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

81 – 73  Lihue, Kauai
86 – 73  Honolulu, Oahu
83 – 68  Molokai
mm – mm  Kahului AP, Maui
85 – 69  Kona Int’l AP
82 – 67  Hilo AP, Hawaii

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

0.03  Lihue, Kauai
0.06  Moanalua RG, Oahu
 0.00  Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.05  Kahakuloa, Maui
0.72  Kawainui Stream, Big Island

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

27  Port Allen, Kauai
27  Kuaokala, Oahu
27  Molokai
 27  Lanai
28  Kahoolawe
23  Kahului AP, Maui
27  South Point, 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 low pressure system far north… with a trailing cold front

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Higher level clouds northwest, northeast…and south of the islands

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Clear to partly cloudy…with low cloud patches arriving locally

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Showers in the vicinity – Looping radar image

Wind Advisory…Big Island summits / 40-50 mph

~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~

 

Broad brush overview: A ridge of high pressure north of the islands will keep gentle to locally breezy trade winds blowing through mid-week. Dry and stable air will bring lots of sunshine, especially for leeward beaches. Windward areas will see isolated showers that will favor nights and mornings. The trades may increase briefly Friday, as high pressure passes far to the north. Our winds look to turn southeast by the weekend, as the high moves away…which may spread vog northward over the smaller islands.

Details: Satellite imagery shows an upper level high pressure system west of the state, with a ridge extending just to our north. At the surface, a ridge is located farther north, oriented generally east to west. A stable weather pattern is expected over the next few days, with the surface ridge remaining north. Inversion heights will remain unusually low through much of the work week. Rainfall amounts will be limited, with most showers expected at night into the early mornings. Lighter trade winds may allow for localized seas breezes across sheltered leeward areas. A new surface high system passing north of the state…will lead to a brief window of breezy trades Friday.

Looking ahead: As we push into the upcoming weekend, the computer models are in general agreement showing the high pressure system shifting east…with a low pressure system developing north of the area. This in turn will bring southeast breezes across the state, putting the smaller islands into the wind shadow of the Big Island. In addition, as the winds weaken further late Saturday into Sunday, we’ll find more widespread land and sea breezes. Even with a slight increase in moisture depth Sunday, there will be a stable inversion to keep afternoon showers from becoming too significant into early next week.

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: Trade winds have weakened sufficiently, that small craft advisory has been dropped. The winds have backed off, due to a cold front far north of the islands…weakened the pressure gradient across the area.

A series of moderate northwest swells will move through the area this week, although surf is expected to remain below advisory levels. Surf along east facing shores will remain rough due to the locally strong onshore winds persisting through this afternoon, then trend down marginally through the week…as the trade winds weaken slightly. No other significant swells are anticipated.

 

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Trade wind weather pattern remains well established through Friday

Southern California Weather Summary: Onshore flow will bring overnight coastal clouds and fog into Thursday morning, with fair skies inland. The temperatures Wednesday will be the warmest of the week….then a cooling trend takes over into the weekend. A low pressure system should bring possible precipitation Friday into Saturday, that may linger in the mountains into Saturday night. The low pressure system will exit early next week for a warming trend… gusty winds and decreasing clouds into mid-week.

 

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Generally fair weather over Southern California…although increasing clouds

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Areas of high cirrus clouds moving across the area



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: 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: What’s Behind the Arctic’s Mysterious Green Ice? – It should be dark under the ice cover of the Arctic, and yet in 2011, scientists were perplexed when they discovered phytoplankton blooming beneath it, giving the ice a greenish hue. Now they know why: The ice has thinned enough to let light through to fuel a thriving bunch of little plants.

A large bloom of phytoplankton, which is algae, was first found growing under the Arctic sea ice in 2011. Researchers said they were shocked at the discovery, because conditions under the ice should have been too dark for the plants to photosynthesize (making sugars from light, water and carbon dioxide) to survive. New research has shown, however, that the thinning sea ice allows enough light to pass through for the phytoplankton to bloom.

Under typical conditions, most of the sunlight that hits the Arctic sea ice gets reflected  to space. But as global temperatures rise and the Arctic ice melts and thins, the normally reflective surface has become darker, the researchers said. Melt ponds ? dark pools of water on the ice’s surface ? have also lessened the ice’s reflectivity of sunlight. And so now, some of the sunlight passes through the ice.

“Our big question was, ‘How much sunlight gets transmitted through the sea ice, both as a function of thickness, which has been decreasing, and the melt pond percentage, which has been increasing?'” lead study researcher Christopher Horvat said in a statement. “What we found was that we went from a state where there wasn’t any potential for plankton blooms to massive regions of the Arctic being susceptible to these types of growth,” added Horvat, who is a graduate student in applied mathematics at the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) at Harvard University.

Using mathematical modeling, the researchers found that while melt ponds help the phytoplankton grow by allowing sunlight, thinner ice is the main culprit for the greening of Arctic ice.

Only two decades ago, about 3 to 4 percent of the Arctic’s sea ice was thin enough for phytoplankton to take in enough sunlight to grow, they said. The new research found that today, nearly 30 percent of the sea ice is thin enough for sub-ice phytoplankton blooms. In fact, the Arctic sea ice has thinned by about 3 feet (1 meter) over the last 30 years, Horvat said.

“All of a sudden, our entire idea about how this ecosystem works is different,” Horvat said. “The foundation of the Arctic food web is now growing at a different time and in places that are less accessible to animals that need oxygen.”

The researchers said their model could be used to observe the blooms in the future, and measure the overall change in the Arctic’s ecosystems.

The research is described in a paper published online March 29 in the journal Science Advances.