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

80 – 63  Lihue, Kauai
81 – 64  Honolulu, Oahu
83 – 66  Molokai AP
84 – 67  Kahului AP, Maui
83 – 71  Kailua Kona
86 – 64  Hilo AP, Hawaii

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

0.00  Kauai
0.01  Poamoho RG 1, Oahu
0.01  Puu Alii, Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.28  West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.30  South Point, Big Island

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

14  Mana, Kauai – NW
17  Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu – NW
20  Molokai – N
14  Lanai – NNE
24  Kahaloowe – E
21  Maalaea Bay, Maui – NNE
22  Upolu AP, 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

http://weather.unisys.com/satellite/sat_ir_enh_west_loop-12.gif
A stationary cold front just north of the islands

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/cpac/ir4.jpg
Thunderstorms far to Hawaii’s southwest…the frontal
cloud band northwest is slowing its approach

 

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/hi/ir4.jpg
Clear to partly cloudy…for the most part

 

http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/RadarImg/hawaii.gif
A few showers…around the eastern islands and offshore
looping radar image


High Surf Advisory…for north and west facing shores of Kauai,
Oahu, Molokai, and north shores of Maui

Small Craft Advisory…for coastal and channel waters across
most of the state

 

~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~



Light trades…giving way to southeast to southerly breezes later Sunday into Tuesday morning. Here’s the latest weather map, showing the Hawaiian Islands, and the rest of the North Pacific Ocean. We find a high pressure system just north of the state..moving rapidly eastward. At the same time, there’s a ridge of high pressure over the state, which has migrated a little ways northward. In addition, there’s numerous low pressure systems to the northeast through northwest of Hawaii…with a weak cold front located just north of Kauai. We’ll find generally light winds, with a modest return of trade winds for the time being. Our winds will then veer to the southeast and south late Sunday into early in the new week, which will usher in more volcanic haze. In the wake of a cold front, arriving Tuesday into Wednesday, we’ll see strong and gusty north to northeast winds arriving for many days thereafter. This wind direction will bring cooler weather into the state for a few days.

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

A couple of showers will fall locally this weekend into Monday…although not many. The atmosphere over and around the islands remains quite dry and stable. This in turn will limit the extent of any shower activity…at least in most areas. Looking ahead, the forecast continues to suggest we’ll see a more robust cold front moving into our area early in the new week. This Tuesday-Wednesday front will likely bring a good increase in showers statewide. The models go on to point out the chance of a notable period of windy weather in the wake of that cold front…keeping some passing shower activity along our north and northeast coasts and slopes. The leeward sides should be quite pleasant, although locally windy and tropically cool, with an occasional shower being carried into those areas on the gusty winds.

Marine environment details: The main story in the short term will be another northwest swell building through tonight. A high surf advisory is in effect for most north and west facing shores from Kauai to Maui, but a close monitoring of the offshore buoys, with any unexpected increase in swell size, could push surf into low end warning levels late tonight or early Sunday. Expect surf to lower below advisory levels by Monday morning.

A small craft advisory is in place through Sunday afternoon for waters exposed to the building northwest swell. Winds should be below advisory strength this weekend, though areas around the Big Island and Maui could be at border line strength…as trades veer out of the southeast on Sunday.

A front will sweep down through the island chain Tuesday into Wednesday. High pressure building behind the front will produce breezy and cool northerly winds, and large seas on Tuesday night, with winds shifting out of the northeast on Wednesday. An advisory will be needed for all coastal and channel waters, and there is the potential for gale conditions across some terrain enhanced areas…such as the Alenuihaha Channel between east Maui and the Big Island.



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Here in Maui County...It’s mostly clear to partly cloudy early this Saturday morning…with much less smoke and haze. Here in upcountry Kula, at my place, the air temperature was 45.6F degrees well before sunrise. The temperature at near the same time was 72 degrees down in Kahului under partly cloudy skies, 66 out in Hana with light rain, 70 at Maalaea Bay, and 48 atop the Haleakala summit. Meanwhile, Kahoolawe was 64 degrees, 63 at Lanai City, with 67 at the Molokai airport.

– Mid-afternoon, under partly to mostly cloudy skies, and oops…the haze or smoke continues.

– Early evening, variable clouds which will evaporate quickly after sunset…and yes…still haze and smoke remains in place.

Friday Evening Film: There are lots of new films playing now, although for some reason, not that many are calling out to me personally. One however, called Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, looks good, and it’s getting reasonably good reviews.This film stars Tina Fei, Margot Robbie, Christopher Abbott, Billy Bob Thorton, Alfred Molina, and Martin Freeman, and Sheila Vand…among many others. The synopsis: Saturday Night Live alumni Tina Fey steps into the well worn shoes of journalist Kim Barker in Paramount Pictures’ adaptation of Barker’s memoir The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which details her years as a reporter in Pakistan and Afghanistan beginning in 2002.

This was a good film, and as one critic put it, “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is a funny and illuminating story of female empowerment…in the most male of environments.” This film switched between comedy and drama rather seamlessly, giving an unusual look into a war zone. Speaking of the ranges in this film, there were some places that I almost laughed out loud, although not quite, and some pretty serious battle sequences too. Tina Fey, who played the starring role, really got down…especially during several big party moments…which was fun to watch. The language demanded an R rating, along with some minor sexual content, drug use, and violent war images too. I enjoyed the film, and as far as a rating goes, I’ll give it a strong B grade. In case you’re interested…here’s the trailer.


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)

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

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


>>> 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: Whales dine with their own kind – For a few weeks in early fall, Georges Bank — a vast North Atlantic fishery off the coast of Cape Cod — teems with billions of herring that take over the region to spawn. The seasonal arrival of the herring also attracts predators to the shallow banks, including many species of whales.

Now researchers from MIT, Northeastern University, the Institute of Marine Research in Norway, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, have found that as multiple species of whales feast on herring, they tend to stick with their own kind, establishing species-specific feeding centers along the 150-mile length of Georges Bank. The team’s results are published in the journal Nature.

Based on acoustic data they collected in the region in 2006, the researchers identified and mapped the calls of various whales, and discovered a clear grouping of species within the dense herring shoals: Humpback whales congregated in two main clusters, at either end of the spawning grounds, while minke, fin, and blue whales set up feeding territories in the space in between.

In general, calls from each whale species increased dramatically at nighttime, when herring tended to form extremely dense shoals. During the day, these whale calls dissipated, as herring scattered throughout the seafloor.

These results represent the first time that scientists have observed such predator and prey interactions over a large marine region.

“It’s known that different marine mammal species will eat fish, but no one has mapped their simultaneous feeding distributions over these huge scales,” says Purnima Ratilal PhD ’02, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Northeastern University. “Maybe there is some territorialism going on, or maybe they are preferentially selecting these locations based on their different foraging mechanisms. That’s material for new research.”

Ratilal and her husband, Nicholas Makris, professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, along with their students, are co-authors of the paper.

Fishing for sound

In 2006, Makris and Ratilal led a two-week cruise to Georges Bank, initially to track and study the behavior of populations of herring, which can number in the billions within a single shoal. The team had developed a remote-sensing system that uses acoustics to instantaneously image and continuously monitor fish populations over  tens of thousands of square kilometers. Unlike conventional technologies, their system uses the ocean as a waveguide through which acoustic waves can travel over much greater distances, to sense the marine environment.

To get a much wider, more detailed view of the herring populations, Makris and Ratilal deployed 160 hydrophones during their 2006 cruise, towing the array, like a “big acoustic antenna,” in and around Georges Bank. Using their ocean acoustic waveguide sensing technique, they mapped the evolving shoals over the two-week period in October.

During that cruise, the group remembers hearing distinct sounds coming through  the ship’s hull.

“We were hearing these strange haunting sounds in the galley, like an upsweep, then a down-sweep,” Makris recalls. “Purnima recognized these were whale calls, and had all the characteristics of a classic humpback song. At that point she started the research that led to the current paper in Nature, which she spearheaded.”

Makris notes that such whale calls have been heard through the hulls of ships for thousands of years.

“The Patogonian Indians even had a name for them: ‘Yakta,’” Makris says. “People had been listening to these sounds for a very long time, and it’s really this century that we’re starting to localize and observe their behavior.”

Hearing hotspots in the night

The group continued looking through the data, even after they had analyzed them for herring signals, to look this time for whale calls. The team developed a technique to sift through the acoustic data for interesting signals — a method called passive ocean acoustic waveguide remote sensing (POAWRS).

Through the years, the team gathered research on the characteristics of certain whale species’ calls and looked for these characteristics in their acoustic data. They eventually identified several hundred thousand calls, mostly along the northern edge of Georges Bank.

“Different marine mammals in the ocean produce different sounds, sort of related to their size,” Ratilal says. “Humpbacks have a distinct song, while some species of tooth whales can sound like birds chirping.”

“Fin whale calls, on the other hand, are in the register of a bass guitar,” Makris adds.

The researchers  located the source of each call by triangulation and other methods unique to waveguides, and found that the call rates of four main species of whales observed — humpback, sei, minke, and blue — tended to go up significantly at night, possibly in response to the increasing number of herring.

“Spawning herring typically don’t form big shoals during daytime because it’s too risky they can get caught more easily,” Makris notes. “So they form just as the sun goes down. That’s when the whale calls start going wild and begin to come from on top of the shoals.”

These calls were concentrated in species-specific “hotspots,” with humpback whale calls bookending the other three species, all along the northern length of Georges Bank.

The group found that humpbacks in particular emitted a distinct pattern of calls that may indicate a cooperative feeding ritual, which others have observed.

“The whales will circle the herring, and then one will blow a bubble to contain the fish group, and another will scream and scare the fish into a tight ball,” Ratilal says. “Then another will give a signal, and they’ll all come up with their jaws open.”

Jeff Simmen executive director of the Applied Physics Laboratory at the University of Washington, says that for the most part, technologies used to observe marine ecosystems are unable to localize fish and marine mammals at the same time. In contrast, Makris and Ratilal’s approach “provides unusual insight into the macroscopic behavior of marine populations.”

“In short, the methodology provides a new and grand view of marine populations that will lead to completely new perspectives about the marine ecosystem, perhaps in a similar way that the enhanced views from the Hubble Space Telescope have changed our perspectives on the universe,” Simmen says.

Going forward, the team hopes to tease out more marine behaviors in their dataset.

“With this technology, you can really sense a lot of things,” Makris says. “Fish and marine mammals are just two examples.” Ratilal adds, “There are quite a few other interesting  phenomena in our dataset.”