Air Temperatures – The following high temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Sunday…along with the low temperatures Sunday:

86 – 75  Lihue, Kauai
87 – 75  Honolulu, Oahu
89 – 68  Molokai
89 – 67  Kahului AP, Maui
86 – 75  Kailua Kona
85 – 68  Hilo AP, Hawaii

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

1.25  Anahola, Kauai
0.62  Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
 0.00  Molokai
0.00  Lanai
 0.00  Kahoolawe
0.21  Kula Branch Stn, Maui
0.39  Pali 2, Big Island

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

18  Moloaa Dairy, Kauai
12  Waiawa FWS, Oahu
16  Molokai
12  Lanai
21  Kahoolawe
14  Maalaea Bay, Maui
18  South Point, Big Island

Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of our tallest mountain Mauna Kea (nearly 13,800 feet high) on the Big Island of Hawaii. This webcam is available during the daylight hours here in the islands, and at night whenever there’s a big moon shining down. Also, at night you will be able to see the 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 classic cold front northwest…is approaching the state

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/cpac/ir4.jpg
Thunderstorms along the front…high cirrus arriving from the SW

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/hi/vis.jpg
Clear to partly cloudy…cloudy areas


http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/RadarImg/hawaii.gif
Showers are locally heavy
Looping radar image



~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~

 

Broad Brush Overview: A ridge of high pressure over the islands will keep winds light, with land and sea breezes into Monday. Clouds and showers will favor the interior portions of the islands during the afternoons. Hazy conditions will persist as light southerly breezes continue to spread vog from the Big Island to the smaller islands. Unsettled weather with increased showers and a slight chance of thunderstorms is expected for Kauai Monday, as an early season cold front to the northwest arrives. The front will stall, weaken and drift west late Monday, allowing the trade winds to return Tuesday.

Details: The approaching cold front will be closest to Kauai and Oahu Monday, with an upper level low developing just northwest of the area. It looks like the bulk of the atmospheric instability will stay west of the islands, although an increase in moisture is expected for the western end of the state. Thus, the threat of locally heavy rain with a slight chance of thunderstorms continues for Kauai and vicinity then. Molokai through Maui and the Big Island will once again see daytime clouds and afternoon upcountry showers…with voggy conditions staying put across the area as well.

The models indicate the developing upper level low will flirt with the western end of the state through Monday, then migrate southwest and weaken. As the front stalls, it will weaken then shift west…prompting the return of the trades late Monday into Tuesday from the east. Clouds and showers embedded with trade winds will then refocus their efforts along the windward coasts and slopes. At the same time, the strengthening trades will push the vog away from the smaller islands Tuesday, although will continue locally over the Big Island as usual.

Looking Ahead: A strong high pressure system is forecast to move into the area far north of the islands during the later part of the week. In turn, trade winds will become rather strong late Wednesday through Friday. This will be short-lived however, as a low pressure system is forecast to develop far northeast of the islands and move west next weekend…leading to the weakening of the trades. Additionally, moisture from another early season cold front associated with this low may reach the islands then too…bringing another round of showers.

Here’s a wind profile of the Pacific Ocean – Closer view of the islands / Here’s the vog forecast animation / Here’s the latest weather map

Marine environment details: No Small Craft Advisory winds are expected for the next few days. Strong trade winds will return next week when strong high pressure builds north of the islands.

A northwest swell associated with a developing storm-force low far northwest of the islands is forecast to fill in across local waters late tonight, peak Monday, then slowly lower into mid-week. If this swell comes in higher than expected, surf could near advisory levels Monday along north facing shores, especially along north and west facing shores of Kauai where the swell is forecast to be slightly larger anyway.

Surf along south facing shores will remain small through this weekend with mainly south and southeast swell energy expected. A large area of gale- to storm-force west-southwest winds far south of New Zealand will send some small southerly energy our way as it continues eastward across the south-central Pacific, possibly providing a slight rise in south shore surf locally by next weekend.

Small and choppy surf will smooth out along east facing shores, as the winds shift south and remain light. Rough surf along east facing shores will return with stronger trades by Thursday.

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/ca/56/86/ca568692f391586668de152ce33e94c0.jpg


World-wide Tropical Cyclone activity


https://icons.wxug.com/data/images/sst_basin/gl_sst_mm.gif


>>> Atlantic Ocean: No active tropical cyclones

>>> Caribbean Sea: No active tropical cyclones

Disorganized showers and thunderstorms across portions of the Yucatan Peninsula, Central America, and the northwestern Caribbean Sea are associated with surface trough that is interacting with an upper-level low. Some slow development of this system is possible by the end of the week or this weekend while it drifts northward into the southern Gulf of Mexico.

* Formation chance through 48 hours…low…near 0 percent
* Formation chance through 5 days…low…20 percent

>>> Gulf of Mexico: No active tropical cyclones

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: No active tropical cyclones

A small low pressure system located a couple of hundred miles south of southeastern Mexico is accompanied by disorganized showers and thunderstorms. Environmental conditions are expected to gradually become more conducive for development over the next few days while the system moves slowly west-northwestward or westward.

* Formation chance through 48 hours…low…20 percent
* Formation chance through 5 days…high…70 percent

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

Here’s a link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)

>>> Northwest Pacific Ocean: No active tropical cyclones

>>> 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: Robotic Farm Completes 1st Fully Autonomous Harvest – It’s harvest season in many parts of the world, but on one farm in the United Kingdom, robots — not humans — are doing all the heavy lifting.

At Hands Free Hectare, an experimental farm run by researchers from Harper Adams University, in the village of Edgmond in the U.K., about 5 tons of spring barley have been harvested from the world’s first robotically tended farm. Everything from start to finish — including sowing, fertilizing, collecting samples and harvesting — has been done by autonomous vehicles on the farm, according to the researchers.

The team behind the project thinks that robotic technology could improve yields in agriculture, which is necessary if the world’s growing population is to be fed in coming years.

The researchers tackled this problem by using commercially available agriculture machines and open-source software that is used to guide hobbyists’ drones.

“In agriculture, nobody has really managed to solve the problem of autonomy,” said Jonathan Gill, mechatronics researcher at Harper Adams University, who led the project.”We were like, Why is this not possible? If it’s possible in drone autopilots that are relatively cheap, how come there are companies out there that are charging exorbitant amounts of money to actually have a system that just follows a straight line?”

The researchers purchased several small-size agricultural machines, including a tractor and a combine, a machine for harvesting grain crops. They then fitted the machines with actuators, electronics and robotic technology that would allow them to control the machines without the presence of a human operator.

“The first stage was to make it radio controlled,” Gill said. “This was our first step towards autonomy. From that point, we moved on to pre-program all the actions that need to be performed into the autopilot system.”

Gill’s collaborator, Martin Abell, who works for Precision Decisions, an industrial agricultural company that partners with the university, explained that the system follows a certain trajectory with pre-programed stops to perform certain actions.

“The vehicles navigate entirely based on the GPS, and they are just essentially driving towards targets that we predetermined,” Abell said. “At different GPS targets, there are different actions designed to be carried out.”

Abell said the researchers struggled to make the machines follow a straight line, which initially resulted in quite a lot of crop damage. However, the scientists think they will be able to fix the problem in the coming years and will eventually achieve better yields than a conventionally maintained farm of the same size could produce.

To monitor the field and take samples of the plants, the researchers developed special grippers attached to drones. As the drone flies above the field, the grippers can cut off some samples and deliver them to the researchers.

The scientists said that the robotic technology could enable future farmers to more precisely distribute fertilizers and herbicides, but could also lead to improvements in soil quality. Currently, to achieve all the required tasks in a reasonable amount of time, farmers rely on very large and heavy machines. In the future, they could use flocks of smaller robotic tractors and harvesters, the researchers said.

The farmer would, for example, be able to apply fertilizer only to the plants that are doing poorly and wouldn’t waste it on those that don’t need it, the researchers explained.

“At the moment, the machines used in agriculture are large, they operate quickly, they cover large areas of ground quickly, but with it comes inaccuracy,” Abell said. “Small machines working with smaller working widths would provide a means to bring the resolution down. Instead of a 100-foot sprayer, you would have a 20-foot sprayer, and that’s just the beginning of making things smaller.”

The Harper Adams team plans to use the robotically harvested spring barley to make a limited batch of “hands-free” beer that will be distributed to the project’s partners as a token of thanks.

In the coming years, they want to focus on improving the precision of the procedures and quantify the effects of the robotic technology on the yields.