Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Friday:
83 Lihue, Kauai
84 Honolulu, Oahu
81 Molokai
86 Kahului, Maui
86 Kona, Hawaii
80 Hilo, Hawaii
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops on Maui and the Big Island…as of 530pm Friday evening:
Kahului, Maui – 84
Hana airport, Maui – 77
Haleakala Summit – 52 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 48 (13,000+ 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 – if it’s working.
Aloha Paragraphs
Small Craft Wind Advisory…coastal and channel waters around parts
of Maui County and the Big Island
Locally strong and gusty trade winds…passing windward
showers, a few leeward sections
The following numbers represent the most recent top wind gusts (mph), along with directions as of Friday evening:
35 Port Allen, Kauai – NE
42 Kuaokala, Oahu – NE
30 Molokai – NE
38 Lanai – NE
38 Kahoolawe – NE
32 Kahului, Maui – NE
37 Pali 2, Big Island – NE
Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Friday evening:
1.66 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
1.39 Manoa Lyon Arboretum, Oahu
1.01 Molokai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.07 Lanai
2.20 Puu Kukui, Maui
1.03 Hilo airport, Big Island
We can use the following links to see what’s going on in our area of the north central Pacific Ocean. Here’s the latest NOAA satellite picture – the latest looping satellite image… and finally the latest looping radar image for the Hawaiian Islands.
~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~
Locally strong and gusty trade winds statewide. Here’s a weather chart showing a near 1024 millibar high pressure system located to the north of our islands. This high pressure cell is responsible for providing gusty trade winds across our area. There’s a good chance that these breezy trade winds will remain in force across the islands through most of June…with day to day variations in strength.
A trade wind weather pattern will prevail, with windward showers…some stretching over into the leeward sections on the smaller islands. Satellite imagery shows high cirrus clouds near the Big Island of Hawaii, with a few well north of Kauai too. At lower levels, there’s cumulus and stratocumulus to the north through east of the islands…being carried in our direction on the gusty trades. These moisture bearing clouds will be forced up the windward sides of the islands, dropping showers as they arrive. Here’s the looping radar image, showing quite a few of these showers passing by along our windward coasts and slopes, and over the offshore waters as well. The leeward sides will find a few stray showers on the smaller islands as well. Finally, the high surf conditions will gradually be lowering this weekend.
Here at my Kula weather tower on Maui, it was partly cloudy with light breezes…the air temperature was 75.9F degrees – at 526pm this evening. My neighbors just invited me to go see a film outside in Wailea, which was a last minute decision. It’s called I Give It a Year, starring Rose Byrne, Rafe Spall, and Alex Macqueen…among others. The synopsis: finally, instead of a rom-com we are given an UN-rom-com. The characters marry at the beginning, not the end. Then they gradually and hilariously discover that, though the relationship is hot, they just don’t get along.
He (Rafe Spall, last seen in Life of Pi) is a sloppy struggling novelist. She (Rose Byrne, an even better comedienne since her role in Bridesmaids), an ambitious ad-exec, can’t get the lyrics right to her favorite popular songs. She thinks “Sweet Dreams” has the line “I traveled the world in generic jeans.” But his habits drive her to say, “I’m trying to decide if I think that’s endearing or if I want to bludgeon you to death with a shovel.”
This film is being touted, rightly, as the funniest British comedy of the year. The surprise of it comes from the pairing of the producers of Bridget Jones’s Diary and Nottinghill with writer/director Dan Mazer, who created Bruno and Borat. The addition of such immense comic talents as Anna Faris and Minnie Driver makes the laughs as vivid as your memory of the most misguided relationship you ever chose.
Cynicism does not rule in the end, however. The chemistry of attraction persists, and the resolution of this comedy is beautifully played with an utterly sincere climax. Here’s the trailer for this film, I’ll let you know what I thought Saturday morning.
Finally, I’m going to take a hike Saturday morning, with a lady friend whose visiting Maui from Marin County, California. I was just up on the slopes of the Haleakala Crater two days ago, skateboarding and hiking around, so it will be great to be up there again so soon. I’ll be back early in the morning with your next new weather narrative from paradise, I hope you have a great Friday night wherever you’re spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn
World-wide tropical cyclone activity:
Atlantic Ocean/Caribbean Sea: There are no active tropical cyclones
TROPICAL CYCLONE FORMATION IS NOT EXPECTED DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS.
Gulf of Mexico: There are no active tropical cyclones
TROPICAL CYCLONE FORMATION IS NOT EXPECTED DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS
Eastern Pacific: There are no active tropical cyclones
Tropical cyclone formation is not expected during the next 48 hours
Here’s a wide satellite image that covers the entire area between Mexico, out through the central Pacific…to the International Dateline.
Central Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones
Here’s a link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)…covering our central Pacific.
No Tropical cyclones are expected through Sunday evening
Western Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones
Here’s a link to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC), which covers tropical cyclone activity in the western Pacific, and the North and South Indian Ocean…and adjacent Seas. This satellite image shows an area of disturbed weather, in the South China Sea, with a medium chance of developing into a tropical cyclone within 24 hours. There’s a second tropical disturbance that has a low chance of development, which is the remnants of former tropical cyclone 03W (Yagi)…to the south of Japan.
South Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones
North and South Indian Oceans: There are no active tropical cyclones
Interesting: On May 31st, a landslide ruptured an oil pipeline in Ecuadorean Amazon, sending around 11,000 barrels of oil ( 420,000 gallons) into the Coca River. The oil pollution has since moved into the larger Napo River, which borders Yasuni National Park, and is currently heading downstream into Peru and Brazil. The spill has occurred in a region that is notorious for heavy oil production and decades of contamination, in addition to resistance and lawsuits by indigenous groups. The pipeline operator, Petroecuador, has promised a swift cleanup and hired the U.S. company Clean Caribbean & Americas to that end. In addition to possible environmental damage, the oil spill temporarily contaminated drinking water for the 80,000 residents of Puerto Francisco de Orellana (or Coca), Ecuador, an oil town on the edge of the Napo River.
As the oil reached the Peruvian Amazon in Loreto, the President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, apologized “for the problems we have caused.”
Decades of oil contamination in the region has also spawned a major lawsuit against Chevron by local tribes. Locals say that billions of gallons of oil were improperly disposed of from 1964 to 1992 in the forest by Texaco, which Chevron took over in 2001. Two years ago, an Ecuadorean court order Chevron to pay a record $18 billion in damages, but the company continues to contest the verdict.
The current oil spill occurred in arguably the world’s most biodiverse region. In fact, Yasuni National Park—parts of which are overrun by oil production—is often cited by scientists as having more species per hectare than anywhere else on Earth. For example, one study counted 655 tree species in a single hectare of Yasuni—more tree species than are found in all of the U.S. and Canada.
Yasuni National Park is also home to the innovative but controversial Yasuni-ITT Initiative, which would keep a remote area of the park (comprising around 200,00 hectares) free from oil development. In return, Ecuador has asked for around $3.6 billion in a UN-run trust fund (about half of what the oil beneath the ITT blocs is worth). But the nation has had a difficult time raising the revenue: around $300 million (about 8 percent) of the funds had been raised by late last year.
Oil and gas drilling development is spreading into new areas across the Amazon rainforest. A report last year found that 14 percent of the total Amazon rainforest had been split into oil and gas concessions.
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