Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Tuesday…along with the low temperatures Tuesday:
84 – 75 Lihue, Kauai
86 – 76 Honolulu, Oahu
86 – 76 Molokai AP
88 – 72 Kahului AP, Maui
88 – 77 Kona AP
85 – 70 Hilo AP, Hawaii
Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands…Tuesday evening:
4.99 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
2.26 Palisades, Oahu
0.20 Molokai
0.22 Lanai
0.01 Kahoolawe
0.74 West Wailuaiki, Maui
1.12 Mountain View, Big Island
The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph)…Tuesday evening:
29 Port Allen, Kauai
42 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
31 Molokai
28 Lanai
36 Kahoolawe
36 Kahului AP, Maui
35 South Point, Big Island
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
Weakening Tropical Storm Howard & strengthening Tropical Storm Ivette…in the eastern Pacific
What the computer models are showing for TS Howard
What the computer models are showing for soon to be Tropical Storm, and then Hurricane Ivette…we’ll have to keep a close eye on this system!
The faint low cloud swirl of former tropical cyclone Frank just to the east
Patches of low clouds being carried towards the islands from the east…with the leading edge of clouds associated with former Frank out there too – arriving later today into Thursday
A few showers locally – Looping radar image
Small Craft Advisory…windiest coasts and channels Maui County and the Big Island
~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~
Moderately strong trade winds will become gradually stronger…then likely lighter as we move into the weekend. Here’s the latest weather map, showing a strong, near 1037 millibar high pressure system far north-northeast of Hawaii. The trade winds will continue through the next week, likely peaking in strength Wednesday into Thursday. The models suggest that by the weekend into early next week, our local trade winds may go through some changes, likely becoming a bit lighter. It’s still too early to know what kind of wind conditions that Tropical Cyclone (TC) Ivette brings our way next week…stay tuned.
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
Moisture in the trades will carry passing windward showers…with the leeward areas finding a few at times too. The models go on to suggest an increase in showers Wednesday night into Thursday night, as another slug of tropical moisture (associated with former TC Frank) arrives on the trade wind flow. Then, as we move into the weekend we could see another area of tropical moisture (associated with what will likely be former TC Howard) arriving. We may see yet another area of tropical moisture passing across or near the state next Tuesday into Wednesday…as TC Ivette approaches.
Marine environment details: A Small Craft Advisory (SCA) remains posted for the typically windier waters around Maui County and the Big Island. High pressure far north-northeast of the state will keep moderate to locally strong trade winds over the area for the next several days. Winds will begin to ease over the weekend as Post-Tropical Storm Howard passes north of the state beginning Saturday.
Small south swells will continue to bring below advisory surf to leeward shores through the week. The elevated trade winds will maintain choppy surf along windward shores. Model guidance shows front runners from an east swell, associated with Tropical Cyclone Howard arriving late Thursday into Friday…and peaking Saturday night. It is still early to detail the specific impacts and surf heights associated with this new swell.
Makena Beach…Maui
World-wide tropical cyclone activity
>>> Atlantic Ocean: No active tropical cyclones
Here’s a satellite image of the Atlantic Ocean
>>> Caribbean Sea:
Tropical Storm Earl remains active in the Caribbean Sea…located235 miles east-southeast of Belize City. Here’s a NHC graphical track map, with a satellite image…and what the computer models are showing.
>>> Gulf of Mexico: No active tropical cyclones
Tropical cyclone formation is not expected during the next 5 days
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:
Tropical Storm 09E (Howard) remains active although weakening in the eastern Pacific…located 1535 miles west of the southern tip of Baja California. Here’s a NHC graphical track map, with a satellite image…and what the computer models are showing.
Tropical Storm 10E (Ivette) remains active in the eastern Pacific…located 895 miles southwest of the southern tip of Baja California. Here’s a NHC graphical track map, with a satellite image…and what the computer models are showing.
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: No active tropical cyclones
Tropical cyclone formation is not expected during the next 2-days
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: 2016 climate trends continue to break records – Two key climate change indicators — global surface temperatures and Arctic sea ice extent — have broken numerous records through the first half of 2016, according to NASA analyses of ground-based observations and satellite data.
Each of the first six months of 2016 set a record as the warmest respective month globally in the modern temperature record, which dates to 1880, according to scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York. The six-month period from January to June was also the planet’s warmest half-year on record, with an average temperature 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.4 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the late nineteenth century.
Chunks of sea ice, melt ponds and open water are all seen in this image captured at an altitude of 1,500 feet by the NASA’s Digital Mapping System instrument during an Operation IceBridge flight over the Chukchi Sea on Saturday, July 16, 2016. Credit: NASA/Goddard/Operation IceBridge.
Five of the first six months of 2016 also set records for the smallest respective monthly Arctic sea ice extent since consistent satellite records began in 1979, according to analyses developed by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Maryland. The one exception, March, recorded the second smallest extent for that month.
While these two key climate indicators have broken records in 2016, NASA scientists said it is more significant that global temperature and Arctic sea ice are continuing their decades-long trends of change. Both trends are ultimately driven by rising concentrations of heat-trapping carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
The extent of Arctic sea ice at the peak of the summer melt season now typically covers 40 percent less area than it did in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Arctic sea ice extent in September, the seasonal low point in the annual cycle, has been declining at a rate of 13.4 percent per decade.
“While the El Niño event in the tropical Pacific this winter gave a boost to global temperatures from October onwards, it is the underlying trend which is producing these record numbers,” GISS Director Gavin Schmidt said.
Previous El Niño events have driven temperatures to what were then record levels, such as in 1998. But in 2016, even as the effects of the recent El Niño taper off, global temperatures have risen well beyond those of 18 years ago because of the overall warming that has taken place in that time.
The global trend in rising temperatures is outpaced by the regional warming in the Arctic, said Walt Meier, a sea ice scientist at NASA Goddard.
“It has been a record year so far for global temperatures, but the record high temperatures in the Arctic over the past six months have been even more extreme,” Meier said. “This warmth as well as unusual weather patterns have led to the record low sea ice extents so far this year.”
NASA tracks temperature and sea ice as part of its effort to understand the Earth as a system and to understand how Earth is changing. In addition to maintaining 19 Earth-observing space missions, NASA also sends researchers around the globe to investigate different facets of the planet at closer range.
Right now, NASA researchers are working across the Arctic to better understand both the processes driving increased sea ice melt and the impacts of rising temperatures on Arctic ecosystems.
NASA’s long-running Operation IceBridge campaign last week began a series of airborne measurements of melt ponds on the surface of the Arctic sea ice cap. Melt ponds are shallow pools of water that form as ice melts. Their darker surface can absorb more sunlight and accelerate the melting process.
IceBridge is flying out of Barrow, Alaska, during sea ice melt season to capture melt pond observations at a scale never before achieved. Recent studies have found that the formation of melt ponds early in the summer is a good predictor of the yearly minimum sea ice extent in September.
“No one has ever, from a remote sensing standpoint, mapped the large-scale depth of melt ponds on sea ice,” said Nathan Kurtz, IceBridge’s project scientist and a sea ice researcher at NASA Goddard. “The information we’ll collect is going to show how much water is retained in melt ponds and what kind of topography is needed on the sea ice to constrain them, which will help improve melt pond models.”
Operation IceBridge is a NASA airborne mission that has been flying multiple campaigns at both poles each year since 2009, with a goal of maintaining critical continuity of observations of sea ice and the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica.
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