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

74  Lihue, Kauai
78  Honolulu, Oahu
79  Molokai
84  Kahului, Maui
82  Kona, Hawaii
73  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 810pm Wednesday evening:

 

Kailua Kona – 77
Lihue, Kauai – 66


Haleakala Summit –   45 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 36 (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/ir4.jpg

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

Showers most active over Kauai and Oahu throughdrier elsewhere

Generally light to moderate winds…trade winds return
briefly Friday and Saturday

 





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

18  Mana, Kauai – NNW
27  Kuaokala, Oahu – SE
15  Molokai – SE
22  Lanai – S
21  Kahoolawe – SW
23  Kapalua, Maui – SSW
27  Hilo airport, Big Island – SE


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

4.30  Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.29  Waiawa, Oahu
0.00  Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.32  Kaupo Gap, Maui
0.17  Saddle Quarry, 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 light to moderate, generally southeasterly…with briefly returning trade winds Friday and Saturday. 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 low pressure systems to the northwest, north and northeast of the islands, with their associated cold fronts over the ocean to the north and just northwest.  At the same time, we see high pressure systems well to northeast and east-northeast of the islands. Our winds will remain light to moderately strong from the southeast through Thursday. It appears that we’ll get back into a trade wind flow Friday into the weekend…followed by lighter southeast winds Sunday into early next week.

Satellite imagery shows lots of high, middle and lower level clouds over and around the state. Here’s the looping radar image, showing showers coming into the state locally, carried our way on southwest, south and southeast breezes. The primary focus of these showers were near Kauai…and the Big Island at the time of this writing. Most of these are light to moderately heavy showers…most active around Kauai…although they could drift over towards Oahu at times. There may be a few locally heavy showers, or even a thunderstorm or two tonight into Thursday morning. Looking at this larger satellite image, which is in the looping mode, we can see clouds being pulled northeastward across our area, some of which are the high and middle level variety, although with rainy clouds too.

Showers will concentrate their efforts most effectively over Kauai and perhaps Oahu tonight into Thursday, drier conditions for Maui County and the Big Island…in most areas. Showers will remain active into Thursday over the western islands…some may become heavy with localized flooding at times.  Then, as we push into Friday and Saturday, the trade winds are forecast to return briefly, with windward showers, and generally dry conditions for our leeward sides. The computer models continue to suggest that another cold front will migrate by just to our north early next week, prompting lighter winds from the southeast Sunday for a day or two, bringing a few showers to our east and south facing coasts and slopes. Looking even further out, the models are calling for a prolonged period of light east to southeasterly breezes next week. All of the above will need additional fine tuning as we go forward. I’ll be back with your next new weather narrative early Thursday morning, I hope you have a great Wednesday 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, Maui weather tower, the air temperature was 58.6F degrees at 555am. 

~~~ Here it is 805am on this Wednesday morning, and the sun is flooding in through the window! There was the most beautiful pink sunrise this morning, a great way to start off the day! I just finished my morning weather product for the Pacific Disaster Center, and there are two active tropical cyclones, and three other areas of disturbed weather in the world…pretty incredible! I’m about ready to head out on my morning fast walk now, under partly cloudy skies, with an air temperature of 57.2 degrees. It’s a glorious day here on Maui, and in most other areas around the state this morning too. Kauai still has those moderate showers close by, which will keep that island on the wet side today. The island of Oahu, being close by, may get into more showery weather today as well. The NWS has just issued a Flood Watch for Kauai…so expect heavy rains there today into the night.

~~~ It’s such a nice day, all sunny and getting more sunny by the moment, I’ve decided to take a drive up the mountain…upslope here on the Haleakala Crater. I’ve got my skateboard, my black tea, my organic chocolate, so I’m all set. It’s now 1015am, and the air temperature is 67.3 degrees. I’ll catch up with you on the other side.

~~~ I’m back down from the mountain, which was a great experience. It started out sunny, and I got several skateboarding runs in. Although, not long after that, as I was standing there taking a break, a thick wall of fog came crawling up the slopes, and enveloped me. I was drinking some nice warm tea, doing a little texting, and enjoying the cool clouds that were surrounding me. A young woman drove up and parked below me, and I could hear a very young baby crying. She got out of the car, and brought the child over, and we stood there and had a sweet conversation for several minutes. She used to live on Maui, but now lives in Oakland, and comes here often on vacation now. At any rate, it was pleasant to have this short meeting, before she walked back to her car and tried to put the baby to sleep…so she could continue up to the top of the mountain. Shortly thereafter, the fog cleared, leaving spectacular views for me, and allowed me to get in several more skating runs. It’s 110pm with mostly sunny skies, and an air temperature of 71.6 degrees. All of the action today is up towards Kauai and on the edge of reaching Oahu. There’s not only a Flash Flood Watch, but also a Flood Advisory for that western-most island in the chain. It’s such a different story over Maui and the Big Island, which are enjoying warm weather, with some showers approaching the Big Island too.

~~~ We’re heading into the evening hours now, with the air temperature here at my place, at 540pm…70.7 degrees. Looking at the sky, with all the high and middle level clouds around, I’m anticipating a colorful sunset. All the action now, at least in terms of precipitation, seems to be centered up along the western islands…although with some showers taking aim on the Big Island in places too. Tonight be interesting on Kauai, and perhaps Oahu, as the atmosphere becomes destabilized on that side of the state, with possible heavy showers and thunderstorms. It certainly isn’t happening at the moment, although before the night is up, and perhaps even into Thursday morning…there is that chance.



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: Tropical Cyclone 12P (Edna) is now active in the Coral Sea. Here’s the JTWC graphical track map…along with a satellite image. – Final Warning


North and South Indian Oceans: Tropical Cyclone 13S (Edilson) is now active in the South Indian Ocean. Here’s the JTWC graphical track map…along with a satellite image.

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


Interesting: 24 fewer days of winter ice – The winter ice season is now 24 days shorter than it was in 1950 as Arctic lakes are freezing up later in the year and thawing earlier, according to a new study. The University of Waterloo research, sponsored by the European Space Agency (ESA), also reveals that climate change has dramatically affected the thickness of lake ice at the coldest point in the season. In 2011, Arctic lake ice was up to 38 centimeters thinner than it was in 1950.


“We’ve found that the thickness of the ice has decreased tremendously in response to climate warming in the region,” said lead author Cristina Surdu, a PhD student of Professor Claude Duguay in Waterloo’s Department of Geography and Environmental Management.


“When we saw the actual numbers we were shocked at how dramatic the change has been. It’s basically more than a foot of ice by the end of winter.” The study of more than 400 lakes of the North Slope of Alaska, is the first time researchers have been able to document the magnitude of lake-ice changes in the region over such a long period of time.


“Prior to starting our analysis, we were expecting to find a decline in ice thickness and grounded ice based on our examination of temperature and precipitation records of the past five decades from the Barrow meteorological station,” said Surdu”. “At the end of the analysis, when looking at trend analysis results, we were stunned to observe such a dramatic ice decline during a period of only 20 years.”


The research team used satellite radar imagery from ESA to determine that 62 per cent of the lakes in the region froze to the bottom in 1992. By 2011, only 26 per cent of lakes froze down to the bed, or bottom of the lake. Overall, there was a 22 per cent reduction in what the researchers call “grounded ice” from 1992 to 2011.


Researchers were able to tell the difference between a fully frozen lake and one that had not completely frozen to the bottom, because satellite radar signals behave very differently, depending on presence or absence of water underneath the ice.


Radar signals are absorbed into the sediment under the lake when it is frozen to the bottom. However, when there is water under the ice with bubbles, the beam bounces back strongly towards the radar system. Therefore, lakes that are completely frozen show up on satellite images as very dark while those that are not frozen to the lake bed are bright.