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

77 – 71  Lihue, Kauai
81 – 73  Honolulu, Oahu
78 – 72  Molokai AP
79 – 73  Kahului AP, Maui
82 – 73  Kailua Kona
8468  Hilo AP, Hawaii

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

4.30  Wainiha, Kauai
1.43  Maunawili, Oahu
0.91  Molokai
0.36  Lanai
0.17  Kahoolawe
6.89  West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.92  Ahumoa, Big Island

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

29  Barking Sands, Kauai
29  Kuaokala, Oahu
21  Molokai
20  Lanai
18  Kahoolawe
17  Maalaea Bay, Maui
18  PTA West, Big Island

Hawaii’s MountainsHere’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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The tail-end of an old cold front…remains stalled over the eastern islands


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Heavy clouds still active in the vicinity of the islands

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/hi/ir4.jpg
Partly to mostly cloudy

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Showers locally and offshore…some heavy
Looping image

 

~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~

 

Flash Flood Watch…Big Island

 Flood Advisory…the Hana coast of east Maui

Small Craft Advisory…windiest coasts and channels

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

 

Broad Brush Overview: Our weather will remain locally wet, due to deep moisture stretched along a weakening cold front over the Big Island, and an upper level disturbance passing overhead…keeping the atmosphere shower prone. Parts of the island chain will experience heavy showers and possible thunderstorms for the time being. Drier conditions with rebuilding trade winds will return to Kauai first, although wet and unstable conditions will linger over the eastern island’s through tonight. More typical trade wind weather will return Tuesday with strengthening winds.

Details: An upper level trough of low pressure northwest of Hawaii, continues to move toward the state. This, coupled with the abundant moisture brought into the state on the weakening cold front, will keep unsettled weather in place, with off and on heavy showers…as well as a chance of thunderstorms. A high pressure ridge north of the islands is providing trade winds to the area, although the winds are being disrupted some, due to the presence of the remnant cold front. Flooding rainfall could occur anywhere, though the greatest flood threat will be across the central islands.

Conditions will slowly improve for Kauai, as the upper level feature reaches that island. With surface high pressure building northwest of the state, Kauai will also see strengthening trade winds tonight. These improving weather conditions, with strengthening winds will slowly spread south to the central islands into Monday, though wet weather is still expected to prevail, especially along the windward areas. The Big Island will remain under very moist and unstable weather conditions tonight. Thus, a chance of thunderstorms and flooding will continue for that island. In fact, flooding conditions may remain active there into Monday.

Looking Ahead: Moderate to strong trade winds will prevail Tuesday and Wednesday, although may ease slightly Thursday, before strengthening again next weekend…as a couple of surface high pressure systems are expected to pass by far north of the state. There will still be some lingering moisture in the island vicinity, especially over the eastern side of the state. However, high pressure ridging will slowly build just north of the islands. This in turn will result in the air mass over the islands becoming more stable, at least for Kauai and Oahu. Trade wind showers will generally fall along the windward and mountain areas, leaving the leeward beaches drier.

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: The remnant moisture over the area could bring some heavy showers and thunderstorms to all of the coastal waters, with the focus shifting to the waters near the Big Island tonight.

North to northeast winds are expected to begin to build as high pressure begins to build north of the state. Winds are expected to increase over the northern waters first, and then spread down the island chain. Winds are expected to reach Small Craft Advisory levels by Monday morning.

The current northwest swell will continue to lower, with another northwest swell due tonight. This swell will build to advisory levels, and peak Monday night near warning levels, before trending down Tuesday and Wednesday. This swell will help to maintain Small Craft Advisories active over most coastal waters through mid-week.

Another northwest swell is possible Thursday, which could become reinforced by a larger source out of the same direction Friday into next weekend.

Surf along east facing shores will be on the rise this week as winds increase.

 

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World-wide Tropical Cyclone activity

Here’s the latest Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) Weather Wall Presentation covering Tropical Cyclone 19P (Keni)…and the remnants of former TC 17P near the Queensland coast of Australia

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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 19P (Keni)

JTWC textual forecast warning
JTWC graphical track map
NOAA satellite image

>>> North and South Indian Oceans / Arabian Sea: No active tropical cyclones

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


Interesting: Still Believe an Asteroid Killed the Dinosaurs? Think Again
– Some experts have long believed that a massive asteroid was a primary cause of dinosaurs’ extinction some 65 million years ago, but new analysis from a University at Albany psychology professor suggests that the dinosaurs were in trouble long before the asteroid hit.

Professor and evolutionary psychologist Gordon Gallup and his former student Michael J. Frederick, now of the University of Baltimore, assert that the emergence of toxic plants combined with dinosaurs’ inability to associate the taste of certain foods with danger had them already drastically decreasing in population when the asteroid hit.

“Learned taste aversion” is an evolutional defense seen in many species, in which the animal learns to associate the consumption of a plant or other food with negative consequences, such as feeling ill. To explain the defense mechanism, Gallup offers the example of rats.

“A reason why most attempts to eliminate rats have not been successful is because they, like many other species, have evolved to cope with plant toxicity,” said Gallup. “When rats encounter a new food, they typically sample only a small amount; and if they get sick, they show a remarkable ability to avoid that food again because they associate the taste and smell of it with the negative reaction.”

The first flowering plants, called angiosperms, appear in the fossil record well before the asteroid impact and right before the dinosaurs began to gradually disappear. Gallup and Frederick claim that as plants were evolving and developing toxic defenses, dinosaurs continued eating them despite gastrointestinal distress. Although there is uncertainty about exactly when flowering plants developed toxicity and exactly how long it took them to proliferate, Gallup and Frederick note that their appearance coincides with the gradual disappearance of dinosaurs.

In addition to studying the proliferation of toxic plants while dinosaurs were alive, Gallup and Frederick examined whether or not birds (considered to be a descendant of dinosaurs) and crocodilians (also considered to be descendant from dinosaurs) could develop taste aversions. They found that the birds, rather than forming aversions to taste, developed aversions to the visual features of whatever made them sick. Still, they knew what they shouldn’t eat in order to survive. In a previous study in which 10 crocodilians were fed different types of meat, some slightly toxic, Gallup discovered that like dinosaurs, crocodilians did not develop learned taste aversions.

“Though the asteroid certainly played a factor, the psychological deficit which rendered dinosaurs incapable of learning to refrain from eating certain plants had already placed severe strain on the species,” said Gallup. “The prevailing view of dinosaur extinction based on the asteroid impact implies that the disappearance of dinosaurs should have been sudden and the effects should have been widespread, but the evidence clearly shows just the opposite: Dinosaurs began to disappear long before the asteroid impact and continued to gradually disappear for millions of years afterward.”