Hawaiian Islands Weather Details & Aloha Paragraphs / June 3-4, 2018

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

83 – 74  Lihue, Kauai
87 – 75  Honolulu, Oahu
84 – 74  Molokai AP
85 – 69  Kahului AP, Maui
86 – 74  Kailua Kona
83 – 70  Hilo AP, Hawaii

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

1.66  Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.02  Poamoho RG 1, Oahu
0.04  Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
1.06  Puu Kukui, Maui
0.84  Kawainui Stream, Big Island

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

31  Port Allen, Kauai
35  Kuaokala, Oahu
33  Molokai
29  Lanai
42  Kahoolawe
36  Kahului AP, Maui
31  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. Here’s the webcam for the 10,000+ feet high 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

High pressure north…trough of low pressure west

Deep clouds west…thunderstorms far southeast and southwest

Partly cloudy, some cloudy and clear areas locally…high cirrus west

Showers locally and offshore – Looping image

 

Here’s the latest Vog Forecast Animation

Here’s the Vog Information website

Special Weather Statement…ASHFALL LIKELY FROM KILAUEA VOLCANO

A burst of volcanic ash was emitted from Halemaumau Crater…with additional bursts are possible. Trade winds will push ash toward the southwest, and ash fallout will likely occur over the Kau District and Highway 11 southwest of the town of Volcano. This includes the communities of Wood Valley, Pahala, Naalehu and Hawaiian Oceanview Estates.

With winds continuing to spread ash over the same areas, ash has gradually built up. Ash accumulating in the area may be picked up by local winds or kicked up by vehicles, contributing to dusty conditions.

Ash is an eye and respiratory irritant. Take extra precautions to minimize exposure if you have respiratory sensitivities. Avoid operating vehicles during ashfall. Ash may limit visibility, obscure road markings and make roads slippery so drive with extreme caution. Air and oil filters should be changed frequently.

Small Craft Advisory…windiest coastal and channel waters around Maui County and the Big Island

High Surf Advisory…south facing shores of all islands

 

~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~

 

Broad Brush Overview: The trade wind producing high pressure system to the north, will migrate southwest through Wednesday, then move east through the second half of the new week. Look for rather strong and gusty trade winds through Tuesday, before they weaken some during the second half of the week. An upper level trough of low pressure, developing over the islands during the second half of the week…may enhance some of the trade wind showers then.

Details: There has been a recent increase in the trade showers across the windward waters, at least locally. They are passing mostly north of Oahu and Molokai, and heading towards Kauai. Another shower area is seen a distance east of the Big Island, which will be carried our way on the trade wind flow. However, as the overlying atmosphere remains rather stable, these showers won’t be overly significant…and fall generally along the windward coasts and slopes.

Looking Ahead:  Trade winds will continue through the next week, with a high pressure ridge remaining in place north of the islands. Changes to the intensity of this ridge, along with an upper level low drifting through the area, will produce minor changes in the day-to-day weather influences across the Hawaiian Islands. Tropical cyclone activity here in the central Pacific will remain nil, although we may see something starting to brew over in the eastern Pacific in a few days.

Here’s a near real-time Wind Profile of the Pacific Ocean – along with a Closer View of the islands / Here’s the latest Weather Map

Marine Environmental Conditions: A high located north of the state will drift southward over the next couple of days. As a result, trade winds will increase to strong to locally near gale levels through Monday night. Winds will likely decrease slightly during the mid-week period, although small craft advisories should be necessary for some areas…through most of the upcoming week.

A small southwest swell from the Tasman Sea, in the southern hemisphere, will continue to decline. A new south swell from east of New Zealand, is expected to arrive soon. This swell may produce surf near the advisory threshold along south facing shores when it peaks tonight through Monday night. A possible new south swell is expected to arrive on Friday. The locally strong trade winds will maintain rough surf along east facing shores…although surf heights will remain well below the advisory level. Only small surf is expected along north facing shores.

World-wide Tropical Cyclone Activity

Here’s the latest Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) Weather Wall Presentation covering Tropical Depression 05W heading towards the border between China and Vietnam, and two tropical disturbances (90W, and 91W) near the Philippines and Guam…and another tropical disturbance in the eastern Pacific

Here’s the Monday Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) Weather Wall Presentation covering the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico

 

>>> Atlantic Ocean: No active tropical cyclones

Tropical cyclone formation is not expected during the next 5 days.

>>> Caribbean Sea: No active tropical cyclones

Tropical cyclone formation is not expected during the next 5 days.

>>> 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: No active tropical cyclones

A trough of low pressure located about 500 hundred miles south of the southern coast of Mexico continues to produce a large area of disorganized cloudiness and showers.

Environmental conditions are conducive for development of this system, and a tropical depression is likely to form within the next two to three days while it moves slowly west-northwestward.

* Formation chance through 48 hours…medium…60 percent
* Formation chance through 5 days…high…90 percent

Here’s a looping satellite image of the eastern Pacific and south of Mexico

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

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

Tropical Depression 05W

JTWC textual Warning
JTWC graphical track map
NOAA satellite image

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


Interesting: Why No One Answers Their Phone Anymore – The telephone swept into Americans’ lives in the first decades of the 20th century. At first, no one knew exactly how to telephone. Alexander Graham Bell wanted people to start conversations by saying, “Ahoy-hoy!” AT&T tried to prevent people from saying “hello,” arguing in Telephone Engineer magazine that it was rude.

But eventually, Americans learned to say “hello.” People built a culture around the phone that worked. Etiquette magazines tried to prevent women from inviting people over for dinner via telephone, then gave in. The doctor got a phone, so the pharmacist got a phone. It didn’t happen quickly, but it happened. And once it was done, during my childhood, these social customs sat between me and this raw technical artifact—the handset, the curly cord connecting it to the base, the wires running across the nation, coming together in vast switching stations, amplified, multiplexed, and then branching back out to the other cities, other neighborhoods, other blocks, other houses.

In the moment when a phone rang, there was an imperative. One had to pick up the phone. This thinking permeated the culture from adults to children. In a Hello Kitty segment designed to teach kids how the phone worked, Hello Kitty is playing when the phone starts to ring. “It’s the phone. Yay!” she says. “Mama! Mama! The telephone is ringing. Hurry! They are gonna hang up.”

Before ubiquitous caller ID or even *69 (which allowed you to call back the last person who’d called you), if you didn’t get to the phone in time, that was that. You’d have to wait until they called back. And what if the person calling had something really important to tell you or ask you? Missing a phone call was awful. Hurry!

Not picking up the phone would be like someone knocking at your door and you standing behind it not answering. It was, at the very least, rude, and quite possibly sneaky or creepy or something. Besides, as the phone rang, there were always so many questions, so many things to sort out. Who was it? What did they want? Was it for … me?

“Hello, Madrigal residence,” I would say, and it would make sense of everything for me and whoever was on the other end of the line.

This became a kind of cultural commons that people could draw on to understand communicating through a technology. When you called someone, if the person was there, they would pick up, they would say hello. If someone called you, if you were there, you would pick up, you would say hello. That was just how phones worked. The expectation of pickup was what made phones a synchronous medium.

I attach no special value to it. There’s no need to return to the pure state of 1980s telephonic culture. It’s just something that happened, like lichen growing on rocks in the tundra, or bacteria breaking down a fallen peach. Life did its thing, on and in the inanimate substrate. But I want to dwell on the existence of this cultural layer, because it is disappearing.

No one picks up the phone anymore. Even many businesses do everything they can to avoid picking up the phone. Of the 50 or so calls I received in the last month, I might have picked up four or five times. The reflex of answering—built so deeply into people who grew up in 20th-century telephonic culture—is gone.

Telephone exchanges of that era were what the scholar Robert Hopper described as “not quite ritual, but routine to the extent that its appearance approaches ritual.” When the phone rang, everyone knew to answer and speak in “the liturgy of the national attitude.” Now, people have forgotten how to pick up, the words, when to sing.

There are many reasons for the slow erosion of this commons. The most important aspect is structural: There are simply more communication options. Text messaging and its associated multimedia variations are rich and wonderful: words mixed with emoji, Bitmoji, reaction gifs, regular old photos, video, links. Texting is fun, lightly asynchronous, and possible to do with many people simultaneously. It’s almost as immediate as a phone call, but not quite. You’ve got your Twitter, your Facebook, your work Slack, your email, FaceTimes incoming from family members. So many little dings have begun to make the rings obsolete.

Although in the last couple years, there is a more specific reason for eyeing my phone’s ring warily. Perhaps 80 or even 90 percent of the calls coming into my phone are spam of one kind or another.

Now, if I hear my phone buzzing from across the room, at first I’m excited if I think it’s a text, but when it keeps going, and I realize it’s a call, I won’t even bother to walk over. My phone only rings one or two times a day, which means that I can go a whole week without a single phone call coming in that I (or Apple’s software) can even identify, let alone want to pick up.

There are unsolicited telemarketing calls. There are straight-up robocalls that merely deliver recorded messages. There are the cyborg telemarketers, who sit in call centers playing prerecorded bits of audio to simulate a conversation. There are the spam phone calls, whose sole purpose seems to be verifying that your phone number is real and working.

The Federal Communications Commission has been trying to slow robocalls for at least half a decade, but it doesn’t seem to have done anything to stem the tide. YouMail is an app that tries to block these kinds of calls, and they create an estimate of how many robocalls are being made each month. The numbers are staggering and April 2018 showed them at an all-time high.

Telemarketers, of course, were the original people who took advantage of the telephone culture’s drive to pick up the phone. But people cost money, even my dumb teenage self calling up plant managers in Alabama trying to sell them software to manage their material-data safety sheets. People get bored with their crappy, repetitive jobs. People quit.

Machines—the software kind that can dial phone numbers, at least—are cheap. They don’t get drunk or go back to school or have a sick child. They just call and call and call and call. As often as not, when I’ve made the mistake of picking up, there’s just dead air, maybe just for a few seconds, as a person is patched in, or maybe—if I don’t say anything—for a while until the machine hangs up. Sometimes it’s a recorded message. And worse, most of the time I pick up, I’m giving the spammer valuable information that my number is a live number, which they will sell to the next spammer.

This happened 3.4 billion times last month, where someone had to make the decision to pick up or to let it go, and give in to the change.