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

80 73  Lihue, Kauai
83 – 67  Honolulu, Oahu
8666  Molokai
92
62  Kahului AP, Maui Record high Tuesday was 88…92 broke this record
83 71  Kona Int’l AP
8165  Hilo AP, Hawaii

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

0.21  Mount Waialeale, Kauai
1.03  Poamoho RG 1, Oahu
0.07  Molokai
0.00  L
anai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.42  West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.66  Hilo AP, Big Island

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

25  Port Allen, Kauai
18  Kahuku Trng, Oahu
27  Molokai
25  Lanai

35  Kahoolawe

30  Maalaea Bay, Maui

27  South Point, Big Island

Hawaii’s MountainsHere’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

http://weather.unisys.com/satellite/sat_ir_enh_west_loop-12.gif
Pacific storm track remains well north

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/cpac/vis.jpg
Deeper clouds well northwest through north

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/hi/ir4.jpg
Clear to partly cloudy, a few cloudy areas…cirrus northeast

http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/RadarImg/hawaii.gif
Showers locally –
Looping radar image


~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~

 

Broad brush overview: A surface ridge of high pressure north of the state will maintain light to moderate east to east-southeast winds through mid-week. An upper level trough will edge into the area, east of the island chain tonight and Wednesday. This in turn will bring an increase in showers over windward sides of the state through Friday. In addition, a band of clouds and showers ahead of a cold front may impact parts of the state Thursday night and Friday…although isn’t expected to reach the islands. A surface high pressure system far northeast of the area starting late Friday, will produce gusty trades this weekend.

Details:  The surface ridge is expected to continue driving light to moderate east to east-southeast winds across the state. After the upper level trough passes by, a ridge aloft will make the atmosphere more stable tonight. However, the forecast models continue to show an increase in precipitation starting early Wednesday, as another upper level trough arrives east of the state. The presence of this trough may potentially enhance the low clouds and precipitation tracking in with the trades.

The surface ridge to our north is expected to erode Thursday, as a cold front approaches from the northwest. This front will likely stall and weaken north-northwest of Kauai late Friday. However, the forecast models continue to suggest a band of clouds and showers will form near the western end of the state, to the southeast of the front. These low clouds and showers might produce additional wet weather over parts of the state, particularly the western islands…late Thursday and Friday.

Looking ahead: A ridge aloft will likely strengthen above the state late Friday through the weekend. This will result in more stable atmospheric conditions. Also, a surface high is expected to build far northeast of the region this weekend, which will likely produce gusty trade wind conditions across the islands. In addition, a slightly drier air mass over most of the state this weekend should arrive…with fewer low clouds and brief showers transported over the windward sides by the trades.

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: The west-northwest swell that peaked Sunday into Monday, will hold through mid-week due to a slight reinforcement tonight into Wednesday. A combination of this swell and moderate breezes over the channels and waters around the Big Island…will continue to generate rough boating conditions. Although the winds have dropped slightly below Small Craft Advisory levels, seas will remain large through the day today across windward waters between the Big Island and Oahu. As a result, the Small Craft Advisory will remain up across these areas today.

Winds will likely remain below advisory levels through Friday, as the ridge of high pressure north of the state weakens slightly in response to a passing cold front well north of our area. Another cold front is forecast to approach the region later in the week, then stall and weaken north and northwest of the area…into the weekend. Advisory level winds will likely return across portions of the waters during the weekend, as high pressure builds north of the state behind this front.

Surf along east facing shores will remain small and choppy through the week, due to moderate onshore trade winds. Surf will begin to build over the weekend…as the winds strengthen locally and upstream of the islands.

A slight increase in surf along south facing shores will be possible Thursday through Saturday, due to a south-southwest swell, associated with recent activity across the southern Pacific. In addition to this southerly swell, another large west-northwest swell is expected by Friday, which could impact the leeward shores once again at select spots due to wrapping around the islands.

Later in the week, another slightly larger, west-northwest swell that will impact the islands Thursday night through the weekend. A powerful storm force low, that may have briefly reached hurricane force earlier yesterday morning off the coast of Japan, is currently tracking east-northeastward across the northwest Pacific. As a result. a large fetch of gale to storm force winds out of the west…will be focused towards our islands. A large west-northwest swell associated with this system will result across the region, that could reach the islands as early as Thursday night, peak through Friday and Friday night, then slowly lower over the weekend. Warning level surf and advisory level seas will be expected Friday into the weekend before trending down early next week.

 

 http://0.tqn.com/d/gohawaii/1/S/z/C/5/maui-rainbow-sunset.jpg
Generally nice weather leeward…with windward showers on the horizon


Southern California Weather Summary: Gusty north to northeast winds will slowly diminish today, and it will become warmer. High pressure will continue the warming trend Wednesday. An upper trough of low pressure, moving to our north will bring cooling again Thursday and Friday…with gusty winds. Warmer weather is expected again over the weekend, as another ridge builds into the region. There should be cooling next Monday as a trough moves into the West Coast

 

http://images.intellicast.com/WxImages/SatelliteLoop/hipacsat_None_anim.gif
Generally fair weather over Southern California

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/wfo/lox/cvis.jpg
Mostly clear  across the Southland



World-wide tropical cyclone activity


https://icons.wxug.com/data/images/sst_basin/gl_sst_mm.gif


>>> 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: 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:
The Race to Rule the High-Flying Business of Satellite Imagery
In November 2016, satellites captured a curious change in the Tereneyskoe Forest farm in Primorsky Krai, Russia. Images showed the area transformed, from nice and leafy to stark and stumpy. An Earth-monitoring company called Astro Digital noticed the change first—and right away, it informed the World Wildlife Federation. Pixels of evidence in hand, the federation could start legal action to stop the deforestation.

Before quick-cadence satellite imagery, often no one but the fellers were there to hear or see a tree fall in the forest. Now, when Astro Digital’s algorithms suspect something, the company pulls in months of data from the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite, and human operators confirm the signs of logging.

These tools—the ability not just to see changes as they happen but also to rapidly interpret them—are increasingly attainable, even for cost-cutting nonprofits like the World Wildlife Federation. And the Earth observation industry needs that: not just pixels but what they portend. More satellites than ever set their sights on the world, taking millions of images and yielding even more megabytes. All of that data does no good unless someone can make sense of it, and fast.

Some companies concentrate just on satellites, outsourcing their intelligence-gathering. But others are banking solely on intelligence, buying images and avoiding the pesky business of building their own satellites. And a few companies—like Astro Digital—hope to provide both satellite data and partly-digested information. Who will prevail: the jacks-of-both trades, or the masters of one? This is the battle for supremacy in the new space-information economy.

Digital Get-Down

Right now, Astro Digital only analyzes images from others’ satellites, integrating pics with different resolutions and frequencies. But in two months, it’ll begin launching its own initial fleet of 10, which will capture the Earth’s surface at resolutions comparable to the government’s Landsat program. “This is our data-science machine in space,” says co-founder Bronwyn Agrios. Next year, the company will launch another 20-strong fleet to take HD snaps.

Agrios used to work for a company called Planet—Astro Digital’s prime competitor—which launched its own satellite constellation in February. Back when Agrios was at Planet, she says, “they were starting to think a little bit more about what they would do with the data they were getting from their satellites.” But she wanted to think a lot bit more.

In 2014, she left Planet and soon co-founded Astro Digital. Their software checks new images as they flutter down from satellites to see if they’re relevant to your interests—like if trees turn into not-trees in Costa Rica. Some of that process involves humans, but the goal is to get them out of the picture. “Building a model to detect changes to forest in Brazil will not be the same as forest in Canada,” says Agrios. “We bring in contextual datasets like weather and land use to train the model to know what features look like, and recognize their state.”

Astro Digital may not have its satellites up, but it’s gaining ground in software. Planet’s analytics, with end-goals similar to Astro Digital’s, aren’t ready for prime-time. But its satellites actually exist and take their own pictures. Both want the brains and the orbital brawn to dominate the Earth-observing business.

But companies like Planet, with their echelons of satellites, don’t necessarily need their own brains. Because other firms exist that slurp in their satellites’ snaps and spit out what customers—governments, insurance companies, financial analysts, and environmental groups—need to know.

Outsourced Intelligence

In 2015, Planet announced a deal with analysis and prediction startup Descartes Labs, which declares its platform to be “the missing link in making satellite imagery useful.” It wanted to use Planet’s pictures to understand agricultural trends. The next year, Planet partnered with Orbital Insight, whose name similarly gives away its purpose.

Orbital Insight comes from the brain of James Crawford, an ex-NASA robotics guy with a PhD in artificial intelligence—he worked on the Google Books project. As soon as satellite companies started gaining ground, he saw the problem they created. “There was going to be too much imagery for people to make sense of,” he says. So in 2013, the year after he left Google, he decided to use the same sort of smart-searching tech he’d developed at Google Books to page through millions of pictures.

Today, without any satellites of its own, the company has access to Planet images and 400 terabytes of ultra-high-resolution imagery from industry giant DigitalGlobe. It uses those millions of images to train its software and then deliver conclusions. The more forests it sees disappear, the more the system understands what a disappearing forest looks like.

Orbital Insight pays the image-makers like Planet up front to access those pictures, then sells their interpretations. Customers ask, and Orbital answers: Here’s how many cars are at all the K-Marts, here’s how many oil tanks exist and how full they are, here’s how much corn you’re going to get come October. The customers never see the satellite images, and Planet gets a kickback.

Now, the satellite owners—Planet, DigitalGlobe, and soon Astro Digital—will likely always do fine, cash-wise. People will always need more and different observations. But those companies stand to do even better, potentially, when they really integrate satellites and smarts to stream intelligence straight to the customer. As for pure-brains companies like Orbital Insight? To stay relevant, they’ll have to keep their systems smart—spotting not just the forests but the trees disappearing from them faster and better than the picture takers.