Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Saturday…along with the minimum temperatures Saturday:
77 – 66 Lihue, Kauai
80 – 70 Honolulu, Oahu
80 – 58 Molokai AP
84 – 62 Kahului, Maui
80 – 67 Kailua Kona
82 – 64 Hilo, Hawaii
Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands, as of Saturday evening:
0.85 Anahola, Kauai
0.69 Kuaokala, Oahu
0.02 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.00 Maui
0.00 Big Island
The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph)…as of Saturday evening:
18 Port Allen, Kauai – NW
12 Waianae Valley, Oahu – SW
16 Molokai – E
15 Lanai – NW
25 Kahoolawe – ENE
20 Kahului AP, Maui – NE
23 South Point, Big Island – NE
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
A weakening cold front over Kauai and Oahu…
high cirrus clouds to the northeast
Clouds from a dissipating cold front over the western islands…with
mostly clear conditions over the eastern side of the state
Just a few showers…concentrating offshore to the southeast
of the Big Island…and along the dissipating cold front in the
Kauai Channel
~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~
High Surf Advisory…most north and west shores
Small Craft Advisory…Kauai through Maui County
Light and variable winds, generally from the northeast to east. Here’s the latest weather map, showing the Hawaiian Islands, and the rest of the North Pacific Ocean, along with a real-time wind profiler of the central Pacific. We find a high pressure system close to the north, moving quickly northeast. A second high pressure cell is located far to the east-northeast…with a ridge of high pressure not far north of the islands. At the same time, we have low pressure systems far to the north and northwest, with the tail-end of a quickly weakening cold front over Kauai. Meanwhile, there are still a few pockets of minor volcanic haze (vog) around today, although it appears to have thinned quite a bit for the moment. Light trade winds will return briefly into Sunday. As we move into later Monday, we’ll find more light and variable winds again through mid-week. This will bring back volcanic haze to many parts of the state. Thereafter, a stronger cold front will approach the state….bringing gusty southwest into Saturday. This cold front will bring locally heavy rains, and perhaps even a few thunderstorms. Typically, these kinds of cold fronts can also usher in chilly weather for a day or two in their wake, followed by strong and gusty trade winds…stay tuned.
Rainfall will be completely absent over Maui County and the Big Island, while a weakening cold front will keep showers somewhat active over and around the Kauai end of the state. Here’s the looping radar image showing a few showers across our area, especially over Kauai and parts of Oahu. The cold front will keep some showers falling over Oahu and Kauai today. It appears that the front will be pushed back towards to the northwest, as the light trade winds blow into Monday. Then, more light winds and dry weather should prevail through the first half of the new week. Showers will likely begin arriving along our leeward sides, brought by strengthening southwest kona winds beginning later next Thursday. I’ll be back with more updates on all of the above, I hope you have a great Saturday night wherever you’re spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Here in Kula, Maui: It’s clear to partly cloudy here on Maui Saturday morning. The air is finally looking better, with just a little bit of leftover volcanic haze. The returning light trade winds are helping to ventilate it away, which is a relief. The air temperature bottomed-out at 48 degrees this morning. All things considered, the day is starting out nicely, with that cold front up near Kauai and Oahu…not going to make it down this way. This time, in about a week, may be a far different story however, with a strong cold front bringing inclement weather conditions our way, stay tuned. ~~~ We’ve pushed into the early afternoon now, with continued nice weather. I drove down to Paia for my weekly food shopping, and it was warm and sunny down near the ocean. Looking across the central valley, towards the West Maui Mountains, I see still a bit of light-moderately heavy vog, although it’s diminished compared to the last week. ~~~ We’re into the early evening hours now, almost sunset, and there’s still a definite light to moderately thick veil of volcanic haze still in place. It looked like it might disperse this morning, although the returning light trade winds just weren’t strong enough yet. Hopefully they will pick up a little more on Sunday, and get this stuff out of here. Otherwise, its totally cloud free, with an air temperature of 59.4 degrees at 610pm HST. ~~~ at 1045pm, the temperature had fallen to a tropically frosty 49.3 degrees.
Friday Evening Film: Once again there were many new films that I was interested in seeing, so I’ll let them slide by, and pick off one of the older ones I hadn’t seen yet. The one that I saw was called The Imitation Game, which several of my friends have given high marks. The stars in this film include Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Rory Kinnear, Matthew Beard, Allen Leech, and Tuppence Middleton…among many others. The synopsis: during the winter of 1952, British authorities entered the home of mathematician, cryptanalyst and war hero Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) to investigate a reported burglary. They instead ended up arresting Turing himself on charges of ‘gross indecency’, an accusation that would lead to his devastating conviction for the criminal offense of homosexuality – little did officials know, they were actually incriminating the pioneer of modern-day computing. Famously leading a motley group of scholars, linguists, chess champions and intelligence officers, he was credited with cracking the so-called unbreakable codes of Germany’s World War II Enigma machine. An intense and haunting portrayal of a brilliant, complicated man, THE IMITATION GAME follows a genius who under nail-biting pressure helped to shorten the war and, in turn, save thousands of lives.
This film was astonishingly well done, deep and heavy, with such character, it was brilliant in my opinion. The film excelled, thanks to the quality of the acting, entertaining script, and a true story ta boot. Cumberbatch and Knightley were superb, they delivered rich performances. In the end, a machine was created to help win a war, and in the process…set the stage for the modern computers. Simply put, I am thoroughly comfortable giving it a solid A grade. I suggest you at least take a peek at what I was lucky enough to see…here’s the trailer.
World-wide tropical cyclone activity:
>>> Atlantic Ocean: The last regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlook of the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season…has occurred. Routine issuance of the Tropical Weather Outlook will resume on June 1, 2015. During the off-season, Special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued as conditions warrant.
Here’s a satellite image of the Atlantic Ocean
>>> Caribbean Sea: The last regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlook of the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season…has occurred. Routine issuance of the Tropical Weather Outlook will resume on June 1, 2015. During the off-season, Special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued as conditions warrant.
>>> Gulf of Mexico: The last regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlook of the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season…has occurred. Routine issuance of the Tropical Weather Outlook will resume on June 1, 2015. During the off-season, Special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued as conditions warrant.
Here’s a satellite image of the Caribbean Sea…and the Gulf of Mexico.
>>> Eastern Pacific: The last regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlook of the 2014 North Pacific hurricane season…has occurred. Routine issuance of the Tropical Weather Outlook will resume on May 15, 2015. During the off-season, Special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued as conditions warrant.
Here’s a wide satellite image that covers the entire area between Mexico, out through the central Pacific…to the International Dateline.
Here’s the link to the National Hurricane Center (NHC)
>>> Central Pacific: The central north Pacific hurricane season has officially ended. Routine issuance of the tropical weather outlook will resume on June 1, 2015. During the off-season, special tropical weather outlooks will be issued as conditions warrant.
Here’s a link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)
>>> Northwest Pacific Ocean: Tropical storm 01W (Mekkhala) remains active as it crosses the Philippine Islands. Here’s the JTWC graphical track map for this slowly strengthening tropical system. Here’s the NOAA satellite image of this system…to the east of the Philippines.
>>> South Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones
>>> North and South Indian Oceans: Tropical cyclone 05S (Bansi) remains active in the south Indian Ocean. Here’s the JTWC graphical track map for this strengthening tropical cyclone. Here’s the NOAA satellite image of this system…to the northeast of La Reunion Island.
Tropical cyclone 06S (Chedza) remains active in the south Indian Ocean. Here’s the JTWC graphical track map for this briefly strengthening tropical cyclone. Here’s the NOAA satellite image of this system…in the Mozambique Channel.
Here’s a link to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC)
Interesting: New data suggests sea levels are rising faster than previously thought – The acceleration in global sea level from the 20th century to the last two decades has been significantly larger than scientists previously thought, according to a new Harvard study.
The study, co-authored by Carling Hay, a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS), and Eric Morrow, a recent PhD graduate of EPS, shows that previous estimates of global sea-level rise from 1900-1990 had been over-estimated by as much as 30 percent.
The report, however, confirms previous estimates of sea-level change since 1990, suggesting that the rate of sea-level change is increasing more quickly than previously believed.
“What this paper shows is that sea-level acceleration over the past century has been greater than had been estimated by others,” Morrow said. “It’s a larger problem than we initially thought.”
“Scientists now believe that most of the world’s ice sheets and mountain glaciers are melting in response to rising temperatures.” Hay added. “Melting ice sheets cause global mean sea level to rise. Understanding this contribution is critical in a warming world.”
Previous estimates had placed sea-level rise at between 1.5 and 1.8 millimeters annually over the 20th century. Hay and Morrow, however, suggest that from 1901 until 1990, the figure was closer to 1.2 millimeters per year. But everyone agrees that global sea level has risen by about 3 millimeters annually since that time, and so the new study points to a larger acceleration in global sea level.
“Another concern with this is that many efforts to project sea-level change into the future use estimates of sea level over the time period from 1900 to 1990,” Morrow said. “If we’ve been over-estimating the sea-level change during that period, it means that these models are not calibrated appropriately, and that calls into question the accuracy of projections out to the end of the 21st century.”
To obtain their improved estimate of 20th century global sea level, Hay and Morrow approached the challenge of estimating sea-level rise from a completely new perspective.
Typically, Hay said, estimates of sea-level rise are created by dividing the world’s oceans into sub-regions, and gathering records from tide gauges – essentially yard-sticks used to measure ocean tides – from each area. Using records that contain the most complete data, researchers average them together to create estimates of sea level for each region, then average those rates together to create a global estimate.
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