Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Tuesday…along with the minimum temperatures Tuesday:

82 – 70  Lihue, Kauai
84 – 69  Honolulu, Oahu
79 – 58  Molokai AP
83 – 61  Kahului, Maui
84 – 70  Kailua Kona
82 – 64  Hilo, Hawaii

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

0.04  Puu Opae, Kauai
0.18  Moanalua, Oahu
0.10  Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
1.71  Puu Kukui, Maui
0.69  Kawainui Stream, Big Island


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


30  Port Allen, Kauai – SE
27  Kii, Oahu – ENE
28  Molokai – ENE
31  Lanai – NE
32  Kahoolawe – NE
29  Kahului, Maui – NE
31  Pali 2, Big Island – ENE


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/cpac/ir4.jpg
Large cloud area moving into the state from the west, with an embedded
cold front/trough – in addition to an upper level low pressure system
to the east…which is migrating westward towards the islands

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/hi/ir4.jpg
Clear to partly cloudy, locally cloudy – higher clouds coming into the
state from the west…along with a shower band impacting the state
from the east, which will bring windward showers our way today


http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/RadarImg/hawaii.gif
Showers concentrating mostly along the windward sides
of the Big Island and Maui County



~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~


High Surf Advisory…west shores of Kauai and the Big Island

Small Craft Advisory..for waters around parts of Maui County
and the Big Island


Moderately strong easterly trade winds…followed by lighter breezes Thursday into the weekend. 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 far to the northeast, with a ridge of high pressure extending southwest…to near Kauai. At the same time, we have gale low pressure systems to the north and northwest…with an associated trough over the ocean to the northwest. Our winds will be generally light to moderately strong easterly trades, although southeasterly at times locally…bringing voggy skies overhead through Wednesday.

Windward biased showers will fall later tonight into Wednesday morning, with clouds and precipitation increasing Thursday…lasting into the weekend. Here’s the looping radar image for the Hawaiian Islands…and elsewhere. This trough of low pressure to our northwest is nearly stationary at the moment, although will move closer to the state over the next few days. At the same time, another area of moisture will approach from the southeast, bringing air from the deeper tropics our way. The combination of these two moisture sources will keep cloudy periods and off and on showers over us for a prolonged period. The atmosphere will be shower prone, so clouds and showers will persist, perhaps into early next week…stay tuned. I’ll be back with more information on all of the above, I hope you have a great Tuesday night wherever you’re spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Here on Maui: It’s a lovely start to the day here on Maui…with no vog! The winds are light at the moment, with a low temperature of 48.4 degrees here at my weather tower, at 545am on this Tuesday morning. It was 62 degrees down at the Kahului airport near the ocean…with 46 degrees atop the Haleakala Crater at the same time. The summit of the Big Island was a colder 23 degrees atop Mauna Kea. The warmest temperature around the state was 74 degrees at the Lihue AP on Kauai.

~~~ The weather has turned windier and cloudier in many areas this morning, along with continued showers falling along the windward side of Maui. It’s cloudy here in Kula, although the winds remain on the light side…with an air temperature of 73.2 degrees / its now a bit later in the afternoon, around 330pm, and I see that the volcanic haze is back…looking moderately thick at the moment.

~~~ We’re into the early evening hours now, under clear to partly cloudy conditions, with light breezes here in Kula, compared to stronger winds down near the ocean. Looking down into the central valley, I still see a fair amount of volcanic haze…which has been coming and going lately.

~~~ Here’s a weather product that I produced for the Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) this morning


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: There are no active tropical cyclones


 >>> South Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones

>>> North and South Indian Oceans: Tropical Cyclone 14S (Glenda) remains active in the South Indian Ocean, here’s the JTWC graphical track map…along with a Navy satellite image.

Here’s a link to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC)

 

Interesting: Understanding the Forces of Abrupt Climate Change – By studying African lake sediments from the past 20,000 years, scientists are learning more about abrupt climate shifts, advancing their understanding of changing weather patterns.


In a recent paper published in Nature Geoscience, co-author on an NAU assistant professor Nicholas McKay analyzes core samples from Lake Bosumtwi in Ghana. The isolated lake was formed by a meteor and sits like a bowl on the landscape giving scientists a clear view of environmental changes.


The lake samples were obtained by drilling 1,000 feet to the lake’s bottom and another 1,000 feet into the meteor impact structure. The sediments span 1-million years but the paper focused on the past 20,000 years.


McKay and co-authors describe how Africa changed from a humid environment to the more arid region of today. Earlier studies show the Sahara Desert and other north African regions shifted from lush to dry between 5,000 and 6,000 years ago. Analysis of Lake Bosumtwi reveals humid conditions remained until about 3,000 years ago, providing supportive habitats for humans, animals and plants.


“We saw a complex response in climate changes, not this uniform picture with all of Africa doing the same thing,” McKay said.


By analyzing isotopes from leaves in lake sediments, the researchers gained an understanding of monsoonal changes. In other parts of Africa, these changes are measured by blowing dust. “Rapidly, it went from no dust to lots of dust, instead of being a gradual transition from being wet to being dry. That is what we are working to understand,” added McKay, who said Africa’s complexities reveal clues to future climate change.


Although the large scale, north-to-south change was gradual, McKay and his team focused on areas where the change happened much quicker than expected. The researchers suggested the anomalies were created by the reactions of soil moisture and plants to the diminishing monsoon.


“The plants do a good job of reinforcing their own existence by making it a little moister and bringing more rain,” McKay said. “But if you cross the moisture threshold where the plants die, then it also stops raining and it sort of snowballs really fast and that is how you can get these really rapid changes,” McKay said.


While the paper focused on the Holocene geologic time period, the abrupt localized climate changes provide insights to existing weather models and could benefit analysis of present and future climate shifts.