Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Saturday…and the low temperatures Saturday:
78 – 68 Lihue, Kauai
84 – 72 Honolulu, Oahu
85 – 69 Molokai AP
83 – 70 Kahului AP, Maui
87 – 74 Kailua Kona
87 – 69 Hilo AP, Hawaii
Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands…as of Saturday evening:
2.00 Wainiha, Kauai
5.30 Punaluu Stream, Oahu
2.25 Makapulapai, Molokai
0.02 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
4.11 West Wailuaiki, Maui
1.04 Waiakea Uka, Big Island
The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph)…as of Saturday evening:
16 Port Allen, Kauai – NE
37 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu – SSE
20 Molokai – N
28 Lanai – NE
33 Kahoolawe – NE
20 Maalaea Bay, Maui – NNE
20 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
A low pressure system over the ocean to the north-northeast…along
with its associated comma shaped cold front draping southwest
from its center
A late season cold front has entered the state…with
thunderstorms far south-southeast and southwest
Partly cloudy to mostly cloudy, as a cold front has passed over
Kauai and Oahu…and has stalled over Maui County to near
and over parts of the Big Island
Showers falling locally…heavy in places over Maui and the Big Island
Looping radar image
High Surf Advisory…south facing shores
Flood Advisory…parts of Maui and the Big Island
Happy Mother’s Day! This isn’t just three words to write,
it’s a way of saying…I love you Mom, my Mom,
Dorothy Ray James! You’ve been there for me
all my life…it’s such a big thank you as well!
I’d also like to send love to all the rest of you Mom’s
reading from wherever you are now. How can I not
love all of you too. Happy Mother’s Day!
~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~
Slightly cool north-northeast winds…in the wake of the frontal passage. The air flow in the rear of the frontal passage will favor a northerly direction, bringing a slightly cooler air mass into the state. They should strengthen and become northeasterly trade winds over the next several days…before settling into the light to moderately strong realms by the middle of the week into next 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
A period of unsettled weather has arrived…as a late season cold front stalls over Maui. As this front gets hung up, unsettled weather will persist…with more favorable weather occurs over Kauai, Oahu and the Big Island. As the north-northeasterly air flow arrives along, and in the rear of the frontal cloud band, we’ll find shower activity continuing along the windward sides for several days. The bulk of this residual shower activity will be focused over the windward side of Maui…into the new work week ahead.
Marine environment details: A weak front will gradually dissipate near Maui through Sunday. Mainly fresh northeasterly trade winds will persist along and north of the front. A small craft advisory may be needed for winds in the terrain enhanced waters around Maui County on Sunday.
Elevated surf is expected along south facing shores through the weekend. Noaa buoy observations are running over a foot larger than predictions, and these buoys have been registering inconsistent energy capable of producing surf over the 8 foot south shore advisory level. The swell should peak through early Sunday then slowly decline through early in the new week. The high surf advisory currently in effect has been extended through the day on Sunday. Pulses of moderate north-northwest energy will continue through early next week…though advisory level surf is not expected along north facing shores.
Here on Maui – Before sunrise on this Saturday morning, we find partly to mostly cloudy skies…along with thick volcanic haze that has spread over the island. Here in upcountry Kula, it was calm with an air temperature at my weather tower of 52.5F degrees. At about the same time, it was mostly cloudy in Kahului at the airport, with an air temperature of 74 degrees, with a 68 degree reading out in Hana, and 41 degrees atop the Haleakala Crater. Looking out over the island I can see some towering cumulus clouds over the West Maui Mountains, so I know it’s rainy there. Looking at radar images, I can see it’s also raining over Molokai and parts of Lanai…and solidly over parts of Oahu as well. / Now at 920am, still cloudy here in Kula, no rain yet…although the beautiful fog is starting to appear in our tree tops.
– Middle afternoon Saturday, with partly to mostly cloudy skies over Maui. The locally heavy rains that fell over Kauai and Oahu, associated with the cold front’s passage, sure didn’t make it down into Maui County…much less the Big Island. Here at my place in Kula, it’s cloudy, with very occasionally as little mist, with the winds beginning to increase somewhat.
– Here on Maui, early this evening, skies are mostly cloudy, although showers are restricted to the windward coasts and slopes for the most part…with a few minor exceptions. The north-northeasterly wind flow, associated the late season cold front, now hung up over this island, has a slightly cool edge to it…considering the season. I’m heading out to a restaurant in Makawao this evening, for a bite to eat, and a glass or three of wine, as I’m not driving.
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: No active tropical cyclones
>>> North and South Indian Oceans / Arabian Sea: No active tropical cyclones
Here’s a link to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC)
Interesting: Geologists Find Clues In Crater Left By Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid – Scientists have had a literal breakthrough off the coast of Mexico.
After weeks of drilling from an offshore platform in the Gulf of Mexico, they have reached rocks left over from the day the Earth was hit by a killer asteroid.
The cataclysm is believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs. “This was probably the most important event in the last 100 million years,” says Joanna Morgan, a geophysicist at Imperial College in London and a leader of the expedition.
Since the 1980s, researchers have known about the impact site, located near the present-day Yucatan Peninsula. Known as Chicxulub, the crater is approximately 125 miles across. It was created when an asteroid the size of Staten Island, N.Y., struck Earth around 66 million years ago. The initial explosion from the impact would have made a nuclear bomb look like a firecracker. The searing heat started wildfires many hundreds of miles away.
After that, came an unscheduled winter. Sulfur, ash and debris clouded the sky. Darkness fell and, for a while, Earth was not itself.
“I think it was a bad few months, really,” Morgan says.
That’s an understatement: Scientists believe 75 percent of life went extinct during this dark chapter in Earth’s history, including the dinosaurs.
Researchers have sampled Chicxulub before, but this expedition by the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling precisely targets a key part of the crater yet to be studied: a ring of mountains left by the asteroid. This “peak ring” is a fundamental feature of the strike and should tell researchers much more about it, says Sean Gulick, a geophysicist at the University of Texas at Austin, who co-leads the team with Morgan.
For weeks, they’ve been drilling — and going back in time. Each layer of rock they pass through is connected to a part of Earth’s history.
“We went through a remarkable amount of the post-impact world. All the way into the Eocene times — so between 50 and 55 million years ago,” Gulick says.
The rocks they’ve pulled out show how life began to recover after the cataclysm, Gulick says. “We’ve got all these limestones and rocks that contain the fossils from the world after the impact, all the things that evolved from the few organisms that survived.”
The research team finally reached the top of the peak ring this week. It appears to be a thick layer of broken, melted rock just beneath a layer of sandstone that may be the leavings of a huge tsunami that was triggered when the asteroid struck.
Gulick thinks the rocks hold clues. For example, if any microscopic organisms survived near the site of the strike, their fossils might be in these samples. In June, the rock cores will be sent back to a lab in Germany for further study.
The asteroid strike marked the end of an era. But the creatures that made it through that catastrophe went on to shape the world again, says Morgan.
“The mammals survived,” she says. “And that led on to our own evolution.”
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