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

77 – 62  Lihue, Kauai
80 – 64  Honolulu, Oahu
80 – 57  Kahului AP, Maui
81 – 64  Kona Int’l AP
79 – 61  Hilo AP, Hawaii

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

0.07  Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.03  Maunawili, Oahu
 0.02  Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.05  Kula Branch Station, Maui
0.41 Saddle Quarry, Big Island

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

20  Makaha Ridge, Kauai
31  Kuaokala, Oahu
22  Molokai
 21  Lanai
18  Kahoolawe
25  Kapalua, Maui 
23  Kona AP, 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

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A cold front continues to approach the islands

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Deeper clouds north and northwest

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Clouds increasing statewide

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Showers increasing locally…some will be heavy – Looping radar image



High Wind Warning…Big Island Summits / 55-65 with 75 mph gusts

 

Wind Advisory…Haleakala Summit / 35-45 with 65 mph gusts


Flash Flood Watch…Oahu and Maui County


Flood Advisory…Kauai


Small Craft Advisory…all coastal and channel waters

 

High Surf Advisory…north and west shores of Kauai, Oahu, Molokai / north shore of Maui / west shore of the Big Island

 

~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~




Gusty southwesterly kona winds are expected…along and ahead of the cold front. Relatively light winds will be short lived, as winds pick up out of the south and southwest…first across the western islands. These kona winds will increase in advance of the cold front, although winds will likely be lighter than the previous cold frontal passage. The Big Island summits will find very strong winds through Saturday night, with the High Wind Warning remaining in effect.

This strong cold front will move into the state from the northwest tonight into Saturday…then stalling over Maui County and the Big Island Saturday night into Sunday. The vast majority of shower activity associated with the front should hold to the west of the islands this evening. There will however be some scattered showers developing in the prefrontal kona wind flow….especially along the leeward sides of the islands. We should see a more pronounced increase in showers across Kauai and Oahu tonight into Saturday morning.

It looks like a wet Saturday morning for Oahu, with showers then increasing…particularly during the late morning into afternoon hours across Maui County. Showers will diminish in the wake of the front across Kauai, while the increase in showers will hold off until later Saturday on the Big Island. Saturday evening the showers will be on the decrease across Oahu, with the majority of the shower activity remaining over Maui County and the Big Island…where the front is expected to slow to a halt.

There’s a good chance for thunderstorms with this cold front. The current forecast calls for a chance of thunderstorms, with the most likely time frame expected to be tonight through Saturday evening…as the front moves from northwest to southeast down the island chain. In addition to the chance for thunder, water values will be climbing to around 2 inches along and ahead of the front, so that some locally heavy rainfall and flooding issues will be possible.

This front will slowly dissipate over the eastern islands Sunday…with moisture lingering into Monday. A brief easing of the kona winds is expected, with winds increasing again later Monday, as the next cold front approaches from the northwest. Kona winds are expected to increase…in advance of this next cold front. It’s arrival will occur over Kauai Tuesday, then slowly move the other islands Tuesday night and Wednesday, bringing showers. The front will dissipate over the central islands later in the week, with drier conditions returning.

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: Data from the northwest buoys show that a new west-northwest swell continues to slowly build, although is running a bit slower than model guidance. Surf along north and west facing shores should slowly build overnight, with surf heights expected to reach advisory levels. This swell will lower gradually Sunday and Monday. A larger west-northwest swell is expected to arrive later Monday and Monday night. This swell is expected to peak Tuesday, with surf heights likely reaching warning levels along most north and west facing shores. This swell will lower gradually Wednesday and Thursday.

A Small Craft Advisory is currently posted for waters exposed to the new west-northwest swell. Increasing southwest winds ahead of a cold front, will cause seas to become rather rough especially over the western coastal waters. Winds speeds are also expected to strengthen to near 25 knots over waters around Kauai and Oahu tonight and Saturday. The larger west-northwest swell arriving early next week will also cause seas to exceed high surf advisory threshold over exposed waters.

 

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Unsettled weather…and larger surf along the north and west shores


World-wide tropical cyclone activity


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>>> 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

>>> South Pacific Ocean:  

Tropical Cyclone 04S (Carlos) is active in the South Indian Ocean, here’s the JTWC graphical track map, with a satellite image …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: Litter Levels in the Depths of the Arctic are On the Rise – The Arctic has a serious litter problem: in just ten years, the concentration of marine litter at a deep-sea station in the Arctic Ocean has risen 20-fold. This was recently reported in a study by researchers at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI).

Plastic bags, glass shards and fishing nets: despite its location, far from any urban areas, the amount of litter in the depths of the Arctic Ocean continues to rise, posing a serious threat to its fragile ecosystem. Since 2002, AWI researchers have been documenting the amount of litter at two stations of the AWI’s “Hausgarten”, a deep-sea observatory network, which comprises 21 stations in the Fram Strait, between Greenland and Svalbard. The results of the long-term study have now been published in the scientific journal Deep-Sea Research I. “Our time series confirms that litter levels in the Arctic deep sea have risen rapidly in the past few years,” says first author and AWI biologist Mine Tekman.

The scientists involved in the study observed the ocean floor at a depth of 2,500 metres using the OFOS (Ocean Floor Observation System), a towed camera system. Since the start of their measurements, they have spotted 89 pieces of litter in a total of 7,058 photographs. To enable comparison with other studies, the researchers have extrapolated the litter density to a larger area. The result: an average of 3,485 pieces of litter per square kilometer in the monitoring period (2002 to 2014). Further, there has been a clearly recognizable increase in the past few years: when the team calculated a contamination level of 4,959 pieces of litter per square kilometer for 2011 in an earlier study, they hoped it was a statistical outlier. But the levels have continued to rise since, reaching a new peak of 6,333 pieces of litter per square kilometer in 2014.

The situation is particularly dramatic at the network’s northern station, called N3. “Here the amount of litter rose more than 20-fold between 2004 and 2014,” says Tekman. If we consider the findings for the northern research area in the marginal ice zone, the data for 2004 indicated 346 pieces of litter per square kilometer. Ten years later, the number had risen to 8,082. The level of contamination is similar to one of the highest litter densities ever reported from the deep seafloor, in Cap De Creus Canyon off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula.

Among the litter they photographed, the researchers observed plastic and glass most frequently. As a rule, glass does not drift; it sinks straight down to the ocean floor. This indicates local sources and concurs with increasing ship traffic in the region due to the receding ice. Still, it is extremely difficult to draw any firm conclusions on the origin of the plastic litter, since it often covers a considerable distance before reaching the seafloor. In most cases, the scientists can’t determine the origin on the basis of photographs alone.

While it is clear that the Gulf Stream transports plastic litter into the Arctic with the Atlantic water masses, the authors also have a new theory as to why litter is accumulating in the Fram Strait: their results indicate a positive relationship between litter density and the summertime expansion of sea ice. “If we’re right, sea ice could entrain floating litter during ice formation. During warmer periods, the ice breaks up and is transported to the south into the Fram Strait with the Transpolar Drift, releasing entrained litter into the survey area when it melts,” says deep-sea biologist Dr Melanie Bergmann, a co-author of the study. “To date we’ve assumed just the opposite, since we viewed the ice as a barrier to litter contamination.”

The researchers are still faced with the puzzle of when and how plastic litter changes on its way to the deep sea. Over time they have observed more and more small bits of plastic, which are likely the result of larger pieces of litter fragmenting and could point to an increasing level of microplastic. This is surprising, since in the deep sea there is no UV light to break down the plastic, and the low temperatures are not conducive to disintegration. In the summer of 2016 the team rediscovered a piece of plastic, which they had first seen two years earlier. Bergmann: “Running into this same piece of plastic twice with hardly any changes to it is a vivid reminder that the depths of the Arctic are at risk of becoming a depot for plastic litter. The well-hidden accumulation of litter on the deep ocean floor could also explain why we still don’t know where 99% of the marine plastic litter ends up.”