s a link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)
>>> Northwest Pacific Ocean: No active tropical cyclones
Tropical Cyclone 06P (Alfred) is active in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia, here’s the JTWC graphical track map, a satellite image of the system…and what the computer models are showing.
>>> North and South Indian Oceans / Arabian Sea: No active tropical cyclones
Here’s a link to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC)
Interesting: What Was the First Life on Earth? – The earliest evidence for life on Earth arises among the oldest rocks still preserved on the planet. Earth is about 4.5 billion years old, but the oldest rocks still in existence date back to just 4 billion years ago. Not long after that rock record begins, tantalizing evidence of life emerges: A set of filament-like fossils from Australia, reported in the journal Astrobiology in 2013, may be the remains of a microbial mat that might have been extracting energy from sunlight some 3.5 billion years ago. Another contender for world’s oldest life is a set of rocks in Greenland that may hold the fossils of 3.7-billion-year-old colonies of cyanobacteria, which form layered structures called stromatolites.
Some scientists have claimed to see evidence of life in 3.8-billion-year-old rocks from Akilia Island, Greenland. The researchers first reported in 1996 in the journal Nature that isotopes (forms of an element with different numbers of neutrons) in those rocks might indicate ancient metabolic activity by some mystery microbe. Those findings have been hotly debated ever since — as, in fact, have all claims of early life.
Still, the fact that suggestive evidence of life arises right as the rock record begins raises a question, said University of California, Los Angeles, geochemist Elizabeth Bell in a SETI Talk in February 2016: Is the timing a coincidence, or were there earlier forms of life whose remnants disappeared with the planet’s most ancient rocks?
The period that occurred before the rock record begins is known as the Hadean. It was an extreme time, when asteroids and meteorites pummeled the planet. Bell and her colleagues said they might have evidence that life arose during this very unpleasant time. In 2015, the research team reported discovering graphite, a form of carbon, in 4.1-billion-year-old crystals of zircon. The ratio of isotopes in the graphite suggested a biological origin, Bell and her colleagues wrote in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“There is some skepticism, which is warranted,” Bell told Live Science. Meteorites or chemical processes might have caused the odd carbon ratios, she said, so the isotopes alone aren’t proof of life. Since the publication of the 2015 paper, Bell said, the researchers have found several more of the rare-carbon inclusions, which the scientists hope to analyze soon.
From what is known of this period, there would have been liquid water on the planet, Bell told Live Science in an interview. There might have been granite, continental-like crust, though that’s controversial, she said. Any life that could have existed would have been a prokaryote (a single-celled organism without membrane-bound nuclei or cell organelles), Bell added. If there was continental crust on Earth at the time, she said, prokaryotes might have had mineral sources of nutrients like phosphorus.
A different approach to the hunt for Earth’s early life suggests that oceanic hydrothermal vents may have hosted the first living things. In a paper published in July 2016 in the journal Nature Microbiology, researchers analyzed prokaryotes to find the proteins and genes common to all of these organisms, presumably the final remnants of the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) — the first shared relative from which all life today descends.
The research team found 355 proteins shared by all archaeal and bacterial lineages. Based on those proteins, the researchers reconstructed a view of LUCA’s genome, hinting that it lived in an anaerobic (oxygen-free), hydrothermal environment. If that’s the case, Earth’s first life (or at least the first life that left descendants) would have resembled the microbes that cluster around deep-sea vents today, the researchers said.
David Hume Says:
Hi Glenn, I just read the article above, all very true except ‘extreme weather events’ have not increased at all, there is no evidence of it. Also the argument that more people will die because of extra heat does not mention that less people will die from the cold.. These ‘doom and gloom’ articles frustrate me because it is always this ‘might’ happen or ‘could’ happen. Why has science moved away from observing facts and into predicting what ‘could’ happen in the future?
~~~ Hi David, that’s a good question, thanks for presenting your point of view. I hope that some of the articles that I share are more agreeable to you…and perhaps others.
Aloha, Glenn
Diane Says:
Dear Glenn,
Just read the info under “interesting” about “wind, rain and heat how health risks increase with extreme weather”. Awesome info….thank you for passing it on. Mandatory Read!!!!
Hope You and Mom are “hanging in there”. Many hugs and kisses to you both, I feel like I know you two even though I have never met “you-guys”.
Take care and Aloha,
Diane from No. Cal
PS-Extreme weather here again for Monday!
~~~ Hi Diane, good to hear from you again there in Northern California. I’m pleased that you found the current article interesting.
Thanks so much for your well wishes, my Mom and I appreciate that. BTW, my Mom continues to slowly get better, although at 94 going on 95…this healing can take quite a while.
Indeed, more wet weather for you soon, and down here in Southern California…we’re going to get wet too.
Aloha, Glenn