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

78 – 60  Lihue, Kauai
80 – 66  Honolulu, Oahu
79 – 67  Molokai AP
80 – 68  Kahului AP, Maui
81 – 70  Kailua Kona
75 – 68  Hilo AP, Hawaii

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

0.11  Kokee, Kauai
0.04  Makua Ridge, Oahu
 0.00  Molokai
 0.00  Lanai
 0.01  Kahoolawe
2.61  Hana AP, Maui
10.35  Pali 2, Big Island!

The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph) Friday evening:

20  Mana, Kauai
13  Wheeler AAF, Oahu
06  Molokai
09  Lanai
09  Kahoolawe
20  Kula 1, Maui
16  Keaumo, 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. Here’s the webcam for the Haleakala Crater on Maui. These webcams are 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

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Low pressure over the state and north…very strong high far northeast

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/cpac/ir4.jpg
Shower band near the Big Island and southeast Maui

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/hi/ir4.jpg
Clouds most concentrated over the eastern islands

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Showers locally…especially over or near to the Big Island
 Looping image

 

~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~


Flood Flood Watch…Maui and the Big Island

Winter Weather Advisory…Big Island summits / heavy snow accumulations of up to 10 inches

 

Broad Brush Overview: Drier conditions have filled in across most of the state, which should hold into Saturday morning. The recent wet pattern however will continue across parts of the eastern islands, due to a an old frontal boundary that will stall near there into the weekend. The moisture over and around the island chain is expected to drift back toward the west over the other islands later Saturday and Sunday, as a potent upper level low drops south over the state. This may produce heavy showers and thunderstorms Saturday evening through Monday across much of the state.

Details: The models show yet another serious upper low dropping south into the state just west of Kauai late Sunday. A lingering surface trough associated with the old frontal boundary over the eastern end of the state, will begin to drift back toward the west. This surface trough combined with cold air aloft, will destabilize the atmosphere. This, in addition to a significant amount of deep moisture, will support increasing showers and thunderstorm chances across the state.There may be isolated strong storms, which could produce small hail and damaging winds, especially Monday…when this cold pool moves over Oahu and Kauai. 

Looking Ahead: The models go on to show the upper low and surface trough beginning to shift away from the state, which should translate to improving conditions, or a more stable pattern returning by Tuesday into the second half of the week. A return of trade winds, which could become gusty by Thursday into next weekend, will be possible. As usual, these strong trade winds will likely carry at least some passing showers to the windward sides of the islands…and perhaps even into the leeward sides on the smaller islands locally.

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: A series of small west-northwest swells will arrive over the next several days. This surf is expected to remain below advisory levels. The next possible advisory level surf for north and west facing shores will be from a large swell expected to arrive Tuesday night, and spread down the island chain Wednesday.

High pressure remaining to the northeast of the state will produce a swell along windward shores, which will build this weekend and into early next week. This could produce advisory level surf along east facing shores Monday and Tuesday.

Winds are expected to remain below Small Craft Advisory (SCA) levels through at least the middle of the next week. The above mentioned northwest swell arriving Tuesday night will likely bring seas to SCA levels along exposed shores.


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Continued locally wet on the Big southeast side of the Big Island and east Maui…drier elsewhere



World-wide Tropical Cyclone activity

Here’s the latest PDC Weather Wall Presentation, covering Tropical Cyclone 09P (Gita)…and Tropical Cyclone 10S


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>>> Atlantic Ocean:

>>> Caribbean Sea:

>>> Gulf of Mexico:

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:

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:

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

>>> Northwest Pacific Ocean: No active tropical cyclones

>>> South Pacific Ocean:


Tropical Cyclone 09P (Gita)

JTWC textual forecast warning
JTWC graphical track map
NOAA satellite image

>>> North and South Indian Oceans / Arabian Sea:

Tropical Cyclone 10S

JTWC textual forecast warning
JTWC graphical track map
NOAA satellite image

Here’s a link to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC)


Interesting: On the Battlefield, Ants Treat Each Other’s War Wounds – A species of warmongering sub-Saharan ant not only rescues its battle-wounded soldiers but also treats their injuries.

This strikingly unusual behavior raises the survival rate for injured ants from a mere 20 percent to 90 percent, according to new research published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

These same ants, a species called Megaponera analis, were observed last year bringing their injured back to the nest, but no one knew what happened to the wounded ants after that, said study leader Erik Frank, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. Now, it’s clear that the ants get extra TLC after being saved from the battlefield.

War ants

M. analis is a nondescript-looking species that lives in colonies of several hundred to over a thousand ants. They’re skilled raiders, sending out columns of several hundred ants to attack termite nests and drag termite corpses back to their own nests for a feast. These raids, however, often come with a cost: ants with lost or crushed limbs, or even ants limping home with tenacious termites clinging to their bodies.

Frank and his colleagues knew from their previous work at Comoé National Park in northern Côte d’Ivoire that the ants assisted wounded comrades in getting home, but because the ants nest underground, they couldn’t see what happened to the war-wounded after the raids. To find out, the team collected whole ant colonies and kept them in darkened artificial nests in the national park’s research station. Infrared cameras kept track of the ants inside the nests.

The researchers then staged raids between the ants and captive termites, observing how the ants responded to heavily injured ants with five limbs crushed or amputated versus lightly injured ants with only two lost or damaged limbs.

Ant triage

They found that in the vast majority of cases, severely injured ants were left to die on the battlefield. This version of ant triage wasn’t at the behest of the rescuers, Frank said; instead, ants with five missing limbs flailed, rotated and generally refused to cooperate with their rescuers. Ants with two lost limbs, on the other hand, curled up into easy-to-carry balls and let themselves be taken home.

“If you’re able to stand up, you’re very likely not too injured and you are still useful to the colony, so you should be able to call for help and be rescued,” Frank said.

Once back at the nest, healthy ants would attend to the wounded, licking their injuries for sometimes up to minutes at a time. Ants that were prevented from getting this treatment had an 80-percent chance of dying within 24 hours, the researchers found, whereas ants that were cared for had only a 10-percent chance of death.

To find out what was killing the injured, untreated ants, the researchers relocated some to a sterile environment and found that only 20 percent died, indicating that infections are probably the biggest risk for injured ants.

“This seems to strongly suggest that the treatment inside the nest prevents an infection inside the wound,” Frank said.

Any uninjured ant seems capable of providing the licking treatment — there’s no indication of dedicated ant “medics,” Frank said — but it’s not yet clear whether the treatment prevents infections or actively treats them.

Either way, the behavior is exciting to see because it’s extremely rare to observe any individual animal treating anothers wounds in any species, Frank said. It’s especially counterintuitive in ants, because the tendency is to think that ant individuals are easily replaced cogs in the machinery of the colony, he said. But in M. analis, colonies aren’t that large, and only a dozen or so baby ants are born each day, Frank said.

“Losing one or two ants each day would be quite significant, so they really have to find ways to reduce the mortality in that sense,” Frank said. “The individual does matter.”