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

77  Lihue, Kauai
81  Honolulu, Oahu
80  Molokai
84  Kahului, Maui
83  Kona, Hawaii
82  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 743pm Tuesday evening:

 

Kaneohe, Oahu – 78
Hana, Maui – 70


Haleakala Summit –   37 (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.

 


Aloha Paragraphs

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/hi/vis.jpg

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

A cold front is moving down through the Hawaiian Islands

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Very large surf is moving into the Hawaiian Islands

A very large to giant northwest swell arriving tonight into
Thursday…followed by more big waves into the weekend

Windy conditions from the southwest into Wednesday…
ahead of a cold front

As we get into tonight and Wednesday, an active cold front
will arrive, bringing a quick bout of heavy rain to most
of the state…followed by relatively cool northwest and
northerly breezes – with drier weather Thursday into
the weekend

There’s a chance we’ll see another period of showers
with Kona winds ahead of the next cold front late
Sunday…and cool northerly breezes later next
Monday in the wake of that next front –
stay tuned

Here’s a real-time wind profile of the central Pacific

Gale Warning…over offshore waters around Hawaii

Small Craft Advisory...coastal and channel waters
from Kauai to Maui County 

High Surf Warning…north and west shores of Kauai –
north shores of Oahu, Molokai, and Maui – west shores
of Oahu, Molokai and west shores of the Big Island

High Surf Advisory…north shores of the Big Island

Wind Advisory…summit of the Haleakala Crater
on Maui

High Wind Warning…summits on the Big Island




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

40  Lihue, Kauai – SW
31  Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu – SW
25  Molokai – SW
27  Lanai – SW
17  Kahoolawe – SW
35  Kaupo Gap, Maui – SE
23  PTA Kipuka Alala, Big Island – SW


Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Tuesday evening (545pm totals):

0.03  Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.18  Palisades, Oahu
0.00  Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.01  Puu Kukui, Maui
0.08  Kaloko-Honokohau, 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 ~~~



Our winds will be locally strong and gusty from the southwest…ahead of a cold front.  Here’s the latest weather map, showing the Hawaiian Islands, and the rest of the North Pacific Ocean. ~~~ We find a deep near 950 millibar storm low pressure system to our north, with its associated cold front moving into the state. This storm low had hurricane force winds wrapping around its southwest side recently…which generated a very large northwest swell in our direction…arriving late tonight into Wednesday. At the same time, we have a far away high pressure system to the northeast, with an associated ridge extending southwest to near the Big Island.

Satellite imagery shows areas of low clouds over the ocean, with the leading edge of an approaching cold front not far to the northwest of Kauai…soon to be moving into the state. There are cloudy conditions over some areas, these clouds will drop a few showers locally. These clouds are being carried towards our leeward areas, on the strengthening kona winds. Here’s the looping radar image, showing showers falling over the ocean, some of which are moderately heavy, moving into the island area. Looking at this larger satellite image, which is in the looping mode, we can see a robust cold front advancing quickly in our direction. This front will continue moving southeast into our area tonight into Wednesday.

This cold front has been a well advertised event…as the computer models picked up on it early last week. The front is being preceded by locally strong and gusty Kona winds, and will be followed by fair weather…with slightly cooler northwesterly and northerly breezes in the wake of its passage Wednesday into Thursday. The front itself will bring a brief period of locally heavy rains, likely reaching down through the entire state. It is expected to reach Kauai County tonight, Oahu early Wednesday morning, Maui County later Wednesday morning…and finally the Big Island Wednesday afternoon.

The parent storm low pressure system of this cold front…will send us a very large high surf event late tonight into Thursday. The largest of these waves will reach 20-25 feet, which translates to the fronts of these breaking waves being 40-50 feet on our north shores! The west facing beaches will have 10-15 footers, which translates to 20-30 foot wave faces. This will require great caution when getting near the ocean on our north and west facing shores! The south and east facing beaches will find more modestly rising surf as well. Meanwhile, looking ahead in the weather department, this Friday into the upcoming weekend, should see generally fine weather, although with slightly cool northerly breezes. We may see the next cold front arriving late Sunday into next Monday. ~~~ I’ll be back early Wednesday morning with your next new weather narrative. I hope you have a great Tuesday 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. Here’s the 2013 hurricane season summary


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. 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. 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: Natural sugar batteries could be running world’s gadgets within 3 years – Scientists have developed a high-energy battery that runs on sugar and could be powering the world’s gadgets within just three years.


Researchers believe the new cheaper, refillable and biodegradable battery could soon replace conventional batteries.


The findings from Y.H. Percival Zhang, an associate professor of biological systems engineering at Virginia Tech, were released today.


While other sugar batteries have been developed, this one has an energy density an order of magnitude higher than others, allowing it to run longer before needing to be refuelled, Zhang said.


In as soon as three years, Zhang’s new battery could be running some of the cell phones, tablets, video games, and the myriad other electronic gadgets that require power in our energy-hungry world.


“Sugar is a perfect energy storage compound in nature,” Zhang said. “So it’s only logical that we try to harness this natural power in an environmentally friendly way to produce a battery.”


In America alone, billions of toxic batteries are thrown away every year, posing a threat to both the environment and human health, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Zhang’s development could help keep hundreds of thousands of tons of batteries from ending up in landfills.


This is one of Zhang’s many successes in the last year that utilize a series of enzymes mixed together in combinations not found in nature. He has published articles on creating edible starch from non-food plants and developed a new way to extract hydrogen in an economical and environmentally friendly way that can be used to power vehicles.


In this newest development, Zhang and his colleagues constructed a non-natural synthetic enzymatic pathway that strip all charge potentials from the sugar to generate electricity in an enzymatic fuel cell. Then, low-cost biocatalyst enzymes are used as catalyst instead of costly platinum, which is typically used in conventional batteries.


Like all fuel cells, the sugar battery combines fuel – in this case, maltodextrin, a polysaccharide made from partial hydrolysis of starch – with air to generate electricity and water as the main byproducts.


“We are releasing all electron charges stored in the sugar solution slowly step-by-step by using an enzyme cascade,” Zhang said.


Different from hydrogen fuel cells and direct methanol fuel cells, the fuel sugar solution is neither explosive nor flammable and has a higher energy storage density. The enzymes and fuels used to build the device are biodegradable.