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

82  Lihue, Kauai
84  Honolulu, Oahu
83  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 730pm Monday evening:

 

Kaneohe, Oahu – 81
Hana airport, Maui – 72


Haleakala Summit –   43 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 32 (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
Yellow and red colors indicate the heaviest rain

Strengthening trade wind over the eastern islands…
becoming  stronger and gusty Tuesday everywhere…
lasting through the rest of this week

Look for localized showers over the islands – heavy in a few
places…with even an isolated thundershower

The returning trade winds will bring windward showers –
still locally quite generous for a few days

Remembering the fallen on this Memorial Day

 




The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph), along with directions…as of Monday evening:

22  Port Allen, Kauai – NE
28  Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu – NNE
25  Molokai – NE
28  Lanai – NE
29  Kahoolawe – NE
30  Kahului, Maui – NE
30  PTA Keamuku, Big Island – NNE


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

2.34  N Wailua ditch, Kauai
1.86  Kahana, Oahu
0.08  Molokai
1.15  Lanai
0.05  Kahoolawe
0.22  Puu Kukui, Maui
0.77  Kealakekua, 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 trade winds have returned…which will become rather strong and gusty into mid-week. 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 the tail-end of a late season cold front/trough of low pressure over Kauai. We have a moderately strong high pressure system to our north…with a well established ridge to our northwest. As a result of these weather features, our local air flow will be strengthening from the trade wind direction. This more normal, late May trade wind episode will continue through the remainder of this work week…and likely right on into next week.

Satellite imagery shows diminishing clouds, although with still a few towering cumulus around. Looking at this larger satellite image, we see clouds associated with this unusual weather event most focused over the ocean, although the islands have some clouds over them as well. Here’s a looping radar image, showing generally light showers falling mostly over the ocean now. However, there are some moderately heavy showers here and there. None of the islands will be immune from showers…some of which could turn out to be quite generous here and there tonight into Tuesday morning. As the trade winds increase into Tuesday, the focus for most of the showers will shift over to the windward coasts and slopes.

An upper level low pressure system, with its associated cold air aloft, will keep our overlying atmosphere unstable and shower prone for a little while longer. The most pronounced threat of heavy precipitation will remain over and around Oahu..at least for the time being. We’ll find strengthening trade winds continuing into this week, with no definite letup seen from this vantage point. This will bring active showers to our windward sides for several days. The leeward sides should have pretty nice weather, with generally dry weather, and lots of warm sunshine beaming down! I’ll be back again early Tuesday morning with your next new weather narrative from paradise, I hope you have a great Monday 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 55.9 degrees at 6am on this Sunday morning. Skies are partly to mostly cloudy, although its not raining at the moment, along with calm winds. This radar image certainly shows that a robust area of rainfall is evident not far to the south of the leeward sides of Oahu and Maui County, and west of the Kona and Kohala Districts on the Big Island. If the trade winds don’t get too strong today, and the daytime heating of the islands progresses normally, the showers offshore may very well migrate onto the eastern islands in the chain later today…stay tuned. Update: 1055am, under partly cloudy skies, light trades, and an air temperature of 75.6 degrees. It showered lightly a few minutes ago, although skies are quickly clearing again. It will be interesting to see if the sunshine warms the slopes enough, that we’ll see some heavy showers, or even a thunderstorm this afternoon. Perhaps the trade winds will fill in sufficiently, that it will help to cap the vertical dimension of the cumulus cloud buildups…and limits shower activity instead.

We’re now into the early afternoon, at 1220pm, under partly to mostly cloudy skies, light breezes, no rain…and an air temperature of 73.4 degrees. The heavy showers over the last few days, have become more spotty today, and continue to reside over the offshore waters at the moment. Actually, there are very few showers falling over the islands, after the heavy stuff that rained down on the island of Oahu earlier this afternoon.

We’ve pushed into the early evening hours now at 525pm, under clear to partly cloudy skies, light trade winds, and an air temperature of 75 degrees. It definitely appears that we’ve returned to a more normal trade wind weather pattern, at least the first signs of it. Skies don’t have that look of rain, as has been the case so much lately. Radar still shows some light to moderately heavy showers around, mostly over the ocean to the south of Oahu…at least at the time of this writing. My wind chimes are singing away, signaling the returning trade winds, which is clearing our atmosphere of the long lasting humid conditions, and whatever haze that may still be around too. 


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: Hurricane Amanda remains active offshore south of the Mexican coast. Here’s the NHC graphical track map, with a broad satellite picture of the northeastern Pacific…along with a close-up satellite image of this system. Here’s what the computer models are showing for this still strengthening hurricane. Amanda is now the strongest May hurricane on record (category 4) in the eastern Pacific basin during the satellite era. If Amanda would have reached an intensity of 140 knots, it would have become the earliest category 5 hurricane on record, beating out Hurricane Ava of 1973. This hurricane has now weakened back into a category 2 tropical cyclone at the time of this writing.


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 begins on June 1st…and runs 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: Fungi Clean Contaminated Soil – A new system for cleaning soils contaminated with industrial toxins harnesses the power of White rot – a common fungus that decays fallen wood in forests. Research in Finland shows it can also destroy dioxins and poly-aromatic hydrocarbons.


‘White rot’ fungi that decay dead wood in forests can be harnessed to clean soil polluted with toxic, persistent organic chemicals, which cannot be cleaned using traditional methods.


The discovery was made by Erika Winquist, a researcher at Aalto University in Finland. In trials, up to 96% of poly-aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) compounds and 64% of the dioxins in contaminated soil were broken down after three months.


The breakthrough opens up new possibilities for the low-cost cleansing of contaminated soils, which are widespread on industrial and former industrial sites – for example coal gasification plants, sawmills, timber treatment works, waste processing centers and fuel depots.


Millions of tons of contaminated soils dumped


Where soils are polluted by simple organic pollutants such as oil, it is amenable to treatment by composting. However PAHs and dioxins are recalcitrant and are not broken down by these methods. Some 45% of excavated contaminated soils contain these pollutants, says Winquist.

As a result, these soils are often transported to landfill sites – Finland alone dumps over a million tonnes of contaminated soil to landfill every year.


An alternative is to burning the soil at high temperature, over 1,000C, to destroy the pollutants. But the process is expensive and highly energy intensive – and in any case few countries have sufficient incineration capacity to treat all the polluted soils.


Fungal mycelia break down soil-polluting compounds


Under Winquist’s method, the White rot fungus (Trametes versicolor) is initially grown on pine bark, which naturally contains compounds that prevent the growth of other microbes, making it the ideal fingal growing medium for fungi.


After 4 to 6 weeks, the fungal culture is transferred to the contaminated soil in a temperature-controlled treatment plant where the White rot mycelia grow into the polluted soil, and break down lignins and polluting compounds with lignin-like structures, including dioxins and PAHs.