Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha Paragraphs / May 14-15, 2015

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

83 – 72  Lihue, Kauai
80 – 70  Honolulu, Oahu
81 – 66  Molokai AP
84 – 70  Kahului, Maui
83 – 72  Kailua Kona
77 – 65  Hilo, Hawaiiii

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

1.51  Mount Waialeale, Kauai
1.55  Manoa Lyon Arboretum, Oahu
0.60  Puu Alii, Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.54  Kula 1, Maui
1.93  Pohakuloa Keamuku, Big Island

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

17  Poipu, Kauai – NE
32  Kuaokala, Oahu – NE
22  Molokai – ENE
27  Lanai – NE
25  Kahoolawe – NE
24  Kahului AP, Maui – NE
27  Upolu APt, 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



High cirrus clouds now well to the east…
weak cold front well to the northwest

Partly cloudy with cloudy periods leeward…
clear to partly cloudy windward

Showers are falling over the nearby ocean – locally generous…

Here’s the looping radar image for the Hawaiian Islands

Small Craft Advisory…strong trade winds across coastal
and channel waters around Maui County and the Big Island

~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~

Gusty trade winds will continue…with no definite end in sight. 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 large and strong, near 1026 millibar high pressure system located to the north-northeast of the state. At the same time, there’s a near 1025 millibar high pressure cell far to the northwest. As a result of these high pressure features, and low pressure well to the south in the deeper tropics, our winds will continue to come in from the trade wind direction. The outlook shows no definite end to this long lasting trade wind episode…continuing into next week.

Showers will continue in an off and on manner…both windward and leeward areas locally. The windward sides will see shower activity, a few of which may be briefly generous. Most of the incoming showers will arrive during the cooler night and early morning hours…although not exclusively. There will be showers carried over into the leeward sides at times on the smaller islands…in addition to upcountry afternoon showers. These interior showers will be most prevalent on the Big Island…and the leeward slopes on Maui too. I’ll be back with more updates on all of the above, I hope you have a great Thursday night wherever you’re spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Here on Maui...early Thursday morning before sunrise, skies are mostly clear, with just the usual clouds over the West Maui Mountains. The windward sides too, have their normal blanket of low clouds, with some showers falling. Those windward low clouds appear to be stretching over here towards Kula now…could we have a few showers arriving? The air temperature here in Kula at 545am was 49.1 degrees, with a light down slope breeze from the summit of the Haleakala Crater…which was showing a 37 degree temperature. At the same time, it was a warmer 70 at the Kahului airport, with a 72 degree reading out in Hana. / Now at 11am, up here in Kula, we’re having a very soft little shower, most folks wouldn’t notice it, although being a weatherman, I notice everything about the weather, it’s my job…as the saying goes.

– Now at noon, it’s raining, light to moderately heavy for the most part, at least here in Kula. It looks sunny to partly sunny down in the central valley at the same time. It’s a bit later in the afternoon now at near 3pm, and there are have several good showers. The air temperature here in Kula is a relatively cool 69 degrees, while at the same time, down at the Kahului airport, it was 82 degrees. The summit of the Haleakala Crater was a much cooler 45 degrees…while out in Hana and over on the upper West side in Kapalua, it was 79 degrees.

– It’s now 555pm in the early evening, under partly to mostly cloudy skies, with showers from many directions here in Kula. At my weather tower, it’s been raining in an on and off manner all afternoon, and continues to do so as we head towards sunset. The air temperature at my place was 65.8 degrees, while at the same time, down near sea level at the Kahului AP, it was 76 degrees. It was way cooler up at the summit of the Haleakala Crater, and 75 degrees in Hana…and 75 over in Kapalua. I expect most of these clouds to evaporate tonight, except over along the windward sides, where the trade winds will carry clouds and showers our way into Friday morning. Already at 640pm, most of the clouds have gone away, leaving lots of blue skies just before sunset.

>>> 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: Typhoon 07W (Dolphin) remains active, and will continue to gradually strengthen…as it moves by Guam, Rota, Tinian and Saipan. Here’s the JTWC graphical track map…along with a satellite image – looping view – here’s what several computer model are showing

>>> 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: New Research Identifies First Warm-Blooded Fish – New research by NOAA Fisheries has revealed the opah, or moonfish, as the first fully warm-blooded fish that circulates heated blood throughout its body much like mammals and birds, giving it a competitive advantage in the cold ocean depths.

The silvery fish, roughly the size of a large automobile tire, is known from oceans around the world and dwells hundreds of feet beneath the surface in chilly, dimly lit waters. It swims by rapidly flapping its large, red pectoral fins like wings through the water.

Fish that typically inhabit such cold depths tend to be slow and sluggish, conserving energy by ambushing prey instead of chasing it. But the opah’s constant flapping of its fins heats its body, speeding its metabolism, movement and reaction times, scientists report today in the journal Science.

That warm-blooded advantage turns the opah into a high-performance predator that swims faster, reacts more quickly and sees more sharply, said fisheries biologist Nicholas Wegner of NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, Calif., lead author of the new paper.

“Before this discovery I was under the impression this was a slow-moving fish, like most other fish in cold environments,” Wegner said. “But because it can warm its body, it turns out to be a very active predator that chases down agile prey like squid and can migrate long distances.”

Gills show unusual design

Wegner realized the opah was unusual when a coauthor of the study, biologist Owyn Snodgrass, collected a sample of its gill tissue. Wegner recognized an unusual design: Blood vessels that carry warm blood into the fish’s gills wind around those carrying cold blood back to the body core after absorbing oxygen from water.

The design is known in engineering as “counter-current heat exchange.” In opah it means that warm blood leaving the body core helps heat up cold blood returning from the respiratory surface of the gills where it absorbs oxygen. Resembling a car radiator, it’s a natural adaptation that conserves heat. The unique location of the heat exchange within the gills allows nearly the fish’s entire body to maintain an elevated temperature, known as endothermy, even in the chilly depths.

While mammals and birds typically maintain much warmer body temperatures, the opah is the first fish found to keep its whole body warmer than the environment.