Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Thursday:   

Lihue, Kauai –                   79
Honolulu airport, Oahu –     82 
Kaneohe, Oahu –               79
Molokai airport –                81
Kahului airport, Maui –       85  (record high temperature for the date…88F degrees – 1949)
Kona airport –                   80
Hilo airport, Hawaii –          75

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops…as of 5pm Thursday evening:

Port Allen, Kauai – 79
Kapalua, Maui – 73

Haleakala Crater – 45 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea –        34 (near 13,800 feet on the Big Island)

Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live web cam on the summit of near 13,800 foot Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. This web cam is available during the daylight hours here in the islands…and when there’s a big moon shining down during the night at times. Plus, during the nights you will be able to see stars, and the sunrise and sunset too…depending upon weather conditions. Here's the Haleakala Crater webcam on Maui…which is working only sometimes lately.

 Aloha Paragraphs

http://surfmusic.blogsome.com/images/rockpiles_hawaii.jpg
Strengthening trade winds Friday,
localized windward showers…larger
surf along our north and west shores 
 


As this weather map shows, we have a near 1032 millibar high pressure system located far to the northeast, and another to the northwest of the Hawaiian Islands Thursday evening.  These high pressure cells have ridges that run east and west from their centers, to the north of the state. The trade winds will gradually become stronger from the trade wind direction Friday into Saturday.

The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph), along with directions Thursday evening:

16                 Port Allen, Kauai – ESE
22                 Kahuku, Oahu – SE
24                 Molokai – E
30                    Kahoolawe – ENE
22                 Kaupo Gap, Maui – SE
30                    Lanai – NE
25                 South Point, Big Island – NE

We can use the following links to see what’s going on in our area of the north central Pacific Ocean Thursday evening. Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we find that the high and middle level clouds is well to the southeast of the Big Island…over the ocean. We can use this looping satellite image to see this high level moisture streaming up from the southwest…which continues to shift gradually eastward…along with an approaching cold front to our northwest. Meanwhile, some lower level clouds around generally over the ocean to our southwest…and along the windward sides locally.  Otherwise, skies are clear to partly cloudy elsewhere, with some cloudy areas here and there. Checking out this looping radar image we see just a few showers over the ocean, most of which are in the light to moderately heavy category, moving over the islands in places locally.

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

1.60                 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
1.12               Manoa Lyon Arboretum, Oahu
0.00               Molokai
0.00               Lanai
0.02               Kahoolawe
0.38               Puu Kukui, Maui
1.03               Mountain View, Big Island

Sunset Commentary:  The overlying atmosphere has become more stable now, and as such our rainfall has pulled back to more normal levels.  Precipitation looks like it will remain about normal into the weekend, at least through Saturday. Part of the reason that it won’t turn wetter is that a cold front to the northwest, as shown on this satellite image, will stall before pushing down into the state. Meanwhile, that same satellite picture shows the recent high and middle clouds, now well offshore to our east and southeast of the Big Island. Skies look rather rain free upwind of the state, thus the prospect of nothing unusual in terms of rainfall for the time being.

Looking a bit further ahead, later Friday into Saturday on Kauai may get some showers from the stalled cold front, as they get drawn into that island on the strengthening trade winds. Then later Sunday, an upper level weather feature may trigger some heavier showers for the Big Island, especially as we move into the new week ahead. It’s that time of when weather changes occur more frequently, so that adjustments to the forecasts require close attention. The prospect of increasing trade winds seems quite likely as the cold front to our northwest dissipates later Friday. The wild card perhaps continues to be what will happen with the upper level low pressure system that settles into the area south of the state Sunday or Monday. This will have an important bearing on what actually manifests in our Hawaiian Island weather picture then…especially the Big Island.

Here in Kihei, Maui at around 530pm Thursday evening, it was mostly clear, with just a few random low clouds situated around the edges. The trade winds were blowing, although gently at the time of this writing. The increasingly strong trade winds Friday into the weekend, will be our most influential weather feature, that and the large surf pounding the north and west facing beaches. I'm heading back up to Kula now, and then out on the road for my much looked forward to evening walk. I'll be back early Friday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Thursday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn. 

Interesting:    In a hundred years trees may be growing where there are now glaciers. The warm climate of the last few years has caused dramatic melting of glaciers in the Swedish mountains. Remains of trees that have been hidden for thousands of years have been uncovered. They indicate that 13,000 years ago there were trees where there are now glaciers.


The climate may have been as much as 3.5 degrees warmer than now. In other words, this can happen again, according to Lisa Öberg, a doctoral candidate at Mid Sweden University in a new study. In her study Lisa Öberg shows that soon after the inland ice receded, about 13,100 years ago, pines colonized high altitudes in the mountains.

A few thousand years later there was a massive invasion of both pines and birches at levels up to 600 m higher than today's treeline. Subsequently the treeline for both pine and birch was gradually lowered as a result of ever-lower temperatures, until the climate made it impossible for trees to grow and glaciers began to form, about 4,400 years ago.

"We used to think that the glaciers were remnants of the latest ice age. The fact that trees grew there so recently shows that the glaciers are no older than 4,400 years," says Lisa Öberg. Lisa Öberg's study is based on finds of tree remains from Helags-Sylarna, Tärna, and Abisko.

The age of the tree remains shows that the climate warming of the last century is unique in a perspective of several thousands of years. If any melting corresponding to what is happening today had taken place previously, the wood would probably have been degraded.

"The knowledge we gain by exploiting this unique opportunity is important for our understanding of how alpine plant growth may be impacted by the future climate," says Lisa Öberg.