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

Lihue, Kauai –                        75  
Honolulu airport, Oahu –         80
 
Molokai airport –                    77

Kahului airport, Maui –           80 

Kona airport     –                 82 
 
Hilo airport, Hawaii –              75

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops around the state…as of 530am Sunday morning:

Honolulu, Oahu – 71
Hilo airport – 67

Haleakala Summit    34     (near 10,000 feet on Maui)

Mauna Kea Summit – 23      (13,000+ feet on the Big Island) 

Hawaii’s MountainsHere’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 – if it's working.

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.  The 2012 hurricane season is over in the eastern and central Pacific…resuming on May 15th and June 1st 2013.

 

Aloha Paragraphs

http://hbrpictures.marketlinx.com/MediaDisplay/12/hr1204312-1.jpg
Windward Oahu

Occasional showers, a few still locally heavy around
parts of the Big Island

   Here's the Looping Radar Image for the islands

Winter Weather Advisory for the Big Island summits…
possible periods of snow / Mauna Kea webcam
 
,
Small Craft Advisory for gusty trade winds for all marine
zones across the Hawaiian Islands

High Surf Advisory along all east facing shores

~~~608m HST Sunday morning: partly cloudy,
calm…at my upcountry Kula, Maui weather tower:
the air temperature was 51.8F
degrees~~~


The following numbers represent the most recent top wind gusts (mph), along with directions as of Saturday evening: 

31       Port Allen, Kauai – NE
37       Kuaokala, Oahu – NE

31       Molokai – NE
43       Kahoolawe – NE

28       Lipoa, Maui – SE

32       South Point, Big Island – ENE 

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

 
3.22     Mount Waialeale, Kauai
1.04     Poamoho RG 1, Oahu

0.07     Molokai

0.00     Lanai
0.00     Kahoolawe

3.85     Puu Kukui, Maui

4.91     Pahoa, Big Island


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 imageand finally the latest looping radar image for the Hawaiian Islands.


                   ~~~ Hawaii Weather Commentary ~~~
 


Our trade winds will continue to be strong and gusty, reaching 30-40+ mph in gusts…locally at times. Here's a weather chart showing a broad area of high pressure, anchored by a strong 1039 millibar high pressure cell far to the northeast of Hawaii. A second high pressure cell is showing up to our north-northwest now, zipping eastward quickly. At the same time, we see many gale and storm low pressure systems far to the north and northwest. Our trade wind weather pattern will prevail, with the winds continuing to be stronger than normal Sunday. There will be fairly minor variations in strength, although the trades will continue through Thursday. The longer range outlook shows that these long lasting trade winds, will finally subside to some degree around next Thursday or so, when a cold front approaches the state from the northwest into the weekend.

Satellite imagery shows clouds covering parts of the island chain…especially around the Big Island, Maui County up to Oahu. As the trades remain gusty, they will bring us windward biased showers, at least locally. An upper level trough of low pressure, will act to enhance our incoming showers at times tonight. This larger satellite picture shows a very large area of bright white, high level clouds to the south and east of the state. The lower level moisture to our east and northeast, will bring passing showers to our islands, a few of which will remain quite heavy around the Big Island for the time being. Snow will accumulate on the Big Island summits again tonight as well. Here's the webcam view of the Mauna Kea summit…with its mantle of snow!

As mentioned above, we are getting to the tail-end of this unusually wet and windy episode…with relief in sight up ahead. The trade winds will fluctuate in strength from day to day, as we get into the new week, although remain quite breezy in general. As we pass the mid-week point, a cold front approaches the state by Thursday and Friday. Most of the models are now stalling this cold front to our northwest…keeping its showers away from the state. The last threat of heavy showers will hang in there tonight around portions of the Big Island. The rest of the state, from Maui County to Oahu and Kauai, will snap back into place, with generally normal trade wind weather prevailing through the upcoming week. The east side of Maui may be close enough to the trough of low pressure near the Big Island, that we could see a few leftover generous showers falling tonight in places.

An old friend of mine in Haiku, on the windward side of east Maui, is moving back to his property on the Big Island soon. I've known this person for probably near 40 years, and I'm feeling a bit sad that he's leaving. At any rate, several of his old friends are getting together this evening for a little party to celebrate his upcoming birthday, and a sort of going away party too. It's interesting that even though I don't spend time with him much, after moving up here to Kula many years ago, I still dislike seeing him go! It's getting to that time in life when I doubt whether I'll see him very many more times, if ever. This kind of thing makes me realize that life doesn't last forever, and there are natural endings to things, even if they don't bring about the best of feelings. ~~~ Alright, I'll be back Sunday morning with more updates on our ongoing trade wind weather pattern, liking reporting more about how things are smoothing out again now. I hope you have a good Saturday night wherever you're spending it! Oh yeah, you may want to take a peek up into the night sky, as the moon is getting really big now, almost ready to be full. Aloha for now…Glenn.

Youtube music video, DuffyMercy – Full Screen

World-wide tropical cyclone activity:

Atlantic Ocean/Caribbean Sea:
  There are no active tropical cyclones

Gulf of Mexico: There are no active tropical cyclones

Eastern Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones

Central Pacific Ocean:  There are no active tropical cyclones

Western Pacific Ocean:   There are no active tropical cyclones

South Pacific Ocean:  There are no active tropical cyclones

North and South Indian Oceans:  Tropical cyclone 16S (Haruna) remains active offshore to the southeast of Madagascar…located approximately 395 NM southwest of La Reunion Island. Sustained winds are 45 knots, with gusts to 55 knots (52-63 mph). Here's the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) graphical track map, and a satellite image.

Tropical cyclone 17S (Rusty) is now active in the south Indian Ocean, offshore to the north of northwest Australia…located approximately 180 NM north-northwest of Port Hedland, Australia. Sustained winds are 45 knots, with gusts to 55 knots (52-63 mph). Here's the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) graphical track map, and a satellite image.

Tropical cyclone 18S is now active in the south Indian Ocean…located approximately 45 NM southeast of Cocos Island, Australia. Sustained winds are 35 knots, with gusts to 45 knots (40-52 mph). Here's the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) graphical track map, and a satellite image.

Interesting:  How did modern dogs evolve from wolves or other predecessor canines? Scientists have long thought that modern dogs evolved from wild wolves that became accustomed to human interaction and then were deliberately bred by early humans as pets. Part of the ancient mystery of the makeup of the modern Western dog has been solved by a team led by researchers at the University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine.

Several thousand years after dogs originated in the Middle East and Europe, some of them moved south with ancient farmers, distancing themselves from native wolf populations and developing a distinct genetic profile that is now reflected in today’s canines.

These findings, based on the rate of genetic marker mutations in the dog's Y chromosome, supply the missing piece to the puzzle of when ancient dogs expanded from Southeast Asia. The study results are published online this month in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.

Considerable archaeological evidence indicates that the first dogs appeared about 14,000 years ago in Europe and the Middle East, while dogs did not appear in Southeast Asia until about 7,000 years later.

Scientists have been puzzled, though, because growing genetic evidence suggests that modern Western dogs, including modern European dogs, are derived from a Southeast Asian population of dogs that spread throughout the world.

The problem: If dogs originated in Europe, why does genetic evidence suggest that modern European dogs are originally from Southeast Asia? Sacks and his team think they’ve found the answer.

"Data from our study indicate that about 6,000 to 9,000 years ago, during what is known as the Neolithic age, ancient farmers brought dogs south of the Yangtze River, which runs west to east across what is now China," Sacks said.

"While dogs in other parts of Eurasia continued to readily interbreed with wolves, the dogs that moved into Southeast Asia no longer lived near wolves, and so they developed a totally different evolutionary trajectory, influenced by the agriculture of Southeast Asia," he said.

"Those ancient dogs apparently underwent a significant evolutionary transformation in southern China that enabled them to demographically dominate and largely replace earlier western forms."