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

84  Lihue, Kauai
83  Honolulu, Oahu
82  Molokai
88  Kahului, Maui
83  Kailua Kona
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 830pm Saturday evening:

 

Kailua Kona – 79
Hana airport, Maui
– 72


Haleakala Summit –   46
(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.

 


Aloha Paragraphs


http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/hi/ir4.jpg


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


A weather change will begin tonight, as a slow moving and weakening
cold front moves into the state, with
increased showers, mostly along
the windward
sides of Kauai, then gradually over Oahu down to Maui
County Monday and Tuesday…light to moderate trade winds
returning
into the new week




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


22  Mana, Kauai – NNW
21  Kuaokala, Oahu – NNE
16  Molokai – NE
09  Lanai – W
14  Kahoolawe – SE
15  Hana,
Maui – SE
21  South Point, Big Island – ENE


Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands…as of Saturday evening (845pm totals):


3.04  Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.21  Mililani, Oahu
0.31  Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.13  Puu Kukui, Maui
0.66  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 ~~~



Generally light southeasterly breezes giving way to light northeasterly breezes tonight into Sunday…with light to almost moderately strong trade winds continuing through most of the new week ahead. Here’s the latest weather map, showing the Hawaiian Islands, and the rest of the North Pacific Ocean, along with a real-time wind profile of the central Pacific…focused on the Hawaiian Islands. ~~~ We see moderately strong, near 1028 millibar high pressure systems to the northeast and northwest of our islands. They have ridges of high pressure located offshore to the northeast of the Big Island…and offshore to the north of Kauai. At the same time, we see a gale low pressure system to our north, with an associated cold front…approaching Kauai slowly. Our local winds will remain light from the southeast in response to this very late season cold front. The outlook calls for the return of light to locally moderate trade winds as the front enters the state, continuing into the new week ahead.

Satellite imagery shows lots of clouds over the mountains and slopes on most of the islands, along with the leading edge of this slow moving frontal boundary…soon to be over Kauai.
Looking at this larger satellite image, we see this front moving very slowly in our direction. There are lower level cloud patches over and around the state as well…along with a few areas of clear skies locally too. Here’s a looping radar image, showing a few generally light showers falling, mostly offshore from the islands, although a few heavier ones over the islands in places too. 

We’re approaching the end of this muggy and hazy episode, before clouds and showers increase going into Sunday and Monday…along with the return of light-moderate trade winds into the new week ahead.  We continue to see this cold front approaching just northwest of Kauai. As this front moves into our area tonight into Sunday, it will bring an increase in showers first on Kauai, and then slowly travel down towards Maui County…where it will stall and weaken further into Monday. I’ll be back again early 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.

Here on Maui, at the 3,100 foot elevation, at my upper Kula, Maui weather tower, the air temperature was 54 degrees at 550am on this Saturday morning. Skies were clear to partly cloudy, along with the light voggy conditions. This cold front is crawling along in our direction, rather than rushing towards us, as they often do during the winter season. As we remember from earlier in the year, they can zip right through the entire island chain, ending up well offshore to the east and southeast of the islands. This won’t be the case now, as there’s very little push from behind, thus the very slow pace. This front will make it into the island chain, but the models stall it…keeping it over us for a day or two into the new week.

It’s now 1pm in the early afternoon hours, under partly to mostly cloudy skies, a light breeze…and an air temperature of 74.1 degrees. Once again, as become almost normal this week, I see rather thick volcanic haze in our local skies. As this satellite image shows, the approaching cold front is getting very near Kauai, and is expected to move over that island later today. It will then crawl down through Oahu to Maui County later tomorrow into Monday. This front will bring some showers, although nothing heavy is expected. Update, 330pm, it’s cloudy, hazy, and has been lightly showering for a couple of minutes.

I just love this weather we’re having now, at 550pm, with dense fog, a steady shower…and a cool 66 degrees! There’s something about being surrounded by pea soup fog, with the sound of dripping eaves, that really gets me. I never fail to enjoy this stuff, have always loved this kind of weather…and likely always will. Saturday evening music videos, Sade…Kiss of Love / Cherry Pie

Friday Evening Film: This time I went to see the new blockbuster called The Amazing Spider-Man 2, starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Fox, Dane DeHaan, Paul Giamatti, Chris Cooper, Felicity Jones, Sarah Gadon…among many others. The synopsis: We’ve always known that Spider-Man’s most important battle has been within himself: the struggle between the ordinary obligations of Peter Parker and the extraordinary responsibilities of Spider-Man. But in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker finds that a greater conflict lies ahead. It’s great to be Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield). For Peter Parker, there’s no feeling quite like swinging between skyscrapers, embracing being the hero, and spending time with Gwen (Emma Stone). But being Spider-Man comes at a price: only Spider-Man can protect his fellow New Yorkers from the formidable villains that threaten the city. With the emergence of Electro (Jamie Foxx), Peter must confront a foe far more powerful than he. And as his old friend, Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan), returns, Peter comes to realize that all of his enemies have one thing in common: OsCorp.

The critics are being pretty good to this film, although there are not exceptional reviews by any means. I saw the first Spider-Man film several years ago, and remember liking it quite a bit. As it turned out, this newest version of the film was well worth seeing, although not a super star film for me. As I thought, it was a good, almost summer blockbuster film, full of all the good action one would want, perhaps over the top at times. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it, and liked the love story between Spider-Man and his girlfriend Emma Stone…it was sweet. As for a grade, let’s see, I guess in this case I’ll give it a soft B+. If you have any interest in taking a quick look, here’s the trailer for this very well advertised 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)


North 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: President Obama details an Action Plan on Climate – On the heels of the administration’s release of the Third National Climate Assessment report, President Barack Obama today announced an array of executive actions and public and private sector commitments to increase solar installations and energy efficiency improvements, strengthen energy efficiency standards, and bolster the solar industry workforce. The actions and pledges that Obama laid out will deploy enough solar energy to power nearly 130,000 homes, cut carbon emissions by the equivalent of taking 80 million cars off the road and save businesses $26 billion on their energy bills, the White House said in a statement.


“We don’t look backwards. We look forward. We don’t fear the future,” Obama said on why it’s time to conserve energy, promote renewables and take action on climate change.


Speaking at a Walmart store in Mountain View, Calif., Obama said that more than 300 public agencies, multifamily and affordable housing organizations, rural electric cooperatives, and businesses like Home Depot, Ikea, Google, Wal-mart and Goldman Sachs have signed on to install solar panels — representing a total of 850 megawatts of solar energy. Twenty-five public agencies, multifamily housing organizations, businesses and manufacturers are also joining the president’s Better Building Challenge, pledging to increase the energy efficiency of more than 1 billion square feet of their buildings — an area the size of 17,000 football fields — by at least 20 percent by 2020.


To help build the growing green economy, the Department of Energy (DOE) will launch community college programs across the U.S. to train 50,000 workers to enter the solar industry by 2020, Obama said, building on the DOE’s Solar Instructor Training Network of almost 400 community colleges in 49 states that have provided solar workforce training for over 22,000 students since 2010.