Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Thursday:
Lihue, Kauai – 78
Honolulu airport, Oahu – 81
Kaneohe, Oahu – 83
Molokai airport – 79
Kahului airport, Maui – 84 (Record high temperature on this date – 86F – 1959)
Kona airport – 81
Hilo airport, Hawaii – 83
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops…as of 5pm Thursday evening:
Kahului, Maui – 80
Lihue, Kauai – 72
Haleakala Crater – 45 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea – 39 (near 13,800 feet on the 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. Here's the Haleakala Crater webcam on Maui…which is working only sometimes lately.
Aloha Paragraphs
Variable winds from the southwest to southeast –
showers locally…some heavy Kauai and Oahu –
widespread volcanic haze
As this weather map shows, we have low pressure systems located to the northwest, along with an associated cold front draping southwest. At the same time we have a near 1032 millibar high pressure system parked out to our northeast, with an associated ridge running southwest over Maui. Our winds will be generally light, locally stronger from the south to southeast…with trade winds returning again this weekend.
The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph), along with directions Thursday evening:
12 Port Allen, Kauai – SW
15 Kahuku, Oahu – SSW
16 Molokai – S
18 Kahoolawe – SSW
21 Kahului, Maui – SW
07 Lanai – SW
20 Hilo, Big Island – SE
We can use the following links to see what’s going on in our area of the north central Pacific Ocean Thursday evening. Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we see scattered low level clouds over the ocean, some of which are stretching over the islands locally…especially under a more or less north-south cold front over Kauai and Oahu. We can use this looping satellite image to see a large area of clouds out ahead of a slow moving cold front…over Kauai and Oahu at the time of this writing. Checking out this looping radar image we see light to moderately heavy showers over the ocean, carried along in the southwest breezes…especially Kauai and Oahu at the time of this writing.
Here are the 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Thursday evening:
2.39 Puu Opae, Kauai
0.57 Maunawili, Oahu
0.00 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.02 Puu Kukui, Maui
0.26 Pahala, Big Island
Sunset Commentary: The cold front continues to inch in towards Kauai, with clouds out ahead of this frontal boundary having moved over Oahu as well. This will keep our winds light or a bit stronger locally, blowing from the southeast to southwest over the the islands. This difference in wind directions is being caused by the interaction between a high pressure ridge near the Big Island, and the cold front just to the northwest of Kauai. These large scale southeast to southwest breezes will bring showers and rain to Kauai and Oahu into the night, some of which may be heavy at times. Here's a looping radar image to keep track of where those showers will be tonight into Friday. Meanwhile, those showers are missing the other islands, although may reach Maui County with time, likely by Friday morning. The trade winds will rebound this weekend, which will help to ventilate away the poor air qualities then…and keep showers falling locally along our windward sides.
Here in Kula, Maui at around 530pm HST, it was breezy, partly cloudy and still volcanically hazy…with an air temperature of 65.7F degrees. The thick volcanic haze (vog) continues to plague the islands in many areas, and will continue to do so until the trade winds return this weekend. As I was mentioning above, the cold front continues to slowly push eastward, under the influence of a near 1014 millibar high pressure system to the west and northwest of Hawaii…behind the frontal cloud band. Rainfall will be falling over Kauai and Oahu tonight into early Friday. This precipitation out ahead of the cold front may even reach Maui County early Friday morning, bringing much needed moisture. The winds will remain light in most areas, although somewhat stronger Friday. The trade winds will return this weekend, bringing back windward biased showers into our weather forecast. These returning trade winds will also help to ventilate away the long lasting haze then too. Once these trade winds become well established, by later Sunday into the first half of next week, they will be quite strong and gusty…with small craft wind advisories going up in those windiest coasts and channel waters. ~~~ I'll be back early Friday morning with your next new weather narrative, hopefully still referring to increasing showers for Maui County, which is very dry now. I hope you have a great Thursday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting: Soaring global demand for fishmeal primarily for animal feed or fish farms, including salmon, is wrecking havoc on the once abundant fish stocks of the southern Pacific. The fish stocks of the southern Pacific and in particular Peru are being plundered by widespread cheating and overfishing, according to a new investigation. Peru is the world’s second largest fishing nation after China, with the majority of its catch converted into fishmeal, a feed for farmed fish and pigs.
More than a million tons a year exported mostly to Asia, in a trade worth $1.6 billion. An Ecologist investigation in 2008 linked fishmeal produced in Peru to salmon farms in Scotland – highlighting a host of unreported environmental and social costs linked to the industry.
The new investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) uncovered rampant fraud, with many fishing companies cheating their quotas and leaving species like anchoveta and jack mackerel severely overfished.
The findings fit into a larger picture of overfishing and scant control in the southern Pacific, say the ICIJ, driven in part by Asian and European fleets that have depleted other oceans and now head south to waters off Peru and Chile.
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