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

Lihue, Kauai –                       76  
Honolulu airport, Oahu –         81
 
Molokai airport –                    78

Kahului airport, Maui –           78 

Kona airport, Hawaii     –    82   
Hilo airport, Hawaii –              80

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops around the state…as of 630am Saturday morning:

Kaneohe, Oahu – 73
Barking Sands, Kauai – 66

Haleakala Summit    41     (near 10,000 feet on Maui)

Mauna Kea Summit – 25      (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

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/c0.81.843.403/p843x403/599545_10151936528500302_1663934158_n.jpg
Keanae Peninsula, along the Hana Highway…east Maui

 
Just a few windward showers…strong trade winds
,
Small Craft Advisory for all marine zones of Hawaii

High Surf Advisory along north and west shores of Niihau,
Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, and north shore of Maui / for east
facing shores of Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Maui…Big Island

Wind Advisory for those windiest areas on the Big Island

~~~647am HST Saturday morning: clear, calm…at
my upcountry Kula, Maui weather tower:
the air temperature was 47.5F
degrees~~~


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

28       Port Allen, Kauai – NE
44       Kuaokala, Oahu – NE

31       Molokai – NE
40       Kahoolawe – NE

33       Kaupo Gap, Maui – NE

50       Kohala Ranch, Big Island – NE 

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

 
0.08     Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.05     Pupukea Road, Oahu

0.09     Molokai

0.00     Lanai
0.00     Kahoolawe

0.42     Puu Kukui, Maui

0.07     Kahua Ranch, 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 Narrative ~~~
 


Our trade winds will remain strong and more gusty into the weekend…reaching 30-50 mph in those windiest areas at times. Here's a weather chart showing large high pressure systems far to the north, northeast and northwest of Hawaii. At the same time, we see a deep storm low pressure system far to the northwest…with hurricane force winds of 75 mph. Our trade wind weather pattern will prevail, with the winds continuing to be stronger than normal. There is no definite end in sight for our blustery trade wind flow, that is until we get towards the end of the new week ahead…or about a week out from here.

Small craft wind advisory flags remain up over all coastal and channel waters…statewide. At the same time, we have a high surf advisory for most north and west shores from Kauai to Maui. In response to these locally blustery trades through the next several days, a wind advisory remains active in those windiest areas around the Big Island. There's a chance that we could see gale warnings being issued (by the NWS Honolulu) in those windiest channels around Maui County and the Big Island. It got windy enough last evening, and again today here in Kula, Maui, that I had deck chairs an stuff…being blown around!

Satellite imagery shows some low clouds across our islands, although most of them are upstream from the islands. The overlying atmosphere remains quite dry and stable at the moment, which should limit our incoming windward showers. This larger satellite picture continues to show that large area of bright white, high level cloudiness, far to the east of the state. Glancing up towards our north, we see a weakening cold front, although it isn't expected to come any closer. The overall trend in terms of precipitation, will continue to be limited, even along our windward sides. An upper trough of low pressure, will prompt a gradual increase in windward showers later this weekend.

I think as all of us are noting by now, that this is turning out to be…quite an extended period of strong and gusty trades. I can't exactly remember when this prolonged gusty trade wind episode began, although its been well over a week. Winter and spring are when our islands typically get blasted by our strongest trade winds. This is certainly holding true this winter, or at least during this last part of our winter 2012-2013 season. The trade winds will remain very active through this weekend, and then right on into the new week ahead. The trades Friday were gusting well up into the 40+ mph range locally, with at least one gust reaching the 50 mph mark on the Big Island. Look for more of the same on Saturday, although showers won't be much of an issue. As we push into Sunday, we should begin to get some increase along our windward sides. As I was mentioning above, the first part of the new work week ahead, should find our windward showers increasing another notch. ~~~ I'll be back Saturday morning with your next new weather narrative.  I hope you have a great Friday night wherever you're spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

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:  There are no active tropical cyclones

Interesting:  Reptiles have inhabited our planet for more than 250 million years, and are adapted to almost every part of it. Yet when it comes to conservation action, reptiles all over the world have been overlooked in favor of more charismatic animals. With only 35% of described reptile species evaluated for the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species, no one knew to what extent reptiles were being affected by our current extinction crisis.

However, a study recently published in the journal 'Biological Conservation' has highlighted the perilous state many reptiles are in, and calls for more to be done to protect them. The study was the result of collaboration between scientists at the Zoological Society of London and experts from the IUCN Species Survival Commission.

Over 200 experts assessed a random selection of 1,500 species (out of a total of 9,084 known species), representing each group of global reptilian diversity. It has made science history by being the first ever assessment of the extinction risk of reptiles on such a scale.

The study's authors also produced the first global species richness and threatened species richness maps for reptiles in order to show the key regions, taxa and threats by man that must be urgently targeted in order to conserve these species.

In total, 19% of all reptile species are threatened with extinction. Of this total, 12% are Critically Endangered, 41% are Endangered, and 47% are Vulnerable (in order of magnitude of danger, as categorized by the IUCN). Also, 7% of reptiles are in the Near Threatened category, meaning that they are likely to become threatened in the near future, if measures are not taken to eliminate the threats they currently face.

Interesting2:  The common name snail is also applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda, that have a coiled shell that is large enough for the animal to retract completely into. When the word snail is used in this most general sense, it includes not just land snails but also thousands of species of sea snails and freshwater snails.

They do not have a great reputation but the story goes that if a snail climbs a plant or post, rain is coming, research led by the University of York goes one better: it shows snails can provide a wealth of information about the prevailing weather conditions thousands of years ago.

The researchers, including scientists from the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Center (SUERC), analyzed the chemistry of snail shells dating back 9,000 to 2,500 years recovered from Mediterranean caves, looking at humidity at different times in the past.

Their findings, which are reported in the journal Quaternary International, reveal that when the first farmers arrived in Italy and Spain, the western Mediterranean was not the hot dry place it is now, but warmer, wetter and stickier.

Dr Colonese and his co-authors believe that land snails have great potential as a source of information about human behavior and palaeoclimatic conditions and therefore should be given much more attention. Dr Colonese, an EU Marie Curie Fellow in York’s Center for Human Palaeoecology & Evolutionary Origins, said: "By putting together research on snails from multiple sites across Spain and Italy, we were able to produce a large scale regional picture for weather conditions over the western Mediterranean area."

"This allowed us to observe differences in climate across the region. Interestingly, when compared with previous studies, we found that while conditions on the Atlantic coast of northern Spain were probably much like those of today, on the Mediterranean side in locations such as southern Spain and Sicily, conditions were much more humid."

Archaeological sites around the Mediterranean basin contain an abundance of land snail shell remains. The researchers selected well-preserved shells for isotopic analysis from the early to late Holocene layers, covering the Mesolithic, Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age periods. The Holocene is a geological epoch which began at the end of the Pleistocene(around 12,000 to 11,500 years ago) and continues to the present.

The is the time that began after the last Ice Age as the world warmed up. They looked at the oxygen and carbon isotopic compositions of the shells of Pomatias elegans (or the round-mouthed snail as it is more commonly known), comparing those found in the Iberian Peninsula sites with modern shells of the same species.