Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Thursday:

85  Lihue, Kauai
87  Honolulu, Oahu
83  Molokai
88  Kahului, Maui
87  Kona, Hawaii
82  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 843pm Thursday evening:


Kailua Kona – 81
Hana airport, Maui – 75


Haleakala Summit –   50 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 36 (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



http://www.lowryphotos.com/gallery/usa/OahuChinamansHat_full.jpg


Small craft wind advisory…windiest coasts and channels
around Maui and the Big Island

Red Flag Warning for leeward sides of the islands…fire danger


Moderately strong trades continuing…a bit stronger at times

A few passing showers windward sides…mostly dry elsewhere





The following numbers represent the most recent top wind gusts (mph), along with directions as of Thursday evening:

32  Port Allen, Kauai – NE
38  Kuaokala, Oahu – NE
32  Molokai – NE
36  Lanai – NE
37  Kahoolawe – NE
28  Lipoa, Maui – NE
32  Upolu airport, Big Island – NE


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

0.46  Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.09  Tunnel RG, Oahu
0.01  Molokai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.00  Lanai
0.03  Puu Kukui, Maui
0.32  Upolu 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 ~~~



Trade winds through the rest of this week…a bit lighter after the weekend for a few days. Here’s a weather chart showing high pressure systems located to the northwest and northeast of the islands. At the same time we have the tail-ends of two cold fronts to our north…and a tropical system to the south and southwest of Kauai. Trade wind speeds will be in the moderately strong category, locally a bit stronger at times. There’s a chance that our trades will drop a notch during the early part of next week…as another cold front moves by to our north.

Showers focusing over the windward sides for the most part…although generally on the light side. Satellite imagery shows scattered low cloud patches upstream of the islands, which will be carried into the windward sides at times…mostly during the night and early morning hours. Meanwhile. the south and west facing leeward beaches are mostly clear this evening. Here’s the looping radar image, showing a fairly normal amount of showers falling along the windward coasts and slopes…and over the offshore waters as well.


There are several tropical disturbances in our central Pacific, located well southwest, south and southeast of our islands. One of the three of these areas has a low 0% chance of developing into a tropical cyclone over the next couple of days. However, the ones to the south and southwest of Kauai look like they may be able to flair up into tropical cyclones over the next day or two. Here’s a satellite picture, with the area circled in yellow…and the two circled in red, which have a high 80% chance of development.  There is no danger of these tropical disturbances, even if they become depressions or storms, having any impact here in Hawaii. There’s a chance that the northern fringe of one of these disturbances, as it moves westward, may drop some showers near the Big Island later tonight into Friday…along with windward east Maui. I’ll be back early Friday morning with your next new weather narrative.  I hope you have a great Thursday night wherever you’re spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.


>>>Here’s an interesting satellite picture showing this unusual tropical activity to the southwest through southeast of our islands!


Thursday Poem:


The Art Of Drowning


I wonder how it all got started, this business
about seeing your life flash before your eyes
while you drown, as if panic, or the act of submergence,
could startle time into such compression, crushing
decades in the vice of your desperate, final seconds.


After falling off a steamship or being swept away
in a rush of floodwaters, wouldn’t you hope
for a more leisurely review, an invisible hand
turning the pages of an album of photographs-
you up on a pony or blowing out candles in a conic hat.


How about a short animated film, a slide presentation?
Your life expressed in an essay, or in one model photograph?
Wouldn’t any form be better than this sudden flash?
Your whole existence going off in your face
in an eyebrow-singeing explosion of biography-
nothing like the three large volumes you envisioned.


Survivors would have us believe in a brilliance
here, some bolt of truth forking across the water,
an ultimate Light before all the lights go out,
dawning on you with all its megalithic tonnage.
But if something does flash before your eyes
as you go under, it will probably be a fish,


a quick blur of curved silver darting away,
having nothing to do with your life or your death.
The tide will take you, or the lake will accept it all
as you sink toward the weedy disarray of the bottom,
leaving behind what you have already forgotten,
the surface, now overrun with the high travel of clouds.



World-wide tropical cyclone activity:

Atlantic Ocean: Tropical storm Erin remains active in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. Here’s the NHC graphical track map…along with a satellite image.


ELSEWHERE…TROPICAL CYCLONE FORMATION IS NOT EXPECTED DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS

Caribbean Sea: There are no active tropical cyclones

A BROAD LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM…ACCOMPANIED BY A LARGE AREA OF
DISORGANIZED CLOUDINESS AND SHOWERS…IS LOCATED OVER THE NORTHERN
YUCATAN PENINSULA OF MEXICO. LITTLE OR NO DEVELOPMENT OF THE LOW IS
EXPECTED WHILE IT REMAINS OVER LAND. HOWEVER…THERE IS POTENTIAL
FOR DEVELOPMENT ONCE THE DISTURBANCE MOVES OVER THE GULF OF MEXICO
LATER TODAY. AFTER THAT TIME…THE LOW IS FORECAST TO MOVE TOWARD
THE CENTRAL GULF OF MEXICO WHERE UPPER-LEVEL WINDS WOULD ONLY FAVOR
SLOW DEVELOPMENT…IF ANY. THIS SYSTEM HAS A MEDIUM CHANCE…
50 PERCENT…OF BECOMING A TROPICAL CYCLONE DURING THE NEXT 48
HOURS…AND A HIGH CHANCE…60 PERCENT…OF BECOMING A TROPICAL
CYCLONE DURING THE NEXT 5 DAYS. AN AIR FORCE RESERVE RECONNAISSANCE
AIRCRAFT IS SCHEDULED TO INVESTIGATE THE DISTURBANCE LATER TODAY…
IF NECESSARY.


Here’s a satellite image showing the tropical disturbance noted above – along with what the various weather models are showing


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.


Here’s the link to the National Hurricane Center (NHC)


Eastern Pacific: There are no active tropical cyclones

AN AREA OF DISTURBED WEATHER HAS FORMED ABOUT 650 MILES
SOUTH-SOUTHWEST OF THE SOUTHERN TIP OF BAJA CALIFORNIA. SLOW
DEVELOPMENT OF THIS SYSTEM IS POSSIBLE DURING THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS
AS IT MOVES WESTWARD AT 10 TO 15 MPH. THIS SYSTEM HAS A LOW
CHANCE…10 PERCENT…OF BECOMING A TROPICAL CYCLONE DURING THE
NEXT 48 HOURS…AND A LOW CHANCE…20 PERCENT…OF BECOMING A
TROPICAL CYCLONE DURING THE NEXT FIVE DAYS.

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

 

1. An area of low pressure about 1200 miles southwest of Kauai has shown signs of increased organization over the past six hours, and a tropical depression may be forming. Environmental conditions are conducive for further development as this feature moves west near 15 mph. This system has a high chance, 80 percent, of becoming a tropical cyclone during the next 48 hours.


2. An area of low pressure centered about 700 miles south-southwest of Kauai is moving west near 15 mph. Outflow from the system described above is making conditions less conducive for further development of this system, and system organization has diminished somewhat over the past six hours. This system has a high chance, 60 percent, of becoming a tropical cyclone during the next 48 hours.


3. A surface trough about 500 miles south-southeast of Hilo Hawaii is producing disorganized showers and thunderstorms as it moves west at 15 to 20 mph. Environmental conditions are not conducive for further development, and this system has a low chance, near 0 percent, of becoming a tropical cyclone during the next 48 hours.

Here’s a satellite image showing these tropical disturbances

Here’s a link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)…covering our central Pacific.


Western Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones


South Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones

 

North and South Indian Oceans: There are no active tropical cyclones


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


Interesting: New technology makes “Smart Windows” even smarter. “Smart windows”, made out of “smart glass” allow users to control the amount of light let in and ultimately save costs for heating, air-conditioning, and lighting.


Improving on this technology, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have designed a new material to make smart windows even smarter by applying a new window coating, which will essentially have a major impact on building energy efficiency.


“In the US, we spend about a quarter of our total energy on lighting, heating and cooling our buildings,” says Delia Milliron, a chemist at Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry who led this research.


The material is a thin coating of nanocrystals embedded in glass that can dynamically modify sunlight as it passes through a window. Unlike existing technologies, the coating provides selective control over visible light and heat-producing near-infrared (NIR) light, so windows can maximize both energy savings and occupant comfort in a wide range of climates.


The technology hinges on an electrochromic effect, where a small jolt of electricity switches the material between NIR-transmitting and NIR-blocking states. This new work takes their approach to the next level by providing independent control over both visible and NIR light. The innovation was recently recognized with a 2013 R&D 100 Award and the researchers are in the early stages of commercializing their technology.


Independent control over NIR light means that occupants can have natural lighting indoors without unwanted thermal gain, reducing the need for both air-conditioning and artificial lighting. The same window can also be switched to a dark mode, blocking both light and heat, or to a bright, fully transparent mode.


At the heart of the technology is a new “designer” electrochromic material, made from nanocrystals of indium tin oxide embedded in a glassy matrix of niobium oxide. The resulting composite material combines two distinct functionalities—one providing control over visible light and the other, control over NIR—but it is more than the sum of its parts.

The researchers found a synergistic interaction in the tiny region where glassy matrix meets nanocrystal that increases the potency of the electrochromic effect, which means they can use thinner coatings without compromising performance. The key is that the way atoms connect across the nanocrystal-glass interface causes a structural rearrangement in the glass matrix. The interaction opens up space inside the glass, allowing charge to move in and out more readily.


The paper is published in the journal Nature.