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

78  Lihue, Kauai
76  Honolulu, Oahu
79  Molokai
83  Kahului, Maui
81  Kona, Hawaii
84  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 Sunday evening:

 

Kailua Kona – 77
Kahului, Maui
– 70


Haleakala Summit –   39
(near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 34 (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.

 


Aloha Paragraphs


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

 Lowering large surf on our north and west facing beaches…
through Monday


We’re seeing showers with a cold front, now moving
over Maui County and then the Big Island
tonight into Monday – stalling soon

This weakening front will be followed by cool north
and northeast breezes for a few days…Monday and
Tuesday may see some isolated showers, some could
be quite heavy, with even a thunderstorm later Monday
into Tuesday – especially on Maui and the Big Island


Small Craft Advisory..
.coastal and channel waters

 High Surf Warning…on the north and west shores
of Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, and the north facing shores
of Maui today into Monday – High Surf Advisory
west shore of the Big Island

Wind Advisory…Big Island summits





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


27  Mana, Kauai – NNW
23  Kuaokala, Oahu – NNE
21  Molokai – NW
16  Lanai – NW
20  Kahoolawe – SW
23  Kahului, Maui – SW
29  South Point, Big Island – SW


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


2.13  Makaha Ridge, Kauai
1.45  Poamoho, Oahu
0.20  Molokai
0.02  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.03  Puu Kukui, Maui
0.00  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 come in from the southwest, locally gusty ahead of a cold front…then cooler from the north to northeast in its wake. Here’s the latest weather map, showing the Hawaiian Islands, and the rest of the North Pacific Ocean. Here’s a real-time wind profile of the central Pacific…centered on the Hawaiian Islands. ~~~ We find two storms far to the northeast and north of Hawaii, with an associated cold front moving over the eastern islands in the chain. At the same time, there’s a ridge of high pressure located well southeast of the Big Island. Cool and dry north winds will follow in the wake of the cold front, turning northeast by Tuesday into Wednesday. The next cold front, forecast to arrive next weekend, will prompt south and southwest winds…which could be quite strong and gusty by Friday.

Satellite imagery shows
a cold front moving over Maui County this evening…on its way towards the Big Island. Here’s the looping radar image, showing precipitation leaving Oahu, and moving over Maui County…with little rain elsewhere at the time of this writing. Looking at this larger satellite image, which is in the looping mode, we can see the long frontal cloud band moving through the state, with brighter white, high and middle level clouds moving along to our northwest, north and northeast. This front brought precipitation to Kauai and Oahu during the day. It’s bringing showers to Maui County early this evening, before stalling…or near the Big Island Monday.

This front has brought showers with it, nothing too heavy, although showers nonetheless. There is no upper level support for this front, thus generally light to moderate shower activity will occur. As we get to Monday and Tuesday, the models are showing an upper level trough of low pressure moving over the state. This trough with its cold air, is expected to enhance whatever showers that are around then. We may see some generous rainfall here and there, especially over the eastern islands, associated with what’s left of the stalled cold front…with even a few thunderstorms. Looking even further ahead, we’ll see a brief return of northeast breezes Wednesday and Thursday, before the air flow shifts back to the south and southwest, ahead of a strong cold front slated to arrive Saturday. ~~~ I’ll be back early Monday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Sunday night wherever you’re spending it. Aloha for now…Glenn.

Here on Maui early this morning, at the 3,100 foot elevation, at my upper Kula weather tower, the outdoor air temperature sensor was reading 55.2F degrees early this morning.
It’s still too dark to get a good look at our skies, although I see lots of stars still shining…making it look quite clear heading into dawn. ~~~ It’s now 1015am, and clouds are increasing here on Maui, along with the winds. The air temperature has risen to 63.9 degrees at my place….while its a warmer 78 degrees down at the Kahului airport. I’m heading up onto the slopes of the Haleakala Crater now, gonna try and beat the showers, and get some skateboarding in. I’ll check back in with you upon my return. ~~~ I’m back here, after having a great time up the mountain from here. I had lots of rides down this one long stretch of road at around the 5500 foot level…then walked back up to skate down again. There were a few too many cars, and fast motorcycles, causing me to pull over to let them pass…although it is their road after all. I’m back home now obviously, and the temperature has warmed up nicely, now reading 69.6 at 1pm. The cold front is approaching now, although according to radar, it won’t get here to Maui until later in the day. ~~~ I just came down from the roof, to get a better view of this cold front, which is over parts of Maui County, although not quite to my place yet. It seems like it could be just a matter of moments! There’s fog trying to form around the edges, with showers already falling down in the Central Valley. The air temperature here at 535pm was 64.9 degrees. All my life having a cold front approach, and then arrive over where I am…has been one of my favorite things!

Friday Evening Film: I was going to skip the film that I decided to see last evening, although for some reason, at the last minute…I decided to go see it anyway. It’s called August: Osage County, starring Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ewan McGregor, Margo Martindale, Sam Shepard, Abigail Breslin, Chris Cooper, and Juliette Lewis…among others. The synopsis: August: Osage County tells the dark, hilarious and deeply touching story of the strong-willed women of the Weston family, whose lives have diverged until a family crisis brings them back to the Midwest house they grew up in, and to the dysfunctional woman who raised them. This was a play, that made its Broadway debut in December 2007 after premiering at Chicago’s legendary Steppenwolf Theatre earlier that year. It continued with a successful international run.

I’d seen the trailer for this film several times, and was generally attracted to it, although not greatly. The critics have been reasonably kind to this film, although it’s not off the chart by any means. It turned out to be a very interesting film in my view, unusual in many ways. I ended up liking it quite a bit, and mixed in with all the darkness, was quite a bit of humor. There was more cussing than I’ve heard in a long time, done mostly by Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts! I typically think of these women as rather conservative, and so it was interesting to hear every cuss word in the book being thrown around. The acting was very good in my estimation, a bit exhausting at times…especially in the context of this very dysfunctional family! Overall though, I very much enjoyed the film, despite all the misery that we, the audience had to wallow through. As for a grade, I have it coming in at a B+ rating. Here’s the trailer for this film.



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: One quarter of all sharks and rays are threatened with extinction –
One quarter of all sharks and rays are threatened with extinction, according to a new study published in the open-access journal eLife. The paper analyzed the threat and conservation status of 1,041 species of chondrichthyans—the class of fish whose skeletons are made of cartilage instead of bone which includes sharks, rays, skates and chimaeras—and found this group to be among the most threatened animals in the world.


The collaboration between 300 scientists from 64 countries reports, “the main threats to chondrichthyans are overexploitation through targeted fisheries and incidental catches (bycatch), followed by habitat loss, persecution, and climate change.”


The authors pinpoint two areas with greater than expected threat levels: the Indo-Pacific Biodiversity Triangle and the Red Sea. The former is among the most biologically and culturally diverse areas on the planet, but is also among the least-regulated.


“The Indo-Pacific Biodiversity Triangle, particularly the Gulf of Thailand, and the islands of Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and Sulawesi, is a hotspot of greatest residual threat especially for coastal sharks and rays with 76 threatened species.” The paper’s authors argue that without national and international action, the species found in this area may rapidly become extinct.


The paper cites ‘finning’—the process of cutting off the fins and dumping the body back into the ocean—as a major threat to sharks, wedgefishes and sawfishes. This practice is driven by market demands in China where shark fin soup is a highly sought-after delicacy.


“Fins, in particular, have become one of the most valuable seafood commodities,” the authors write, “It is estimated that the fins of between 26 and 73 million individuals, worth US$400-550 million, are traded each year.”


Large body size and shallow habitat are the biggest factors determining a species’ likelihood of being threatened. “The probability that a species is threatened increases by 1.2% for each 10 cm increase in maximum body length, and decreases by 10.3% for each 50 m deepening in the minimum depth limit of species,” the authors report.


In addition to targeted fishing, 20 species of shark and rays are directly threatened by pollution. 22 species are threatened by the destruction of river systems and estuaries through residential and commercial development. 12 species are at risk from the conversion of mangroves into shrimp farms, and the construction of dams and other water-control measures.