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

85 – 75  Lihue, Kauai
88 – 72  Honolulu, Oahu
89 – 65  Molokai
92 – 65  Kahului AP, Maui – Tied the high temperature record Sunday…set back in 1953
87 – 72  Kailua Kona
85 – 68  Hilo AP, Hawaii

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

1.11  Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.20  Punaluu Stream, Oahu
 0.00  Molokai
0.00  Lanai
 0.00  Kahoolawe
0.47  Ulupalakua, Maui
0.32  Kealakekua, Big Island

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

23  Port Allen, Kauai
27  Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
24  Molokai
 12  Lanai
31  Kahoolawe
25  Kahului AP, Maui
27  Kealakomo, 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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Gale low pressure system far north-northwest…with a cold front

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Thunderstorms south

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Clear to partly cloudy…cloudy areas locally


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Showers locally…mostly offshore – Looping radar image



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

 

~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~

 

Broad Brush Overview: A mid-level trough of low pressure will shift west of the state tonight, with high pressure building north and northeast of the islands through the new work week. This will bring a drier and more stable trade wind shower pattern, with the trades becoming locally windy by Tuesday through Thursday. A more showery trade wind pattern may return Friday into the weekend…as an upper level low pressure system approaches the islands from the east.

Details: High pressure will track slowly eastward well to the north of the islands, resulting in strengthening trade winds. These trades will strengthen to locally windy levels Tuesday through Thursday. In addition to the gusty trades, and with the moment of the trough to the west of the islands, a drier more stable airmass will move over the area. As we push into Monday and continuing through Thursday, we’ll be in a drier than normal shower pattern. Showers will continue to favor windward areas, with a stray shower reaching leeward areas from time to time…due to the gusty trades.

Looking Further Ahead: The models show an upper level low tracking eastward toward the islands Friday, then lifting northward and away from the islands by the weekend. High pressure will continue to hold in place north of the islands, with breezy trade winds expected to continue through at least Thursday night. The trades are then expected to weaken Friday through Saturday, as the upper level low approaches from the east. We could find deep layer moisture increasing Thursday night, with these enhanced showers remaining over the islands through Saturday. As a result, we should see a more showery trade wind pattern then, which will continue to favor windward coasts and slopes.

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: Light to moderate trade winds, associated with a moderately strong high pressure system far north of the state, will continue tonight. Stronger trades are expected to return through the day Monday, and continue through the week. Small craft conditions will be likely through this period over the typically windier channel waters, Maalaea Bay and south of the Big Island.

Surf along east facing shores will build and become rough through the week, due to a combination of increasing trades, and a moderate northeast swell associated with gales off the west coast. Surf will approach advisory levels along east facing shores through this time, especially Monday through Tuesday…as the northeast swell peaks.

Although surf along south facing shores will trend down toward average going into the upcoming week, small reinforcing swells from the south Pacific will keep things from going flat. The next pulse from this region out of the south-southeast is forecast to arrive Wednesday, bringing the surf back a little going into the second half of the week. For the long range, nothing significant is anticipated.

Extreme tides that have been observed over the past several days will trend back toward normal into the upcoming week. As a result, flooding impacts along the coast will diminish.

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Stronger trade winds as we get into this new week


>>> Southern California Weather Brief: A strong ridge of upper-level high pressure over Southern Arizona will continue very warm conditions away from the coast…through early in the new week. Closer to the coast, a persistent marine layer should moderate temperatures, and continue mainly night through morning low clouds and fog. A trough of low pressure off the California Coast will weaken high pressure aloft Tuesday, bringing a cooling trend as onshore flow strengthens.

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Just a few low clouds offshore…mostly clear otherwise


World-wide tropical cyclone activity


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>>> Atlantic Ocean: No active tropical cyclones

No tropical cyclones are expected during the next 5-days

>>> Caribbean: No active tropical cyclone

No tropical cyclones are expected during the next 5-days

>>> Gulf of Mexico: No active tropical cyclones

No tropical cyclones are expected during the next 5-days

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: 

Hurricane 04E (Dora) remains active offshore from Mexico, here’s the NHC graphical track map, a NOAA looping satellite image…with what the computer models are showing / this storm won’t become a problem for the Hawaiian Islands

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: No active tropical cyclones

No tropical cyclones are expected during the next 5-days

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 Serengeti: Plain Facts about National Park & Animals – The Serengeti is a vast ecosystem in east-central Africa. It spans 12,000 square miles (30,000 square kilometers), according to NASA, giving rise to its name, which is derived from the Maasai language and means “endless plains.”

This region of Africa is located in north Tanzania and extends to southwestern Kenya. The Serengeti encompasses Serengeti National Park and a number of protected game reserves and conservation areas maintained by the governments of Tanzania and Kenya. The region hosts the largest mammal migration in the world and is a popular destination for African safaris.

Altitudes in the Serengeti range from 3,020 feet to 6,070 feet (920 meters to 1,850 meters), according to UNESCO. The usually warm and dry climate is interrupted by two rainy seasons — March to May, and a shorter season in October and November.

The Serengeti landscape can be divided into two regions defined by their dominant vegetation — woodland and grassland, according to Bridget Conneely, a wildlife ecologist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Maryland. Woodlands, which are grassy areas dotted with trees, can then be broken down further by their dominant trees —Acacia woodlands and Terminalia woodlands. Grasslands include riverine, plains and derived grasslands (or those grasslands that are only there because of repeated fires), Conneely said.

The expansiveness of the Serengeti is interrupted by Ol Doinyo Lengai, the only active volcano in the area and the only volcano that still ejects carbonatite lavas that turn white when exposed to air. When it rains, the ash turns into a calcium-rich material that is as hard as cement.

The southeastern area lies in the shadow of the Ngorongoro highlands and is composed of shortgrass treeless plains, as this area does get rain. Some 43 miles (70 km) west, acacia woodlands rise suddenly and extend west to Lake Victoria and north to the Loita Plains.

The landscape is dotted with a number of granite and gneiss outcroppings known as kopjes, which are large rocky formations that are the result of volcanic activity. The Simba Kopje (Lion Kopje) is a popular tourist stop.

Animals of the Serengeti

Blue wildebeests, gazelles, zebras and buffalos inhabit the region, along with lions and spotted hyenas familiar to fans of the Disney film “The Lion King.”

In the 1890s, droughts and a rinderpest epidemic (also known as cattle plague or steppe murrain) took a serious toll on the animal population of the Serengeti, in particular the wildebeest. By the mid-1970s the wildebeest and the buffalo populations had recovered.

Each year the great wildebeest migration begins in December in the Ngorongoro area of the southern Serengeti of Tanzania, which offers rich grasslands for feeding. This is a huge attraction for tourists, and while many think it is an intense and short-lived phenomenon, it is actually a fairly slow trek. It occurs during this time because there plenty of rain-ripened grass available for the 750,000 zebra that precede 1.2 million wildebeest and then the hundreds of thousands of other plains game bringing up the rear of the migration path.

Wildebeests bear their young in February and March, which sparks predators. Then, in May as the plains of the south and east dry out the mass moves on to the north and west crossing the Grumeti River, where there is more grass and more a more reliable water supply.

Some 250,000 wildebeest die during the journey from Tanzania to Maasai Mara Reserve in lower Kenya, a total of 500 miles (800 km), according to the World Wildlife Fund for Nature. Death is usually from thirst, hunger, exhaustion, or predation.

And some wildebeest drown. An average of 6,250 wildebeest die every year crossing the Mara River in eastern Africa during this annual migration. And scientists have found their deaths weren’t for naught. Reporting online June 19, 2017 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers looked at 13 mass drownings that occurred between 2001 and 2015, finding that the thousands of corpses are the equivalent of more than 1,000 tons of biomass that can feed the Serengeti. Animals that benefit include scavengers like vultures and crocodiles, as well as maggots and even fish and algae that benefit from the nutrients released from the wildebeests’ bones.

To peer into the secret lives of this diverse array of animals that call the Serengeti home, Alexandra Swanson began placing motion-triggered cameras, or camera traps, around the Serengeti in 2010 as part of her doctoral dissertation at the University of Minnesota. With the help of citizen scientists, Swanson and other researchers identified the species in any images showing animals. She described the resulting 1.2 million images online June 9, 2015 in the journal Scientific Data. Images like these can help to answer questions about how animals interact in various ecosystems, the researchers said. For instance, how do predators that survive on the same prey manage to thrive together in the same environment?

But large mammals are not the only ones that make their home in the Serengeti. Gaudy agama lizards and rock hyraxes make themselves comfortable in the numerous granite kopjes, which are formations of huge boulders of sparkling, coarse rock. A full 100 varieties of dung beetle have been recorded, as have 500-plus bird species, ranging from the outsized ostrich to the black eagles that soar effortlessly above the Lobo Hills.

History of the Serengeti

The Maasai people had been grazing their livestock in the open plains for around 200 years when the first European explorers visited the area. German geographer and explorer Dr. Oscar Baumann entered the area in 1892. The first Brit to enter the Serengeti, Stewart Edward White, recorded his explorations in the northern Serengeti in 1913.

Because the hunting of lions made them so scarce, the British decided to make a partial game reserve of 800 acres (3.2 square km) in the area in 1921 and a full one in 1929. These actions became the basis for Serengeti National Park, which was established in 1951.

The Serengeti gained more fame after the initial work of Bernhard Grzimek and his son Michael in the 1950s. Together they produced the book and film “Serengeti Shall Not Die,” an early nature conservation documentary.

As part of the creation of the park and in order to preserve its wildlife, the Maasai were relocated to the Ngorongoro highlands, a move that still elicits much controversy.