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

87 – 77  Lihue, Kauai
88 – 76  Honolulu, Oahu
 87 – 79  Molokai
91 – 71  Kahului AP, Maui
88 – 75  Kailua Kona
85 – 71  Hilo AP, Hawaii

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

1.78  Kilohana, Kauai
0.93  Poamoho RG 1, Oahu
 0.34  Molokai
0.04  Lanai
 0.01  Kahoolawe
0.71  Puu Kukui, Maui
0.64  Saddle Quarry, Big Island

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

21  Port Allen, Kauai
35  Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
31  Molokai
22  Lanai
36  Kahoolawe
28  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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Tropical Depression Greg, Hurricane Hillary, and Tropical Storm Irwin are spinning to the east of Hawaii

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Low clouds being carried our way on the trades…Cirrus well south


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Scattered showers locally – Looping radar image
 

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

 

~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~

 

Broad Brush Overview: A trade wind weather pattern can be expected through the weekend, thanks to high pressure far northeast of the area. Clouds and passing showers will favor windward and mountain areas, with just a few brief showers expected over the leeward sides locally. An increase in shower activity is expected Friday into early Saturday, as an area of moisture moves across the area. Drier weather is expected Sunday into next Monday.

Looking Further Ahead: Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Greg (still in the eastern Pacific) is forecast to continue on a generally northwest track through the next couple of days. Greg is now a Tropical Depression, and will weaken further to a remnant low…as it pushes into our central Pacific. It appears that Greg will have no influence on our weather, as he dives back into the deeper tropics. Speaking of Greg, and all the other storms, check this out…and don’t forget to look at the far ends, with the systems offshore from southern Mexico, and then pan far left into the western Pacific.

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 trades have returned to their normal direction from the east-northeast, after being disrupted yesterday by the remnant for former tropical cyclone Fernanda. The trades have sufficient strength over the usual windy zones around Maui County and the Big Island, to maintain a Small Craft Advisory. These conditions should persist until around Thursday…when the trades should weaken.

Other than choppy east shore surf, there are no significant swells expected through the rest of the week.

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Typical trade wind pattern…through the rest of the week


>> Southern California Weather Brief: Dry southwest flow aloft and building high pressure will gradually warm temperatures this week…to a few degrees above normal. Overnight and morning low clouds will continue along the coast.

High pressure should start to build back in for late week, and a warming trend should establish itself, then a lower confidence pattern develops after Friday…as the possibility of the remnants of Hurricane Hilary get embedded into the flow pattern.

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/wfo/lox/cvis.jpg
Low clouds offshore…extending inland locally

 

>>> San Francisco Bay area weather brief: A gradual warming trend will get underway beginning Wednesday and continue through late week. By Thursday into the weekend, afternoon temperatures will warm to above seasonal averages for inland areas, while coastal locations remain cooler. Above average temperatures are then likely to persist into early next week.

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/wfo/sto/vis.jpg
Low clouds extending inland along the coast…locally



World-wide tropical cyclone activity


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>>> Atlantic Ocean: No active tropical cyclone

1.) A few showers and thunderstorms south of the Cabo Verde Islands are associated with a tropical wave moving westward at 10 to 15 mph. Development of this system, if any, will be slow to occur.

* Formation chance through 48 hours…low…near 0 percent
* Formation chance through 5 days…low…20 percent

>>> 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:

Tropical Depression Greg remains active, here’s a graphical track map, a satellite image…and what the computer models are showing

Hurricane Hilary remains active, here’s a graphical track map, a satellite image…and what the computer models are showing

Tropical Storm Irwin remains active, here’s a graphical track map, a satellite image…and what the computer models are showing

1.) An area of low pressure could form several hundred miles south of Mexico in a day or two. Development, if any, of this system is expected to be slow to occur during the next few days due to strong upper-level winds. These winds might become more conducive for some development this weekend as Hurricane Hilary moves farther away from the disturbance. This system is expected to move west-northwestward at 5 to 10 mph during the next several days.

* Formation chance through 48 hours…low…near 0 percent
* Formation chance through 5 days…low…20 percent

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 cyclone

No tropical cyclones are expected during the next 5-days

Here’s a link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)

>>> Northwest Pacific Ocean:

Typhoon 07W (Noru) is active, here’s a graphical track map, a satellite image…and what the computer models are showing.

Tropical Depression 09W (Kulap) is dissipating, here’s a graphical track map, a satellite image – Final Warning

Tropical Storm 11W (Nesat) is active, here’s a graphical track map, a satellite image…and what the computer models are showing.

>>> 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 Moon’s Interior Could Contain Lots of Water, Study Shows — Ancient volcanic deposits on the moon reveal new evidence about the lunar interior, suggesting it contains substantial amounts of water.

Using satellite data, scientists from Brown University studied lunar pyroclastic deposits, layers of rock that likely formed from large volcanic eruptions. The magma associated with these explosive events is carried to the moon’s surface from very deep within its interior, according to a study published in Nature Geoscience.

Previous studies have observed traces of water ice in shadowed regions at the lunar poles. However, this water is likely the result of hydrogen that comes from solar wind, according to the new study’s lead author, Ralph Milliken, a geologist at Brown University. The new research reveals there is likely a large amount of water in the moon’s mantle, as well. This suggests that the water was delivered to the moon very early in its formation, before it fully solidified, Milliken told Space.com.

“We observe the water in deposits that are at the surface today, but these deposits are the result of magma that originally comes from deep within the lunar interior,” Milliken said. “Therefore, because the products of the magma have water, the deep interior of the moon must also contain water.”

The researchers analyzed satellite data from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument aboard India’s Chandrayaan-1 probe, which measures reflected sunlight at visible and near-infrared wavelengths. In order to estimate the amount of trapped water in the pyroclastic deposits, the scientists had to isolate the reflected sunlight from the thermal energy emitted by the moon’s hot surface.

“Different minerals and compounds will absorb and reflect light in different ways, so in our case we looked at wavelengths where [the molecules] H2O and OH absorb light,” Milliken said. “We found that there were larger absorptions, or less reflected sunlight, at these wavelengths for pyroclastic deposits, which indicates they contain OH or H2O.”

Previously, scientists from Brown detected trace amounts of water in similar volcanic samples — which are composed of loose material or “glass beads” — brought back to Earth from the Apollo 15 and 17 missions. However, the Apollo samples were not collected from the large pyroclastic deposits mapped using the satellite data in the recent study. This brought into question whether the Apollo samples represent a large portion of the moon’s “wet” interior or if they represent only a small water-rich region within an otherwise “dry” mantle.

“Our work shows that nearly all of the large pyroclastic deposits also contain water, so this seems to be a common characteristic of magmas that come from the deep lunar interior,” Milliken said. “That is, most of the mantle of the moon may be ‘wet.'”

However, the question of how the water got in the moon’s interior remains unresolved.

“It is generally thought that the giant impact event that formed the moon was too energetic and hot for water to remain, yet there it is,” Milliken told Space.com. “One option is that the water was delivered after the giant impact event, but before the moon had completely cooled, likely due to impacts by water-bearing comets and asteroids.”

Evidence of water deep beneath the lunar surface may also have implications for how Earth got its water, scientists say. Furthermore, the study’s findings suggest that the pyroclastic deposits could possibly be mined for water, which, in turn, could fuel future missions to the moon.

“These deposits may be much easier to access than potential water ice in shadowed regions at the lunar poles,” Milliken said. “Water is heavy and expensive to take from Earth to space, so any bit of water that you can get on the moon instead of bringing with you from Earth is a big deal and opens up possibilities for sustained human presence on the moon.”

Going forward, the scientists would like to map the pyroclastic deposits in greater detail so that they can better understand how water concentrations vary among different deposits on the lunar surface. Milliken also noted that these deposits would be great targets for future exploration, during which samples could be collected and later studied to further refine the estimated water content of the moon’s interior.

“If humans may go to one of these places, then we want to have the best possible roadmaps and resource maps that we can,” Milliken said. “We’ll also try to integrate our satellite observations with theoretical models of volcanic eruptions to better constrain our estimates of the amount of water.”

“The better we understand how much water is there, then the better we can estimate the processes responsible and the usefulness of the deposits for future human exploration,” he added.