Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Tuesday…along with the minimums Tuesday:
81 – 63 Lihue, Kauai
82 – 67 Honolulu, Oahu
80 – 62 Molokai AP
84 – 63 Kahului AP, Maui
82 – 72 Kailua Kona
81 – 69 Hilo AP, Hawaii
Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands, as of Tuesday evening:
0.66 N Wailua Ditch, Kauai
1.17 Punaluu Stream, Oahu
0.01 Puu Alii, Molokai
0.01 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.71 Kaupo Gap, Maui
0.75 Piihonua, Big Island
The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph)…as of Tuesday evening:
27 Port Allen, Kauai – WNW
23 Honolulu AP, Oahu – NNE
12 Molokai – NW
15 Lanai – WNW
18 Kahaloowe – SW
13 Hana, Maui – SE
18 South Point, Big Island – NNE
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
Pacific storm track remains well north of the islands…
with a cold front about to move through the state
Scattered low clouds over the islands…diffuse cold front northwest,
thunderstorms far southwest and southeast
Partly cloudy…cloudy conditions over the islands locally
Showers falling locally…some may become moderately heavy
looping radar image
Wind Advisory…strong winds over the island of Lanai –
Wednesday and Wednesday night / 25-30 mph with
50 mph gusts
Small Craft Advisory…coastal and channel waters
across most of the state of Hawaii
Marine Weather Statement…an increasing north
swell, in combination with strong northerly winds,
will affect most Hawaiian waters…this swell will
likely produce moderate surges in Kahului harbor /
additionally, large breaking waves are possible at
harbor entrances across the state
~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~
Winds will become locally much stronger from the north…in the wake of a cold front for a couple of days. Here’s the latest weather map, showing the Hawaiian Islands, and the rest of the North Pacific Ocean. We find a near 1029 millibar high pressure system well to the northeast of Hawaii, moving northeastward…with its trailing ridge extending over the islands. The forecast continues to show the next cold front arriving tonight into Wednesday. As this front moves through, it will be followed by another surge of chilly north to northeasterly winds for several days. Trade winds will then return, and prevail through the weekend. The models are trying to show the trade winds backing-off again early next week, with kona winds and showers, possibly heavy…stay tuned.
There will be some showers…brought in by the cold front arriving tonight into Wednesday. The latest estimate of the timing of the frontal passage has it reaching Kauai this evening, Oahu around midnight, Maui county early Wednesday morning, and the Big Island late morning into the afternoon. This front will be quite shallow with limited moisture available, so any significant rainfall will be confined mainly to the north facing slopes. Mainly dry conditions should prevail elsewhere across the state, with a few exceptions. There are some indications that the front may not make it past the Big Island, and stall in that area…with chances for showers remaining higher there, and perhaps for east Maui for several days. We’ll find cool conditions arriving in the wake of this frontal passage, although generally fair, late winter weather conditions will prevail in most areas. The next big thing in our local weather conditions, or at least potentially a notable change, will arrive early next week.
Marine environment details: A rapid increase in northerly winds is expected late tonight, beginning with Kauai and spreading eastward, as a cold front pushes through the Aloha State. The strong and gusty north winds will continue Wednesday…veering northeast on Thursday.
A small craft advisory has been issued beginning Wednesday morning for most Hawaiian coastal waters, which will continue through Wednesday night. Some zones in the advisory may need to be reconfigured, or extended for Thursday as the initial surge of strong winds moves east down the island chain. The coverage will likely be trimmed back to the typically windy waters around the Big Island and Maui by Friday into the weekend.
The next significant ocean swell will be from the parent low associated with the front, which will affect the islands tonight. The swell will be from the north and will be mixed in with large wind waves…produced by expected strong northerly winds. This could produce advisory level surf Wednesday night and Thursday across exposed eastern shorelines, and some surges in north facing harbors. The north swell may build further Friday into the weekend, with a moderate northwest swell arriving during the weekend as well. This would likely result in advisory level surf expanding from exposed east facing shores to north shores. In addition, small south swells are expected to continue through this week into the weekend.
Here’s a wind profile…of the offshore waters around the islands – with a closer view
Here’s the Hawaiian Islands Sulfate Aerosol…animated graphic – showing vog forecast
Here in Maui County…It was clear to cloudy early this Tuesday morning, depending upon location…with light to moderately thick volcanic haze. Here in upcountry Kula, it was mostly clear with the air temperature 48.2F degrees before sunrise. The temperature at near the same time was 64 degrees down in Kahului under clear skies, 70 out in Hana under cloudy skies, and 41 atop the Haleakala summit. Meanwhile, Kahoolawe was 71 degrees, 63 at Lanai City, with 64 at the Molokai airport…with clear skies. / Now at 1045am, it’s clear to partly cloudy, and the vog has thinned from earlier this morning.
– Early afternoon, with clouds definitely gathering their forces over and around the mountains. These clouds took over after a nice clear morning, other than the vog that is. These afternoon cumulus clouds are beginning to look pretty ominous, at least in terms of their rainfall producing capabilities. As a matter of fact, I would be surprised if we don’t get some upcountry showers before too long…and some of them could be pretty generous I reckon. Meanwhile, it still looks nice and sunny down along our beaches, in contrast. / Two minutes after writing the above, I see the first rather large rain drops on my weather deck!
– Early evening, it’s still way cloudy, and we’ve had a couple of light showers, nothing much yet though. The breezes has started to turn cooler and from the north already…out ahead of the approaching cold front. I can see that showers are falling locally here on Maui as we head towards sunset. / Now at 830pm, we’ve just had our heaviest rain of the day, although it was short lived.
World-wide tropical cyclone activity:
>>> Atlantic Ocean: The last regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlook of the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season…has occurred. Routine issuance of the Tropical Weather Outlook will resume on June 1, 2016. During the off-season, Special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued if conditions warrant. Here’s the 2015 hurricane season summary
Here’s a satellite image of the Atlantic Ocean
>>> Caribbean Sea: The last regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlook of the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season…has occurred. Routine issuance of the Tropical Weather Outlook will resume on June 1, 2016. During the off-season, Special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued if conditions warrant.
>>> Gulf of Mexico: The last regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlook of the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season…has occurred. Routine issuance of the Tropical Weather Outlook will resume on June 1, 2016. During the off-season, Special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued if conditions warrant.
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: The last regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlook of the 2015 North Pacific hurricane season…has occurred. Routine issuance of the Tropical Weather Outlook will resume on May 15, 2016. During the off-season, Special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued if conditions warrant. Here’s the 2015 hurricane season summary
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, 2016. During the off-season, special tropical weather outlooks will be issued if conditions warrant. Here’s the 2015 hurricane season summary
Here’s a link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)
>>> South Pacific Ocean:
Tropical Cyclone 15S is now active in the South Indian Ocean, located approximately 831 NM east-southeast of Diego Garcia. Here’s the JTWC graphical track map, a NOAA satellite image, a near real time wind profile…and what the computer models are showing.
>>> North and South Indian Oceans / Arabian Sea: There are no active tropical cyclones
Here’s a link to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC)
Interesting: Sponge cuts oil spill clean-up cost – A simple but super-absorbent artificial sponge could lower the cost of cleaning up crude oil spills in developing countries.
A team of researchers, based at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa, found that simple sponges made from polyurethane foam soaked up oil spills better than more expensive sponges treated with nanoparticles.
They discovered that polyurethane foam with pores of less than half a millimetre can soak up as much as 30 grams of oil per gram of sponge. This is three times as much as sponges made from treated polypropylene, which are normally used to mop up oil spills.
“We decided to show the importance of the actual structure of the foams that are used to recover spilled oil from water,” says Javier Pinto, the lead author of a paper on the study, published in the Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics on 1 March.
Moreover, the team demonstrated that almost all the oil can be recovered by simply squeezing the sponge, which can be reused at least ten times.
Synthetic sponges used to mop up oil are commonly treated with nanoparticles or through complicated chemical procedures. Such methods allow them to soak up more oil, for example by ensuring they absorb no water.
“These kind of treatments are not really necessary to achieve the maximum oil absorption capacity,” says Pinto.
The results could soon change how oil spills are dealt with, especially in the developing world, says Michel Boufadel, an environmental engineer at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in the United States. “The main advantage of this study is that the foams suck oil in rather than relying on fancy chemical treatments to absorb it,” he explains.
This not only cuts production costs, it also avoids potential added pollution from the chemical treatments, he says.
According to the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation, around 7,000 tons of oil was spilled into the sea in 2015 — often by ships in developing countries where regulation around oil disposal is less strict or not enforced. Oil spills can harm or kill wildlife and can take years to clean up, costing governments around US$18 per gallon of spilled oil and devastating income sources such as tourism and fisheries.
“Once we can show that our polyurethane foams are more economic and competitive compared to other materials, we’ll be able to convince the industry to use them as a reliable option in the remediation of these disasters,” Pinto says.
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