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

81  Lihue, Kauai
82  Honolulu, Oahu
83  Molokai
85  Kahului, Maui
82  Kona, Hawaii
79  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 1110pm Saturday evening:

 

Kailua Kona – 75
Hilo, Hawaii – 65


Haleakala Summit –   43 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 30 (13,000+ 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 – if it’s working.

 


Aloha Paragraphs



http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/RadarImg/hawaii.gif

Our winds will be generally light from the east-southeast
and southeast – becoming voggy

Partly cloudy, with cloudy periods, increasing clouds

There’s a good chance of rains, or even a thunderstorm
Sunday…first on Kauai and Oahu, then Maui County…
perhaps the Big Island Sunday night

High Surf Advisory…north and west shores of Kauai,
Oahu, Molokai, and north shore of Maui

Flash Flood Watch/Flood Advisory…island of Kauai

Small Craft Advisory…Kauai, Oahu, and Maui County

 





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

16  Mana, Kauai – SE
21  Kahuku Trng, Oahu – SE
20  Molokai – ESE
13  Lanai – SW
30  Kahoolawe – NE
17  Lipoa, Maui – SE
27  South Point, Big Island – NE


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

0.57  Kapahi, Kauai
3.30  Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.00  Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.00  Maui
0.15  Glenwood, 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 ~~~



The winds will blow from the south to southeast from Kauai down through Oahu…while the trades are trying to hang on elsewhere. Here’s the latest weather map, showing the Hawaiian Islands, and the rest of the Pacific Ocean. We find a near 1032 millibar high pressure system far to the northeast of the state. At the same time we see a low pressure system to our northwest, with an associated cold front to our northwest and west. Our winds are coming in from the southeast direction in many areas…there will be volcanic haze (vog) being carried up over the smaller islands locally.

We’ll find dry weather continuing for a little while longer. Satellite imagery shows patches of low level clouds over and around the islands…mostly over the interior sections, which will be evaporating from Oahu down through Maui County and the Big Island…after dark. We also see an area of brighter white, high cirrus clouds far offshore over the ocean to the east of the state. Finally, we see scattered thunderstorms offshore to the southwest through northwest of Kauai. These cumulonimbus clouds are associated with the advancing cold front…and the cold air aloft with the trough of low pressure.  Here’s the looping radar image, showing the cold front’s precipitation is now advancing on Kauai …at least at the time of this writing.

We have a rather significant weather change on tap during the next 24 hours or so…first on Kauai. A frontal system to our northwest stalled in its advance towards the state. As this stalled front gets a push from an upper level trough of low pressure, moving down towards us from the northwest…it will progress down into the state into Sunday night. This will bring moisture over the state, some of it locally heavy in showers, and with the upper trough’s cold air…the chance of thunderstorms too. Monday will be a transition day out of this inclement weather period, as the front dissipates. The models are bringing the trade winds back over us Tuesday or so, and likely a return of windward biased showers then as well. I’ll be back Sunday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Saturday night wherever you’re spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Friday evening film: There are so many good films that come out during the holidays! The one I’m going to see this time is called Out of the Furnace, starring Christian Bale, Zoe Saldana, Woody Harrelson, Casey Affleck, Sam Shepard, and Forest Whitaker, and Willem Dafoe…among many others. The synopsis: From Scott Cooper, the critically-acclaimed writer and director of Crazy Heart, comes a gripping and gritty drama about family, fate, circumstance, and justice. Russell Baze (Christian Bale) has a rough life: he works a dead-end blue collar job at the local steel mill by day, and cares for his terminally ill father by night. When Russell’s brother Rodney (Casey Affleck) returns home from serving time in Iraq, he gets lured into one of the most ruthless crime rings in the Northeast and mysteriously disappears. The police fail to crack the case, so – with nothing left to lose – Russell takes matters into his own hands, putting his life on the line to seek justice for his brother. ~~~ I was a bit nervous about seeing the film, as the trailer made it look very rough. I typically would see these types of film with someone, or a few other friends, although this time…I was on my own. As I may have told you before, I’m not above closing my eyes briefly, during those particularly intense sections. ~~~ Well, I did in fact have to close my eyes several times, I think about three times as I recall. It was such an intense film, and the casting was terrific, just outstanding performances. I’m glad I saw this film, but it was so brutal in parts, with lots of fighting scenes. It was definitely a downer, no doubt about it, from the front end right to the last frame of this two hour film. I don’t feel like raving about it, and wouldn’t suggest that any of you go see it, although with that said, I’m going to give it a B+ grade. I’m not going to be providing the trailer, you’ll have to get that for yourself I’m afraid!



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: There are no active tropical cyclones

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



Interesting: Plastic In The Ocean Is Contaminating Your Seafood – We’ve long known that the fish we eat are exposed to toxic chemicals in the rivers, bays and oceans they inhabit. The substance that’s gotten the most attention — because it has shown up at disturbingly high levels in some fish — is mercury.


But mercury is just one of a slew of synthetic and organic pollutants that fish can ingest and absorb into their tissue. Sometimes it’s because we’re dumping chemicals right into the ocean. But as a study published recently in Nature, Scientific Reports helps illuminate, sometimes fish get chemicals from the plastic debris they ingest.


“The ocean is basically a toilet bowl for all of our chemical pollutants and waste in general,” says Chelsea Rochman, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Davis, who authored the study. “Eventually, we start to see those contaminants high up in the food chain, in seafood and wildlife.”


For many years, scientists have known that chemicals will move up the food chain as predators absorb the chemicals consumed by their prey. That’s why the biggest, fattiest fish, like tuna and swordfish, tend to have the highest levels of mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other dioxins. (And that’s concerning, given that canned tuna was the second most popular fish consumed in the U.S. in 2012, according to the National Fisheries Institute.)


What scientists didn’t know was exactly what role plastics played in transferring these chemicals into the food chain. To find out, Rochman and her co-authors fed medaka, a fish species often used in experiments, three different diets.


One group of medaka got regular fish food, one group got a diet that was 10 percent “clean” plastic (with no pollutants) and a third group got a diet with 10 percent plastic that had been soaking in the San Diego Bay for several months. When they tested the fish two months later, they found that the ones on the marine plastic diet had much higher levels of persistent organic pollutants.