Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Wednesday:
85 Lihue, Kauai
89 Honolulu, Oahu
84 Molokai
90 Kahului, Maui – Record highest on this date was 96…back in 1951
88 Kailua Kona
85 Hilo, Hawaii
Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands, as of Wednesday evening:
0.12 Lihue, Kauai
0.03 Manoa Lyon Arboretum, Oahu
0.01 Molokai airport, Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.04 Kahului AP, Maui
0.66 Piihonua, Big Island
The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph)…as of Wednesday evening:
18 Port Allen, Kauai
29 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
23 Molokai
31 Lanai
29 Kahoolawe
13 Lipoa, Maui
23 South Point, 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
Our trade winds will continue blowing…moderately strong
We’re involved in a normal trade wind weather pattern…
which will continue through Thursday – with some changes
in the forecast for the southern islands Friday into Saturday
An area of tropical moisture will bring showers, sultry air
and breezy conditions to the Big Island and Maui Friday,
then up towards Oahu and possibly Kauai into Saturday –
some rainfall may be locally generous over the southern
islands in the chain – improving weather Sunday into next
Monday
Small Craft Wind Advisory…windiest coasts and
channels around Maui County and the Big Island
~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~
Our trade winds will remain active, blowing in the moderately strong range for the most part…locally stronger at times. 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 have moderately strong high pressure systems located far to the north and northeast of the state, with ridges of high pressure running southwest. At the same time, we have lots of low pressure systems that are, or will be moving by to the south of the state…and will continue doing so through the rest of the week. The forecast calls for the trade winds to remain active, increasing a notch at times..as these tropical disturbances migrate from east to west.
Satellite imagery shows scattered low level clouds generally over the ocean to our northeast…with high cirrus clouds to our south and southwest. Looking at this larger looping satellite image, it shows considerable thunderstorm activity over the ocean to the southwest, south, and southeast of the state…some of which are tropical depressions and disturbances. We see tropical moisture further to the southeast and east, which will bring showers our way by Friday into Saturday, especially over the Big Island and Maui. Here’s the looping radar, showing a few showers falling locally along the windward sides and around the mountains, which will remain rather limited for the time being.
A fairly normal trade wind weather pattern will prevail through Thursday…followed by increased showers Friday into Saturday. The models continue showing an increase in muggy weather with showers later Thursday into Saturday, starting first on the Big Island, and then on to Maui. It’s still a question whether the rest of the state may see some of these showers…or not? As tropical depression Genevieve moves by to the south of the state, it’s passage may trigger locally gusty trade winds. As we get into the second half of the weekend, conditions should return to pleasant trade winds into early next week…at least temporarily. I’ll be back again early Thursday morning with your next new weather narrative from paradise. I hope you have a great Wednesday night wherever you happen to be spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Tropical Depression Genevieve – Tropical cyclone Genevieve began her life as a tropical depression in the eastern Pacific Ocean. As it crossed the 140W line of longitude, separating the eastern and central Pacific, this system weakened, and became a post-tropical cyclone for several days. Once the low level circulation center, or what was left of it, came into our central Pacific…the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC) began tracking it. It became what we could call a tropical disturbance, as it was carried along in the low level trade wind flow. Recently it began to organize itself again, aided by light winds aloft, and warm sea water temperatures below. The CPHC upgraded it into a tropical depression…as it restrengthened. It’s now back to being referred to as Genevieve, and will likely intensify further over the next 24 hours…becoming tropical storm Genevieve for a day or two.
The good thing is that this system isn’t likely to turn northwestward towards the Hawaiian Islands. It’s expected to migrate along in a generally west to west-northwest direction. The long and short of all this is that our islands don’t have to worry about threatening weather conditions, other than some possible heavy showers locally Friday and Saturday, at least locally. The northern fringe of its associated clouds will bring an increase in showers to our area early Friday into Saturday, with improving weather as this system moves away to the southwest Sunday into early next week. Here’s the CPHC graphical track map for this system, along with a satellite image…down to the south-southeast of the Big Island of Hawaii. Thereafter, it appears that there may be more tropical activity originating to our southeast and east-southeast through the next week, if not longer…we’ll need to keep an eye out in those directions. A couple of the more reliable computer models are showing a tropical system spinning-up Friday in the eastern Pacific, and then moving into the central Pacific, perhaps as a tropical storm later next week…stay tuned.
World-wide tropical cyclone activity:
Atlantic Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones
A well-defined low pressure system located about 650 miles east of the southern Windward Islands has been producing organized shower and thunderstorm activity during the past several hours. If this activity persists, tropical depression or tropical storm advisories will be initiated later this morning. Interests in the Lesser Antilles should monitor the progress of this disturbance as it moves west-northwestward at 15 to 20 mph, and watches or warnings may be required for some of these islands later today. A Hurricane Hunter aircraft is scheduled to investigate the system this afternoon - Here's the hurricane model output.
* Formation chance through 48 hours…high…70 percent
* Formation chance through 5 days…high…70 percent
Here’s a satellite image of the Atlantic Ocean
Caribbean Sea: There are no active tropical cyclones
Gulf of Mexico: There are no active tropical cyclones
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: There are no active tropical cyclones
1.) Showers and thunderstorms continue to increase near an area of low pressure located about 1100 miles southwest of the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula. Environmental conditions appear conducive for further development, and a tropical depression is forecast to form during the next day or two while the system moves west-northwestward at about 10 mph.
* Formation chance through 48 hours…high…60 percent
* Formation chance through 5 days…high..80 percent
2.) An area of low pressure located about 1550 miles east-southeast of the Big Island of Hawaii is producing disorganized cloudiness and showers. Upper-level winds are only marginally favorable, and any development of this system should be slow to occur while it moves westward at about 10 mph during the next few days.
* Formation chance through 48 hours…low…near 10 percent
* Formation chance through 5 days…low…20 percent
3.) An area of low pressure is expected to form well southwest of the southern coast of Mexico this weekend. Some gradual development of this system is possible after that time while it moves westward at about 10 mph.
* Formation chance through 48 hours...low...near 0 percent * Formation chance through 5 days...low...20 percent
Here’s a wide satellite image that covers the entire area between Mexico, out through the central Pacific…to the International Dateline.
Central Pacific: Tropical Depression Genevieve remains active, located about 550 miles southeast of Hilo on the Big Island, here’s the CPHC graphical track map…along with a satellite image
1.) A disorganized and elongated area of showers and isolated thunderstorms is located about 850 miles southwest of Oahu. The surrounding environment may permit this system to develop slightly during the next couple of days as it drifts slowly to the west.
* Formation chance through 48 hours, low, 10 percent
2.) An area of low pressure located about 1550 miles east-southeast of the Big Island of Hawaii is producing disorganized cloudiness and showers. Upper-level winds are only marginally favorable, and any development of this system should be slow to occur while it moves westward at about 10 mph during the next few days.
* Formation chance through 48 hours, low…10 percent
Here’s a link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)
Northwest Pacific Ocean: Tropical Storm 11W (Halong) remains active, here’s the JTWC graphical track map…along with a satellite image.
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: Turtle Talk: Exactly how do turtles communicate? – Turtles comprise one of the oldest living groups of reptiles, with hundreds of species found throughout the world. Many have been well-researched, and scientists know very specific things about their various evolutionary histories, metabolic rates, and the ways in which their sexes are determined. But there was one very obvious thing that has been largely left unknown by science until very recently. Turtles can make sounds.
Two new studies published recently in Chelonian Conservation and Biology and Herpetologica find that two turtle species vocalize when they reproduce and during some social interactions, and that their vocalizations are many and varied.
But why exactly did researchers go so long without discovering this aspect to turtle behavior? According to Richard Vogt, a herpetologist and turtle conservationist with the Brazilian Institute for Amazon Research and Director of the Center for Amazon Turtle Conservation, dogmatic assumptions are to blame.
“Because no one studied it, because some of the literature on reptiles published back in the 1950s claimed that turtles were deaf as a stump and did not vocalize, and everyone just believed [it] without investigating it,” Vogt, who is a coauthor of both studies, told mongabay.com.
However, Vogt wasn’t very surprised when he and his colleagues discovered that turtles were making sounds. He had long suspected this to be the case, but circumstance prevented him from studying it.
“While filming courtship behavior of false map turtles (Graptemys pseudogeographica) in captivity in the mid 1970s for part of my PhD thesis at the University of Wisconsin – Madison I noticed that the males were opening and closing their mouths while they were titillating the females with their vibrating foreclaws, and not trying to bite,” Vogt said.
“At that time only the Navy had hydrophones and since the war protesters had blown up the army math research center at the UW. I did not think it a wise idea to be associated with the military, so my ideas laid fallow until 2005 when an inquisitive Australian student had access to underwater recording equipment and dropped a hydrophone in an aquarium with side necked turtles and found out they were vocalizing.”
But Vogt held on to his curiosity, and later investigated the phenomenon with one of his students while studying turtles in the Amazon River. He attributes part of the reason for the knowledge lag about turtle vocalizations to technological limitations and the fact that the noises turtles produce are low and quiet.
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