Air Temperatures The following maximum temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Wednesday:

81  Lihue, Kauai
82  Honolulu, Oahu
83  Molokai
84  Kahului, Maui
83  Kona, Hawaii
81  Hilo, Hawaii


Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops on Maui and the Big Island…as of 730pm Wednesday evening:

 

Kaneohe, Oahu – 79
Hilo, Hawaii – 69


Haleakala Summit –   45
(near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 36 (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.

 


Aloha Paragraphs


http://media.royalcaribbean.com/content/shared_assets/images/destinations/regions/hero/hawaii_01.jpg


Trade winds, still locally quite strong and gusty…then turning
lighter from the southeast later Thursday through Saturday –
becoming locally voggy


Clear to partly cloudy, with cloudy periods, a few windward
showers…then a few afternoon showers will begin falling
locally over the slopes Thursday and Friday


There’s a chance of heavy rains/thunderstorms Sunday…
locally
into early next week





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

18  Waimea Heights, Kauai – NNW
30  Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu – NNE
28  Molokai – ESE
21  Lanai – NE
35  Kahoolawe – ENE
20  Lipoa, Maui – SE
30  South Point, Big Island – NE


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


0.31  Mount Waialaeale, Kauai
0.74  Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.17  Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.64  Puu Kukui, Maui
0.15  Kainaliu, 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 image… and finally the latest looping radar image for the Hawaiian Islands.


~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~



Trade winds will prevail, then gradually become lighter from the southeast into the weekend…at least on the Kauai side of the state. Here’s the latest weather map, showing the Hawaiian Islands, and the rest of the Pacific Ocean. We find a near 1028 millibar high pressure system far to the northeast of the state, with a second near 1025 millibar high pressure cell to the north of Hawaii. At the same time we see a low pressure system far to our northwest, with an associated cold front gradually approaching.

Trade winds will
remain quite gusty…with small craft wind advisories still active over those windiest coasts and channel waters around Maui County and the Big Island. As we get into the Thursday through Saturday period on Kauai and Oahu, the winds will falter again, becoming softer from the southeast. As these winds swing around into the southeast direction…there will be volcanic haze (vog) being carried up over the smaller islands. We may see easterly or east-southeasterly breezes sticking around over the eastern islands in the chain…time will tell.

We’ll find a few showers along our windward sides while the trades are blowing…then shifting over to the leeward slopes during the afternoons…as the lighter southeasterly flow arrives. Satellite imagery shows areas of low level clouds banked-up against the windward coasts and slopes locally…while the leeward sides remain quite clear of clouds at the time of this writing. We see a new area of bright white, high cirrus clouds approaching Kauai to the northwest. Here’s the looping radar image, showing a few showers falling over the windward sides in places, the most active of which, at least at the time of this writing…were on Oahu and Maui County.

Our weather will be generally pleasant through Friday, with Saturday a transition day…leading to potential changes starting Sunday.
As far as winds go, we’ll see a shift from the current gusty trades, into a lighter wind regime, as they veer around to the southeast later this week. This lighter wind period, will pretty much end whatever windward shower activity we’ve been seeing Thursday, except over the windward sides of Maui County and the Big Island. We’ll then begin to find afternoon cloud buildups, with a few showers around the mountains, and in the leeward upcountry areas later Thursday into Saturday. Thereafter, the models are pointing out a potential change in our local weather conditions.

A frontal system will move towards our area from the northwest later this weekend.
This will likely trigger a Kona wind flow, and moisture from the deeper tropics moving over the state, first on Kauai Saturday night or Sunday morning. This may bring increasing rains, and possible flooding, along with a chance of thunderstorms into Monday. This inclement weather could stick around until Tuesday or even Wednesday, again time will tell. Thereafter, the models point out the return of trade winds, and their associated windward showers again. This outlook will need fine tuning as usual, which I’ll be doing on a daily basis. I’ll be back again early Thursday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Wednesday night wherever you’re spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.



World-wide tropical cyclone activity:


Atlantic Ocean:
The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1st through November 30th…and has now ended


Here’s a
satellite image of the Atlantic Ocean


Caribbean Sea:


Gulf of Mexico:


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:
The Eastern Pacific hurricane season runs from May 15th through November 30th…and has now ended. Here’s the 2013 hurricane season summary


Here’s a wide satellite image that covers the entire area between Mexico, out through the central Pacific…to the International Dateline.


Central Pacific Ocean:
The Central Pacific hurricane season runs from June 1st through November 30th…and has now ended. Here’s the 2013 hurricane season summary


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


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 06B (Madi) is dissipating as it gets ready to move inland over southern India…to the north of Sri Lanka. Here’s the JTWC graphical track map…along with a satellite image  – Final Warning

Here’s a link to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC)



Interesting:
Average American Consumes 50,000 Pounds of Raw Material Annualy For The Stuff They Buy The average American car weighs about 3,000 pounds. But to produce that vehicle, a lot more raw materials were used than its final weight! Maybe as much as 100 times more, as reported by scientists in a recent paper in the Proceedings of National Academy of Science.


For this car to be produced, iron ore is mined in Australia and made into steel. Steel is then shipped to Japan and made into a car, which is then sold in the U.S. Most studies until now, measured national consumption by accounting only for the final weight of the products we purchase.


“The rock where the iron was mined never leaves Australia,” says Thomas Wiedmann, the lead researcher, so it was not included in the account. But the scientist and his colleagues showed that most of the raw materials for producing the stuff we use are actually extracted overseas, so they could no longer be ignored. In the case of this car, they allocate the weight of the iron ore mined in Australia to the U.S. consumer who bought the vehicle.


Using this new accounting, it turns out that on average, each of us in the U.S. uses 25 tons of raw materials every year to produce our stuff and our energy. That is the weight of about 20 cars. By comparison, the average Chinese person uses 12 tons and the average Indian only 4 tons of raw materials per year.


Take another example: a newly built call center in India. The cement might have come from China, the glass was possibly sourced locally in India, but the whole purpose of the call center is to provide customer support to an American retail company. Who does that material footprint belong to? — The U.S. customers, according to the scientists.


The researchers came up with the term “material footprint” as an analogy to “carbon footprint” (that is, how much carbon emissions is each person accountable for). In this case, the personal material footprint measures how much raw materials extraction is each consumer responsible for. The top three raw materials turn out to be metal ores (e.g. iron, copper), fossil fuels for energy (coal mining) and construction materials (e.g. cement).