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

87  Lihue, Kauai
91  Honolulu, Oahu – record highest temperature for Thursday 91…back in 1980 (Tied Record!)
84  Molokai
90  Kahului, Maui – record highest temperature for Thursday 93…back in 1951, 1977, 1980, 1993
86  Kailua Kona
87  Hilo, Hawaii

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

0.48  Wailua, Kauai
0.12  Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.97  Molokai 1, Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.70  Ulupalakua, Maui
0.16  Pahoa, Big Island

The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph)…as of Thursday evening:

15  Port Allen, Kauai
21  Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
24  Molokai
22  Lanai
27  Kahoolawe
12  Hana, Maui
27  Kealakomo, 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.



Aloha Paragraphs




http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/tpac/ir4-animated.gif


http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/hi/vis.jpg

We find a couple of weak cold fronts to the northwest…with high
level cirrus clouds migrating northward over the Big Island
and Maui County at times – as well as tropical storm Simon
far east towards the Mexican coast

Light trade winds through Friday…followed by light southeasterly
breezes this weekend, accompanied by volcanic haze (vog)…and
sultry conditions – it may take until later next week before the
trade winds become more substantial



~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~




Our winds will remain on the light side through the rest of this week…into early next week. Here’s the latest weather map, showing the Hawaiian Islands, and the rest of the North Pacific Ocean, along with a real-time wind profiler of the central Pacific. We find a moderately strong near 1025 millibar high pressure system far to the northeast…with a ridge running southwest just to the north of the state. There are low pressure systems to the north and northwest, which are pushing weak cold fronts and troughs a little closer…although they won’t reach our islands. These frontal boundaries will keep our trade wind producing high pressure ridge close to the islands…thus the light winds. One of these cold fronts will veer our light breezes to the southeast during the weekend into early next week. This frontal boundary won’t likely make it into the state, although will bring volcanic haze and muggy conditions our way.
Satellite imagery shows generally clear to partly cloudy skies, with high level clouds being carried over the southern part of the state…coming up from the deeper tropics on the winds aloft. Looking at this larger looping satellite image, it shows high cirrus and middle level altocumulus clouds moving over the Big Island and parts of Maui County at times too. Here’s the looping radar, showing light to moderate showers falling…mostly over the central islands at the time of this writing. The light winds over our area of the central Pacific, in conjunction with the daytime heating of the islands, will prompt afternoon interior clouds again today and Friday…with a few showers here and there. As light trades are blowing now too, we’ll see some windward biased showers falling, mainly during the nights as well. I’ll be back with many more updates on all of the above and below, I hope you have a great Thursday night wherever you happen to be spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.


World-wide tropical cyclone activity:

 

>>> Atlantic Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones


Here’s a satellite image of the Atlantic Ocean

>>> Caribbean Sea: There are no active tropical cyclones


>>> Gulf of Mexico: There are no active tropical cyclones


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:  Tropical Storm 19E (Simon) remains active, located approximately 295 miles south of the southern tip of Baja Callifornia…with sustained winds of near 60 mph. Here’s a graphical track map…along with a satellite image


Here’s a wide satellite image that covers the entire area between Mexico, out through the central Pacific…to the International Dateline.


>>> Central Pacific: There are no active tropical cyclones


Here’s a link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)


>>> Northwest Pacific Ocean: Typhoon 18W (Phanfone) remains active, located approximately 740 NM south-southwest of Yokosuka, Japan…with sustained winds of near 121 mph. Here’s a graphical track map…along with a satellite image


Tropical Storm 19W (Vongfong) remains active, located approximately 786 NM east-southeast of Saipan…with sustained winds of near 46 mph. Here’s a graphical track map…along with a satellite image


>>> 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:  How do we know an extreme weather event might be caused by climate change? – Nowadays, when there’s a killer heat wave or serious drought somewhere, people wonder: Is this climate change at work? It’s a question scientists have struggled with for years. And now there’s a new field of research that’s providing some answers. It’s called “attribution science” – a set of principles that allow scientists to determine when it’s a change in climate that’s altering weather events — and when it isn’t.


The principles start with the premise that, as almost all climate scientists expect, there will be more “extreme” weather events if the planet warms up much more: heat waves, droughts, huge storms.


But then, there have always been periodic bouts of extreme weather on Earth, long before climate change. How do you tell the difference between normal variation in weather — including these rare extremes — and what climate change is doing?


That sort of discernment is difficult, so scientists have had a rule, a kind of mantra: You can’t attribute any single weather event to climate change. It could just be weird weather.


Then they took a close at last year’s heat wave in Australia.


The chances that the continent’s extreme temperatures reflected normal variation is “almost impossible,” says Peter Stott, a climate scientist at the Hadley Center of the Met Office, in Exeter, Great Britain. “It’s hard to imagine how you would have had those temperatures without climate change,” he says.


Stott is one of a group of researchers analyzing the patterns of “extreme weather” events in the past and comparing them with the patterns Earth is experiencing now. The intensity of last year’s Australian heat wave was statistically “off the charts,” he says. Climate change had to be behind it.