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

83 – 76  Lihue, Kauai
85 – 75  Honolulu, Oahu
82 – 73  Molokai
83 – 72  Kahului AP, Maui
84 – 72  Kona Int’l AP
80 – 68   Hilo AP, Hawaii

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

0.13  Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.88  Manoa Lyon Arboretum, Oahu
 0.78  Molokai
0.00  Lanai
 0.03  Kahoolawe
3.21  Puu Kukui, Maui
2.70  Saddle Quarry, Big Island

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

23  Port Allen, Kauai
43  Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
35  Molokai
 28  Lanai
42  Kahoolawe
30   Maalaea Bay, Maui
32  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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The primary Pacific storm track is well north of our island chain

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Thunderstorms well south of the state…with cirrus

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Clear to partly cloudy…clouds coming into the windward sides locally

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Showers mostly windward…some are quite generous
Looping radar image


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

High Surf Advisory…east shores of Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Maui and the Big Island

Winter Weather Advisory…Big Island Summits above 12,000 feet / freezing fog with icing

 

~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~

 

Broad Brush Overview: Breezy wet trade wind weather is expected through Monday…at least locally at times. Low clouds and their associated trade showers will favor the windward sides of the islands, although will occasionally spread leeward on the smaller islands. We can expect fewer showers and lighter trade winds by mid-week, on into next weekend.

Details: The models suggest that the strong high pressure system northeast of the islands, will drift south and gradually weaken over the next couple of days. At the same time, a trough of low pressure aloft will remain in the vicinity of the islands through Monday. The cool temperatures aloft associated with this feature, are expected to keep the atmosphere slightly unstable.

This in turn will keep the off and on wet trade wind showers coming our way. Most of these showers will favor windward facing slopes and coastlines. The strong trade flow will also carry showers to the leeward sides of some of the smaller islands at times. The enhanced clouds just upstream of the eastern islands, may prompt a few locally heavy showers…over the windward sides of Maui and the Big Island today.

Looking Further Ahead: A transition to a drier and more stable weather pattern is expected Tuesday into Wednesday, as the upper level trough of low pressure weakens and lifts northeast…with a strengthening upper level ridge of high pressure building in from the west. This will likely result in a significantly drier trade wind weather pattern towards the end of the upcoming work week.

By mid-week, high pressure to our north will drift east-northeast, as a late season cold front approaches the state from the northwest…weakening the ridge as the front gets closer. This will result in a period of lighter trade winds Thursday through Saturday. Expect a trend towards stronger trade winds starting again later next weekend into the following week. This of course is pretty much “business as usual” for this time of year.

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: Gusty trade winds will continue through the first half of the new week, due to a robust high pressure system far northeast of the islands. A Small Craft Advisory (SCA) continues for the channels east of Oahu, including Maalaea Bay, windward Maui County waters, and the waters south of the Big Island…through Tuesday.

The trade wind swell is sufficient enough to maintain a High Surf Advisory for the east facing shores through Monday afternoon. This is due to the above mentioned high pressure system, which is expected to continue to produce strong trade winds into Monday.

For surf along the south shores, minor pulses will arrive through the next week, causing small to moderate surf. Surf along the north facing shores will remain small through the start of the new week. A gale east of Japan is expected to track to the northeast, and then stall near the western Aleutian islands. This could generate a small northwest swell that would reach Hawaii during the second half of the upcoming week.

 

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Well established trade wind weather pattern…with off and on showers



San Francisco Bay Weather Brief: Unseasonably cool and breezy conditions will persist into the beginning of the upcoming work week. Isolated to scattered showers will be possible Tuesday, as a weather system moves across the region from the north. A warming and drying trend is then likely for the second half of the week, into next weekend…as high pressure builds along the West coast.

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Mostly clear to partly cloudy…for the most part


World-wide tropical cyclone activity


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>>> Atlantic Ocean: The 2017 hurricane season begins June 1st

>>> 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:

>>> North and South Indian Oceans / Arabian Sea: No active tropical cyclones


Here’s a link to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC)


Interesting: Flexible, organic and biodegradable: Stanford researchers develop new wave of electronics – As electronics become increasingly pervasive in our lives – from smart phones to wearable sensors – so too does the ever rising amount of electronic waste they create. A United Nations Environment Program report found that almost 50 million tons of electronic waste were thrown out in 2017—more than 20 percent higher than waste in 2015.

Troubled by this mounting waste, Stanford engineer Zhenan Bao and her team are rethinking electronics. “In my group, we have been trying to mimic the function of human skin to think about how to develop future electronic devices,” Bao said. She described how skin is stretchable, self-healable and also biodegradable – an attractive list of characteristics for electronics. “We have achieved the first two [flexible and self-healing], so the biodegradability was something we wanted to tackle.”

The team created a flexible electronic device that can easily degrade just by adding a weak acid like vinegar. The results were published May 1 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“This is the first example of a semiconductive polymer that can decompose,” said lead author Ting Lei, a postdoctoral fellow working with Bao.

In addition to the polymer – essentially a flexible, conductive plastic – the team developed a degradable electronic circuit and a new biodegradable substrate material for mounting the electrical components. This substrate supports the electrical components, flexing and molding to rough and smooth surfaces alike. When the electronic device is no longer needed, the whole thing can biodegrade into nontoxic components.

Biodegradable bits

Bao, a professor of chemical engineering and materials science and engineering, had previously created a stretchable electrode modeled on human skin. That material could bend and twist in a way that could allow it to interface with the skin or brain, but it couldn’t degrade. That limited its application for implantable devices and – important to Bao – contributed to waste.

Bao said that creating a robust material that is both a good electrical conductor and biodegradable was a challenge, considering traditional polymer chemistry. “We have been trying to think how we can achieve both great electronic property but also have the biodegradability,” Bao said.

Eventually, the team found that by tweaking the chemical structure of the flexible material it would break apart under mild stressors. “We came up with an idea of making these molecules using a special type of chemical linkage that can retain the ability for the electron to smoothly transport along the molecule,” Bao said. “But also this chemical bond is sensitive to weak acid – even weaker than pure vinegar.” The result was a material that could carry an electronic signal but break down without requiring extreme measures.

In addition to the biodegradable polymer, the team developed a new type of electrical component and a substrate material that attaches to the entire electronic component. Electronic components are usually made of gold. But for this device, the researchers crafted components from iron. Bao noted that iron is a very environmentally friendly product and is nontoxic to humans.

The researchers created the substrate, which carries the electronic circuit and the polymer, from cellulose. Cellulose is the same substance that makes up paper. But unlike paper, the team altered cellulose fibers so the “paper” is transparent and flexible, while still breaking down easily. The thin film substrate allows the electronics to be worn on the skin or even implanted inside the body.

From implants to plants

The combination of a biodegradable conductive polymer and substrate makes the electronic device useful in a plethora of settings – from wearable electronics to large-scale environmental surveys with sensor dusts.

“We envision these soft patches that are very thin and conformable to the skin that can measure blood pressure, glucose value, sweat content,” Bao said. A person could wear a specifically designed patch for a day or week, then download the data. According to Bao, this short-term use of disposable electronics seems a perfect fit for a degradable, flexible design.

And it’s not just for skin surveys: the biodegradable substrate, polymers and iron electrodes make the entire component compatible with insertion into the human body. The polymer breaks down to product concentrations much lower than the published acceptable levels found in drinking water. Although the polymer was found to be biocompatible, Bao said that more studies would need to be done before implants are a regular occurrence.

Biodegradable electronics have the potential to go far beyond collecting heart disease and glucose data. These components could be used in places where surveys cover large areas in remote locations. Lei described a research scenario where biodegradable electronics are dropped by airplane over a forest to survey the landscape. “It’s a very large area and very hard for people to spread the sensors,” he said. “Also, if you spread the sensors, it’s very hard to gather them back. You don’t want to contaminate the environment so we need something that can be decomposed.” Instead of plastic littering the forest floor, the sensors would biodegrade away.

As the number of electronics increase, biodegradability will become more important. Lei is excited by their advancements and wants to keep improving performance of biodegradable electronics. “We currently have computers and cell phones and we generate millions and billions of cell phones, and it’s hard to decompose,” he said. “We hope we can develop some materials that can be decomposed so there is less waste.”