Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Tuesday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 83
Honolulu airport, Oahu – 86
Kaneohe, Oahu – MM
Molokai airport – 84
Kahului airport, Maui – 87 (record high temperature Tuesday 96F / 1953)
Kona airport – 85
Hilo airport, Hawaii – 83
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain top around the state…as of 8pm Tuesday evening:
Kailua-kona – 79
Kahului, Maui – 75
Haleakala Summit – M (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 37 (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…although this webcam is not always working correctly.
Tropical Cyclone activity in the eastern and central Pacific – Here’s the latest weather information coming out of the National Hurricane Center, covering the eastern north Pacific. You can find the latest tropical cyclone information for the central north Pacific (where Hawaii is located) by clicking on this link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. A satellite image, which shows the entire ocean area between Hawaii and the Mexican coast…can be found here.
Aloha Paragraphs
Gusty trade winds, windward showers
at times…generally fine weather
As this weather map shows, we have a near 1025 millibar high pressure systems located to the north and northeast of the islands, with a low pressure system far to our west…along the International Dateline. Our local trade winds will remain moderately through this week.
The following numbers represent the most recent top wind gusts (mph), along with directions as of Tuesday evening:
28 Waimea Heights, Kauai – ENE
37 Kuaokala, Oahu – NE
37 Molokai – ESE
40 Kahoolawe – ENE
38 Kahului, Maui – NE
35 Lanai – NE
33 Waikoloa, Big Island – NE
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.
Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Tuesday evening:
0.72 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.12 Poamoho RG 1, Oahu
0.06 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.04 Hana airport, Maui
0.41 Kawainui Stream, Big Island
Sunset Commentary:
Moderately strong trade winds will continue to blow across our Hawaiian Islands…with those locally stronger gusts in the windier locations. We find near 1025 millibar high pressure systems (weather map) located to the north and northeast of the islands…supporting this wind flow across our islands. These winds have increased enough now, that the NWS forecast office in Honolulu has hoisted small craft wind advisory flags over parts of Maui County and the Big Island. At the same time, winds are blustery atop the summits on the Big Island too…where a wind advisory is now in effect. These trades will carry just a few windward showers towards us for the time being, with generally dry conditions expected along our leeward sides. The computer models continue to suggest we may see an uptick in our windward shower activity perhaps around Thursday or Friday. We can use this satellite image to see patchy low level clouds to our east and northeast, which will prompt localized shower activity…especially during the night and early morning hours. At the same time, there are some middle level clouds around too, to the north and southwest of the state at the time of this writing…associated with a low pressure system to the west-northwest.
Here in Kula, Maui at 515pm Tuesday evening, it was partly cloudy and near calm…with an air temperature of 73.8F degrees. As mentioned above, the trade winds will continue to blow across our tropical latitudes here in the north central Pacific. Winds will remain quite breezy, at least in gusts during the days…ranging between 30-40 mph for the most part in those windiest places around the state. If we look at this satellite image, providing a larger view than the one above, we see a large area of low pressure to our west and northwest, and far to our south-southwest too. Despite these areas of low pressure…our normal summertime trade wind weather conditions will prevail. The occasional windward biased showers that are active now, should ease up some now into Thursday, as drier conditions arrive for a day or two. Towards the end of the work week we may see that increase in windward showers, especially in the Friday and Saturday time frame. I'll be back early Wednesday morning with your next new weather narrative from paradise. I hope you have a great Tuesday night wherever you happen to be spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.
World-wide tropical cyclone activity:
Central Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones
Eastern Pacific Ocean: Tropical storm Gilma (7E)…is now located about 670 miles southwest of the southern tip of Baja California. Sustained winds have increased to 70 mph, moving west-northwest away from the Mexican coast. Gilma is expected to reach hurricane intensities later today, and then drop back down into the tropical storm realms by Friday evening. There is no danger to Mexico or Hawaii at this time. Here's the hurricane model output for Gilma.
Meanwhile, the tropical disturbance further to the east (Invest 93E), is now located about 450 miles south-southwest of Acapulco, Mexico. This disturbance has a medium 40% chance of developing into a tropical depression within the next 48 hours. Here's the NHC satellite image showing this area along with tropical storm Gilma.
Atlantic Ocean/Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean: Tropical storm Ernesto (5L) continues moving over the Yucatan Peninsula, located about 265 miles east of Coatzacoalcos, Mexico. Maximum sustained winds are 50 mph. Ernesto will remain a tropical storm as it exits the Peninsula…into the Gulf of Mexico…before making a second landfall along the coast of mainland of southern Mexico. Here's the official NHC graphical track map / Here's a satellite image of this storm / Here's the hurricane model output for tropical storm Ernesto.
Meanwhile, a second area of disturbed weather remains active in the far eastern Atlantic, located about 700 miles west-southwest of the Cape Verde Islands. This tropical disturbance has a medium 30% chance of developing into a tropical cyclone during the next 24 hours.
Finally, a third area of disturbed weather is active in the Atlantic, the remnants of former tropical cyclone Florence, about 450 miles east of the Northern Leeward Islands, has a low 0% chance of developing into a tropical cyclone.
Here's a satellite image showing tropical storm Ernesto…and the two areas of disturbed weather in the Atlantic.
Western Pacific Ocean: Tropical storm Kirogi (13W) remains active in the western Pacific, located approximately 885 NM east-southeast of Misawa, Japan. Sustained winds were 35 knots, with gusts to near 45 knots. 13W will gradually weaken, as it gains latitude, taking it over cooler sea water temperatures. Here's the JTWC graphical track map, along with a NOAA satellite image.
South Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones
South and North Indian Oceans: There are no active tropical cyclones
Interesting: For years, scientists have debated how big a role elephants play in toppling trees in South African savannas. Tree loss is a natural process, but it is increasing in some regions, with cascading effects on the habitat for many other species. Using high resolution 3-D mapping, Carnegie scientists have for the first time quantitatively determined tree losses across savannas of Kruger National Park.
They found that elephants are the primary agents—their browsing habits knock trees over at a rate averaging 6 times higher than in areas inaccessible to them. The research also found that elephants prefer toppling trees in the 16-to-30 foot range, with annual losses of up to 20% in these height classes.
The findings, published in Ecology Letters, bolster our understanding of elephant conservation needs and their impacts, and the results could help to improve savanna management practices. "Previous field studies gave us important clues that elephants are a key driver of tree losses, but our airborne 3-D mapping approach was the only way to fully understand the impacts of elephants across a wide range of environmental conditions found in savannas," commented lead author Greg Asner of Carnegie's Department of Global Ecology.
"Our maps show that elephants clearly toppled medium-sized trees, creating an "elephant trap" for the vegetation. These elephant-driven tree losses have a ripple effect across the ecosystem, including how much carbon is sequestered from the atmosphere." The technology used for monitoring trees is Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), mounted on the fixed-wing Carnegie Airborne Observatory (CAO).
It provides detailed 3-D images of the vegetation canopy at tree-level resolution using laser pulses that sweep across the African savanna. The CAO’s lasers can detect even small changes in each tree’s height, and its vast coverage is far superior to previous field-based and aerial photographic evaluations. The scientists considered an array of environmental variables spread over four study landscapes within Kruger and in very large areas fenced off to prevent herbivore entry. For years, four of these exclosures have kept out all herbivores larger than a rabbit.
Two other partial enclosures have permitted entry of herbivores other than elephants. The scientists identified and monitored 58,000 individual trees from the air, inside and outside of these exclosures and across the landscape in 2008 and again in 2010. They found that nearly 9% of the trees decreased in height in two years, and that the mapped changes in treefall were linked to different climate and terrain conditions.
Most tree losses occurred in lowland areas with more moisture and on soils high in nutrients that harbor trees preferred by elephants for browsing. Critically, the partial exclosures definitively identified elephants, as opposed to other herbivores and fire, as the major agent of tree losses over the two-year period. “These spatially explicit patterns of tree fall highlight the challenges faced by conservation area managers in Africa, who must know where and how their decisions impact ecosystem health and biodiversity.
They should rely on rigorous science to evaluate alternative scenarios and management options, and the CAO helps provide the necessary quantification,” commented co-author Shaun Levick. Danie Pienaar, head of scientific services of the South African National Parks remarked, “This collaboration between external scientists and conservation managers has led to exciting and ground-breaking new insights to long-standing questions and challenges.
Knowing where increasing elephant impacts occur in sensitive landscapes allows park managers to take appropriate and focused action. These questions have been difficult to assess with conventional ground-based field approaches over large scales such as those in Kruger National Park.”
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