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

82 Lihue, Kauai
85 Honolulu, Oahu
82 Molokai
88 Kahului, Maui
85 Kona, Hawaii
85 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 810pm Thursday evening:


Kailua Kona – 81
Lihue, Kauai – 75


Haleakala Summit –  46 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 37 (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://mauieasyriders.com/yahoo_site_admin1/assets/images/easy_riders_blue_water.10002556.jpg
South Maui


Small Craft Wind Advisory…over portions Maui County
and the Big Island’s coastal and channel waters

Strong trades…gradually easing up into the weekend

Passing windward showers at times…a few in the leeward areas

 

 

 

 


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

30 Port Allen, Kauai – ENE
42 Kuaokala, Oahu – NE
31 Molokai – ENE
36 Lanai – NE
39 Kahoolawe – ESE
39 Kahului, Maui – NE
36 Kamuela airport, Big Island – NE



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

0.74 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.50 Moanalua RG, Oahu
0.48 Molokai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.00 Lanai
0.81 Puu Kukui, Maui
0.48 Mountain View, 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 ~~~



Active trade winds, still locally strong and gusty…then gradually lighter Friday into the weekend. Here’s a weather chart showing a very large near 1034 millibar high pressure system located to the north-northeast of the islands. The trade winds will remain strong and gusty, with gusts up to 40 mph…or a bit higher in those windiest places. Small craft wind advisory flags remain up over all of our marine zones across the state, along with a wind advisory over the Big Island summits. These trades will gradually slide back into more normal realms Friday into the first part of next week…which means that they will blow in the moderately strong realms for the most part.

This trade wind weather pattern will prevail, with windward biased showers at times. Satellite imagery shows lots of low level cloud patches over and around the islands…although most of them look quite stable to our east. Here’s the looping radar image, showing generally light showers passing by over the offshore waters, and over the islands here and there too. The windward sides of our islands will catch the majority of these showers, although with a few traveling over into the leeward sections on the smaller islands. The bulk of these showers will arrive during the night and early morning hours as usual. I’ll be back with with your next new weather narrative from paradise early Friday moring, I hope you have a great Thursday night wherever you’re spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Note: I’ll be heading out to Southern California next Tuesday, to visit my family in Long Beach for a week. Thereafter, I’ll fly up to Portland, Oregon, meeting a friend, before we drive over to Bend, Oregon. We’ll be there for almost a week, before driving over to the Mendocino coast in northern California for four days. As we drive south from there, we’ll likely stop overnight in Sonoma County, and then on to Marin County for several more days. I’ll be gone from the 16th of this month, until the 6th of August. I’ll have more to say about all this, although wanted to give you a heads up before I left. By the way, all of the latest weather forecasts, for all areas in the state of Hawaii, will continue to be available on this website…more about that too.



World-wide tropical cyclone activity:



Atlantic Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones


A TROUGH OF LOW PRESSURE ASSOCIATED WITH THE REMNANTS OF CHANTAL EXTENDS NORTHEASTWARD FROM THE NORTHWESTERN CARIBBEAN SEA ACROSS CENTRAL CUBA INTO THE BAHAMAS. THIS SYSTEM IS ACCOMPANIED BY A DISORGANIZED AREA OF CLOUDINESS AND THUNDERSTORMS. UPPER-LEVEL WINDS ARE FORECAST TO BECOME A LITTLE MORE FAVORABLE FOR DEVELOPMENT DURING THE NEXT DAY OR SO…WHEN THE DISTURBANCE MOVES NORTHWARD ACROSS THE NORTHWESTERN BAHAMAS AND THE ADJACENT ATLANTIC. THIS SYSTEM HAS A MEDIUM CHANCE…30 PERCENT…OF BECOMING A TROPICAL CYCLONE DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS. AN AIR FORCE RECONNAISSANCE MISSION IS SCHEDULED TO INVESTIGATE THE DISTURBANCE LATER TODAY…IF NECESSARY.

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

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.


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


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 Saturday evening

 

Western Pacific Ocean: Typhoon 07W (Soulik) remains active, and is located approximately 250 NM south-southwest of Kadena, AB. Here is the latest Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) graphical track map, along with a NOAA satellite image for this dangerous, and strengthening typhoon.


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:  The human diet is evolving as world farmed fish production has over taken beef production. Reports from 2012 show that 66 million tons of farmed fish were produced in comparison to 63 million tons of beef and experts are predicting that this year may be the first year that people eat more farm-raised fish than those caught in the wild.

Annual beef production climbed from 19 million tons in 1950 to more than 50 million tons in the late 1980s. Over the same period, the wild fish catch ballooned from 17 million tons to close to 90 million tons. But since the late 1980s, the growth in beef production has slowed, and the reported wild fish catch has remained essentially flat.

As the global demand for animal protein grows, it is evident that humans will put stress on the world’s rangelands and oceans. Producing these foods can be sustainable, but in a world whose population is nearing 7 billion, concentrated operations have become the norm – and fish tend to be more efficient in raising than beef in terms of pounds they consume to pounds they produce.

In the United States, where the amount of meat in peoples’ diets has been falling since 2004, average consumption of beef per person has dropped by more than 13 percent and that of chicken by 5 percent. U.S. fish consumption has also dropped, but just by 2 percent.

So why are people choosing fish over beef in the first place? Beyond economic considerations, health and environmental concerns are also influencing peoples’ choices to reduce their beef intake. While fish are perceived as healthy alternatives (except for certain species that have accumulated high amounts of mercury), diets heavy in red meat have been associated with a higher risk for heart disease and colon cancer.

Beef production has also been associated with having a large carbon footprint and for destroying habitat. Beef not only takes a lot of time and energy to produce, but feed and feedlots cause serious pollution problems. One being when excess nitrogen fertilizer applied to corn feed which feeds the cows ends up in waterways which can creates large algal blooms and low-oxygen “dead zones” where fish cannot survive.

Currently, on a per person basis, beef consumption averages less than 20 pounds each year globally, whereas world fish consumption amounts to 42 pounds per person with predictions that fish consumption is set to keep rising.