Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Saturday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 83
Honolulu airport, Oahu – 86
Kaneohe, Oahu – M
Molokai airport – 83
Kahului airport, Maui – 85
Kona airport – 84
Hilo airport, Hawaii – 83
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops around the state…as of 6pm Saturday evening:
Honolulu, Oahu – 83
Hilo, Hawaii – 74
Haleakala Summit – M (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 39 (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…although this webcam is not always working correctly.
Tropical Cyclone activity in the eastern and central Pacific – Here’s the latest weather information coming out of the National Hurricane Center, covering the eastern north Pacific. You can find the latest tropical cyclone information for the central north Pacific (where Hawaii is located) by clicking on this link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. A satellite image, which shows the entire ocean area between Hawaii and the Mexican coast…can be found here.
Aloha Paragraphs
Trades…windward showers at times
~~~ Perseid Meteor Shower ~~~
As this weather map shows, we have moderately strong high pressure systems located to the northeast of the islands, with a low pressure system far to our northwest…near the International Dateline. Our local trade winds will remain moderately through this weekend into the new week ahead…with locally stronger gusts.
The following numbers represent the most recent top wind gusts (mph), along with directions as of Saturday evening:
21 Port Allen, Kauai – NE
31 Makua Range, Oahu – NE
32 Molokai – NE
28 Kahoolawe – ENE
32 Kahului, Maui – NE
32 Lanai – NE
33 Kealakomo, Big Island – NNE
We can use the following links to see what’s going on in our area of the north central Pacific Ocean. Here's the latest NOAA satellite picture – the latest looping satellite image…and finally the latest looping radar image for the Hawaiian Islands.
Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Saturday evening:
0.78 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.45 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.21 Molokai
0.08 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.21 Puu Kukui, Maui
0.65 Kawainui Stream, Big Island
Sunset Commentary:
Moderately strong trade winds will continue to blow across our Hawaiian Islands…through the next week. We find high pressure systems (weather map) located to the northeast of the islands Saturday night…supporting this wind flow. These trades will begin to carry a few more windward showers towards us now, which could increase a bit tonight, and then again Sunday night into Monday. The leeward sides will be drier than the windward sides as usual, with just a few scattered showers present. The leeward Kona slopes on the Big Island on the other hand, may see a modest increase in afternoon or early evening showers locally…as could the upcountry leeward slopes of east Maui. The computer models suggest that this slightly more showery reality will turn back towards drier than usual summer weather by the middle of the upcoming new week, onwards into next weekend.
Friday night film: Several friends and I went to see a new film last evening, this one was called Total Recall. It stars Colin Farrell, Bryan Cranston, Jessica Biel, Kate Beckinsale, Bill Nighy, and John Cho…among many others. The synopsis: welcome to Rekall, the company that can turn your dreams into real memories. For a factory worker named Douglas Quaid, even though he's got a beautiful wife who he loves, the mind-trip sounds like the perfect vacation from his frustrating life – real memories of life as a super-spy might be just what he needs. But when the procedure goes horribly wrong, Quaid becomes a hunted man. Finding himself on the run from the police, controlled by Chancellor Cohaagen, the leader of the free world. Quaid teams up with a rebel fighter to find the head of the underground resistance and stop Cohaagen. The line between fantasy and reality gets blurred and the fate of his world hangs in the balance as Quaid discovers his true identity, his true love, and his true fate. ~~~ This long film (2 hours 15 minutes) had all the required things of a good action flick, including intense sequences of sci-fi violence, some sexual content, brief nudity and severe language being thrown around! Well, this was in fact a very intense action film, as advertised. The general consensus of my friends and I, suggested that it was a bit over the top in terms of fast paced action in fact! We all felt a bit worn out after watching this film, although the overall grade turned out to be a pretty solid B. Here's the trailer in case you have any interest in taking a peek at what we saw.
Here in Kula, Maui at 540pm Saturday evening, it was partly cloudy with a very light sprinkle, and calm…with an air temperature of 75.2F degrees. The trade winds will continue to blow across our islands through the next week at least. If we look at this satellite image, we see scattered low level clouds upstream of our islands. Sunday into Monday, we'll find an upper level low pressure system, with its cold air aloft, located over the state. This will likely destabilize our air mass to some degree, with our windward biased showers becoming somewhat more active. Conditions should stabilize and dry out again, as we move into the middle of the new week. Otherwise, nothing is going to get out of hand, with still reasonably nice weather prevailing in many areas…especially our leeward beaches. ~~~ A friend is coming over this evening, and we plan on checking out the Perseid Meteor Shower out on my weather deck, and if the clouds clear enough, and we can spot them shooting around, I'll report back to you about them in the morning. I hope you have a great Saturday night from wherever you happen to be spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Extra: Get out your thermos and sleeping bag, this year's Perseid meteor shower will peak tonight into Sunday morning. It's already "looking very good," in the words of Bill Cooke, who tracks meteors for NASA at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
"Last night we saw about 75 Perseid fireballs. I'm pretty stoked," he said. The show will begin between 11 p.m. and midnight local time wherever you are on Saturday night and continue until dawn Sunday, says Alan MacRobert of Sky & Telescope magazine.
"You might see as many one or two meteors a minute" at its height. The shower will gradually pick up over the course of the night and "continue nice and strong right up until dawn," says MacRobert. Between 1:30 a.m. and 3 a.m., depending on where they live, sky watchers will also be treated to a three-for-one in the Eastern sky.
First Jupiter, then the moon and then Venus will rise, says Conrad Jung, an astronomer with Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland. If you're still up when dawn begins, "they'll make a nice diagonal line of bright things in the eastern sky," says MacRobert.
The Perseid meteors appear to fall from the constellation Perseus, but are actually leftover debris from comet Swift-Tuttle. They recur each year when Earth passes through the comet's debris trail. Though Saturday is the peak night, the Earth actually started traveling through the debris in late July and won't leave it behind until early August.
It's those tiny pea-and sand-sized remnants that cause the shower. "We only see them when they strike the Earth's upper atmosphere in the last few seconds of their existence, when they blaze up and burn out," says MacRobert. The best way to observe the Perseids, or any meteor shower, is to find a dark place outside with as little light pollution as possible.
Give your eyes at least 10 minutes to adjust to the darkness. Look straight up and be patient. "Shower is really kind of a misnomer," says Chabot's Jung. The falling stars, as they're sometimes called, tend to come more in groups. Meteor watching can be cold, especially as the night progresses.
Bundle up, which is also helpful against mosquitoes: "A sleeping bag makes excellent armor," says MacRobert. Jung suggests a big thermos of hot chocolate or coffee and "some energetic friends." But don't drink alcohol, as astronomers say it impairs night vision.
NASA will be holding a live online chat during the shower, from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. Cooke and his team from the Meteoroid Environment Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center will be online to answer questions. There will also be a live video feed, for those faced with overcast weather that night. "
World-wide tropical cyclone activity:
Central Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones
Eastern Pacific Ocean: Former tropical depression Gilma (7E)…is located about 700 miles west of the southern tip of Baja California. Sustained winds are running 35 mph. Gilma has lost its tropical cyclone rating, and is no being referred to as a remnant low pressure system. There is no danger to the Mexican coast from this now retired tropical cyclone.
Meanwhile, tropical storm Hector (8E) is churning the waters offshore from southern Mexico…located about 250 miles west of Manzanillo, Mexico. Tropical storm Hector isn't forecast to become a hurricane. Here's a NHC graphical track map.
Here's the NHC satellite image showing former Gilma, and strengthening tropical storm Hector.
Atlantic Ocean/Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean: The remnants of now retired Tropical depression (7L) is dissipating quickly in the central Atlantic, located near Barbados. There's a low 10% chance that this area could regenerate into a tropical cyclone. Here's a satellite image of this remnant low.
Meanwhile, an area of disturbed weather located about 500 miles west-northwest of the Cape Verde Islands, moving westward over the Atlantic Ocean. This system has a low 10% chance of developing into a tropical cyclone within the next 48 hours.
Here's a satellite image showing former 7L…and this other area of disturbed weather in the Atlantic.
Western Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones
South Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones
North and South Indian Oceans: There are no active tropical cyclones
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