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

86  Lihue, Kauai
89  Honolulu, Oahu
82  Molokai
87  Kahului, Maui
95  Kailua Kona
83  Hilo, Hawaii

Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands, as of Thursday evening:

0.28  Kilohana, Kauai
0.97  Tunnel RG, Oahu
0.13  Molokai airport, Molokai
0.07  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
3.45  Puu Kukui, Maui
6.55  Kawainui Stream, Big Island

The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph)…as of Thursday evening:

30  Port Allen, Kauai
52  Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
33  Molokai
36  Lanai
45  Kahoolawe
55  Kaupo Gap, Maui
48  Pali 2, 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.prh.noaa.gov/cphc/tc_graphics/2014/graphics/EP092014W.gif


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

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/hi/ir4.jpg
 Close-up satellite image of Tropical storm Iselle

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/storm_graphics/EP10/refresh/EP1014W5_NL+gif/024830W5_NL_sm.gif


http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/floaters/10E/imagery/ir0-lalo.gif
Close-up satellite image of category 2 major hurricane Julio



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


We’re Going to get very Wet and very Windy…be careful!

I will continue to provide updates throughout this heavy weather
event….the only thing that will disrupt this service will be if I lose
power or internet connectivity. If that happens, I will be back as
soon as I can…although it may take some time. All the links will
still work…its just that I won’t be able to write updates online.


We have big changes in our wind speeds and directions coming
…as two tropical cyclones move over, or close to the Hawaiian
Islands…the first through today – and the
second again late Saturday into early Monday morning

We’ll find tropical cyclone Iselle moving through the islands

Here’s a real time wind profiler showing tropical storm Iselle
to the southeast of Honolulu, in addition to category 2
hurricane Julio further to the east-southeast of Iselle –
here’s an animated satellite image of Iselle

 Dangerous tropical cyclone Julio is following closely in the wake of Iselle

Tropical Storm Warning…the Big Island, the Big Island windward
waters and southeast waters around the Big Island

Tropical Storm Warning: Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai,
Kahoolawe, Maui /waters around Kauai, Oahu, Kaiwi Channel,
Maui County waters, Pailolo Channel  and Alenuihaha Channel


(A tropical storm warning is issued when the following conditions are imminent
within 24 hours or are occurring: storm surge, coastal flooding, river flooding
and winds of 39 to 73 mph.

Flash Flood Watch…for the entire State of Hawaii – Tropical cyclone Iselle
will bring heavy rains to the islands…through tonight  / Flash Flood Warning…
over the southeast half of the Big Island – until 830am




~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~




Our typical trade winds are giving way to strong and blustery conditions…with locally very strong gusts today. 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 a moderately strong high pressure system located to the northeast of the state, with a ridge of high pressure extending west-southwest…to the north of Hawaii. Our winds are going through some definite changes, as tropical storm Iselle  moves just to the south of the smaller islands during the day.

Satellite imagery shows increasing low level clouds over or around the islands…with category 1 hurricane Iselle now beginning to move over the Big Island. Looking at this larger looping satellite image, it shows the spinning clouds associated with Iselle steadily moving west-northwest.  Here’s the looping radar, showing increasing showers falling along the windward sides and around the mountains, which will increase further today. Flash flooding is a distinct possibility, please drive very carefully if you have to be out during these tropical downpours, or better yet, just hunker in at home or in your hotel.

A big change in our local weather conditions occurring now…Hawaiian Islanders should be prepared for very unusual conditions. Tropical storm Iselle continues to threaten the southern part of the Hawaiian Islands…and will be our primary weather feature now. The latest forecast has Iselle downgraded to a tropical storm according to the latest information. Thereafter, and as this CPHC official track map on Iselle shows, our islands will have this storm moving by just offshore…to the south of the small islands through the day.


The models are showing yet another tropical cyclone moving westward into the central Pacific, a couple of days behind Iselle. This next system is a hurricane named Julio…and is now rated a category 2 hurricane. Julio could bring another round of heavy weather to the islands later this weekend into early Monday. In sum, we’ll see wet and blustery weather, with potentially damaging high surf conditions (east and south shores) Friday, and then again possibly later this weekend as Julio moves by not far offshore to our north.  I’ll be back with more updates on all of the above and below, I hope you have a great Thursday night wherever you happen to be spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

~~~ Tropical Storm Iselle: Is moving west-northwestward, after passed over the southern part of the Big Island. The latest Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC) estimate of sustained winds is 60 mph near the center, with stronger gusts. After landfall is made on the Big Island, Iselle will move by to the south of the other islands as a tropical storm today. Rainfall may be a major issue in this case, which could lead to serious flooding in some areas. We’ll also see dangerous high surf arriving along our east and south facing shores. Once we get Iselle out of our hair Saturday, we’ll have to already start dealing with her brother Julio, who at the moment is a category 2 hurricane.



World-wide tropical cyclone activity:


Atlantic Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones


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.)  A trough of low pressure located several hundred miles south of the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula continues to produce disorganized showers and thunderstorms. Strong upper-level winds are likely to prevent any significant development of this system while it moves northwestward at around 10 mph.


* Formation chance through 48 hours...low...10 percent
* Formation chance through 5 days...medium...10 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 Storm 09E (Iselle) his moving by offshore to the south of Hawaii, here’s the CPHC graphical track map…along with a satellite image


Hurricane 10E (Julio) remains active at the category 2 level, now in the central Pacific Ocean, here’s the NHC graphical track map…along with a satellite image


Here’s a link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)


Northwest Pacific Ocean: Super Typhoon 07E (Genevieve) remains active in the western Pacific, as a category 4 tropical cyclone…here’s the JTWC graphical track map…along with a satellite image


Typhoon 11W (Halong) remains active to the south of Japan, 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:  Mercury in the oceans increasing – Mercury is a naturally occurring element as well as a by-product of such distinctly human enterprises as burning coal and making cement. Estimates of “bio-available” mercury – forms of the element that can be taken up by animals and humans – play an important role in everything from drafting an international treaty designed to protect humans and the environment from mercury emissions, to establishing public policies behind warnings about seafood consumption.


Yet surprisingly little is known about how much mercury in the environment is the result of human activity, or even how much bio-available mercury exists in the global ocean. Until now.


A new paper by a group that includes researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Wright State University, Observatoire Midi-Pyréneés in France, and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research appears in this week’s edition of the journal Nature and provides the first direct calculation of mercury in the global ocean from pollution based on data obtained from 12 sampling cruises over the past 8 years. The work, which was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the European Research Council and led by WHOI marine chemist Carl Lamborg, also provides a look at the global distribution of mercury in the marine environment.


Analysis of their results showed rough agreement with the models used previously – that the ocean contains about 60,000 to 80,000 tons of pollution mercury. In addition, they found that ocean waters shallower than about 100 m (300 feet) have tripled in mercury concentration since the Industrial Revolution and that the ocean as a whole has shown an increase of roughly 10 percent over pre-industrial mercury levels.


“With the increases we’ve seen in the recent past, the next 50 years could very well add the same amount we’ve seen in the past 150,” said Lamborg. “The trouble is, we don’t know what it all means for fish and marine mammals. It likely means some fish also contain at least three times more mercury than 150 years ago, but it could be more. The key is now we have some solid numbers on which to base continued work.”


“Mercury is a priority environmental poison detectable wherever we look for it, including the global ocean abyss,” says Don Rice, director of the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Chemical Oceanography Program, which funded the research. “These scientists have reminded us that the problem is far from abatement, especially in regions of the world ocean where the human fingerprint is most distinct.”