Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Saturday:
82 Lihue, Kauai
87 Honolulu, Oahu
83 Molokai
87 Kahului, Maui
87 Kailua Kona
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 Saturday evening:
Kailua Kona – 80
Hilo, Hawaii – 73
Haleakala Summit – 41 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 30 (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.
Aloha Paragraphs
Can you hear it?
Trade winds taking on a more southeasterly orientation,
and becoming lighter into early in the new week ahead…
bringing muggy and potentially hazy weather back our
way for a couple of days – then right back into a well
established trade wind pattern later Tuesday into
Wednesday onwards
The trade winds will bring windward showers our way
tonight, particularly over Maui County and the Big Island…
which will be fuel for additional showers into Tuesday –
with more windward showers several times during the
upcoming work week
The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph), along with directions…as of Saturday evening:
16 Port Allen, Kauai – ENE
27 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu – NNE
24 Molokai – NE
27 Lanai – NE
31 Kahoolawe – NE
33 Kahului, Maui – NE
28 South Point, Big Island – NE
Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands…as of Saturday evening (545pm totals):
0.40 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.21 Poamoho RG 1, Oahu
0.02 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
1.02 Puu Kukui, Maui
1.04 Kiholo RG, 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 ~~~
Our trade winds will continue in the moderately strong category today…and then weaken into the first day or two of the new 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 profile of the central Pacific…focused on the Hawaiian Islands. We have moderately strong high pressure systems to our northwest and northeast. At the same time, we have a low pressure system, with its associated cold front and trough to the north and northwest of Kauai. This trade wind episode will continue today, although as we move into the later part of this weekend, our trade winds will ease up some…for a couple of days. This very late season cold front/trough won’t make it all the way down into the state, although will be part of the reason that our trade winds take a hit in strength soon. The models suggest that they will increase again next Tuesday or Wednesday onwards.
Satellite imagery shows patchy lower level clouds, mostly over the ocean offshore of the islands…with the Big Island the biggest exception. Looking at this larger satellite image, we see areas of high clouds being moved along on the upper level winds to our north, south and southwest for the most part…although with other streaks around in places too. We can also see this cold front and trough located to the northwest, but it’s more than likely too late in the spring season for these surface low pressure features to reach us. Here’s a looping radar image, showing mostly light showers being carried along in our trade wind flow, impacting the islands locally. As the winds take on a more southeasterly direction, the winds will bring a few showers to our southeasterly coasts and slopes.
The trade winds will become lighter Sunday, with isolated showers…some locally quite generous. We’ll find gradually less strong trade winds, as they become lighter by the second half of this weekend. As the winds take on a more southeasterly orientation, and become lighter, we’ll be feeling rather hot and muggy for several days. At the same time, there will tend to be more than the ordinary amount of showers in the upcountry leeward areas of our islands…mostly during the afternoon hours Sunday and Monday. The overlying air mass continues to be somewhat unstable and shower prone, thus there will continue to be showers at times, which may become quite heavy in a few places with time. The Kona slopes on the Big Island, and the leeward slopes of the Haleakala Crater on Maui in particular, may see locally generous showers falling during the afternoons with time as well. I’ll be back Sunday morning with your next new weather narrative from paradise, I hope you have a great Saturday night wherever you’re spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Here on Maui, at the 3,100 foot elevation, at my upper Kula, Maui weather tower, the air temperature was 55.6 degrees at 555am on this Saturday morning. Skies are mostly clear overhead, although there were some low level clouds over along the windward sides now, in addition to the normal capping clouds over the West Maui Mountains. The radar images show more than the ordinary amount of showers falling over the ocean to the south and southwest of the state. It’s a lovely morning, the last morning of the month of May…2014.
It’s now almost 1pm this afternoon, under mostly cloudy skies, light breezes, and an air temperature of 73.9 degrees. The clouds got darker and darker just after noon, and dropped a light shower…although that has ended now. I drove down to Paia this morning to do my weekly shopping, and found hot weather down there, and breezy conditions too. I wore my wide brim hat, and I had to tilt my head several times to keep it from flying off my head.
We’re into the early evening hour now, at 540pm, under partly cloudy skies, light breezes, and an air temperature of 76.8 degrees. It was a hot day, not so much in terms of our high temperatures, although it certainly felt like deep summer to me personally. Maybe it was just that I was down near sea level in Paia, and it felt very warm…despite the breezy trade winds down that way. Even up here in Kula, the temperature didn’t get out of the high 70’s, although it felt more like the lower 80’s to me. I would imagine that as the trade winds fall off again, as they did last weekend, and many times this spring…that we’re going to be feeling rather hot and muggy over the next few days. Getting into some water would be a good idea, either the ocean, a pool, or a stream somewhere. Saturday evening music video, Simply Red…Something Got Me Started – full screen viewing recommended
Friday Evening Film: This film is getting rave reviews by both the critics, and the audience, ranging between 91-95% liking it! It just opened last Friday here on Maui, but I’m going to take a chance that enough folks have seen it, that it won’t be sold out tonight. It’s called X-Men…Days of Future Past. Starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Patrick Stewart, Jennifer Lawrence, Anna Paquin, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, and Ellen Page…among many others. The synopsis: The ultimate X-Men ensemble fights a war for the survival of the species across two time periods in X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST. The beloved characters from the original “X-Men” film trilogy join forces with their younger selves from the past, “X-Men: First Class,” in order to change a major historical event and fight in an epic battle that could save our future.
I liked this film, it had everything that I wanted it to be, from the rather touching and serious, all the way in the other direction…to the most far fetched sci-fi nonesense! There was literally never a dull moment, with uninterrupted and constant action, well acted in its entirety. I must admit that I didn’t understand everything that was going on, it was often happening at a fever pitch, although somehow I didn’t care whether I understood or not! It was just plain and simple entertainment to da max, keeping me in the sweet spot throughout. One critic called it existential melodrama, although in the final analysis, it was both dazzling and intimate, clever and very funny…all at the same time somehow. As for a grade, this is pretty easy, a resounding very strong B+. If all this sounds too good to be true, have a quick look at this trailer, and see what you think.
World-wide tropical cyclone activity:
Atlantic Ocean:
TROPICAL WEATHER OUTLOOK
NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
200 AM EDT SUN JUN 1 2014
For the North Atlantic…Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico:
Today marks the first day of the Atlantic hurricane season, which
will run until November 30. Long-term averages for the number of
named storms, hurricanes, and major hurricanes are 12, 6, and 3,
respectively.
The partial list of names for 2014 is as follows:
Name Pronunciation
————————————————————-
Arthur AR-thur
Bertha BUR-thuh
Cristoabl krees-TOH-bahl
Dolly DAH-lee
Edouard eh-DWARD
Fay fay
Gonzalo gohn-SAH-loh
Hanna HAN-uh
Isaias ees-ah-EE-ahs
Josephine JOH-seh-feen
Kyle KY-ull
Here’s a satellite image of the Atlantic Ocean
Caribbean Sea:
Gulf of Mexico:
An elongated area of low pressure located over the Bay of Campeche
extends northeastward into the south-central Gulf of Mexico.
Although shower activity is currently disorganized, some slow
development of this nearly stationary disturbance will be possible
over the next several days as environmental conditions become
marginally conducive.
* Formation chance through 48 hours…low…near 0 percent
* Formation chance through 5 days…low…20 percent
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: There are no active tropical cyclones – however a tropical disturbance is trying to become organized enough, that it would take on this title: 02E…and then on to tropical storm Boris. Here’s some pretty good evidence that such a thing could happen.
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: The Central Pacific hurricane begins on June 1st…and runs through November 30th. Here’s the 2013 hurricane season summary / Information about the 2014 hurricane season in the central Pacific Ocean.
Here’s a link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)
North 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: How Sharks Could Help Predict Hurricanes – Scientists have embarked on a remarkable new project to use shark and large marine predators as biological sensors in the hopes that they could help us predict the formation and course of potentially dangerous hurricanes.
Researchers from the University of Miami have tagged a total of 750 marine animals in the past ten years, all to track the temperature and salinity of sea waters at different depths. Earlier this year though, the researchers noticed something special about the data — the tagged marine life gravitated toward water that was about 79 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, which is the temperature at which hurricanes form.
Hurricane strength largely depends on how much warm water it has access to. In very simple terms, the hotter the water, the stronger the storm can become.
The tagged marine life, by gravitating to these waters, can help scientists get an overview of sea temperatures as we go into hurricane season, particularly because the tagged animals (scientists are currently monitoring about 50 sharks, tuna, tarpon and billfish) all dive. That means that when they later surface and trigger the tag to relay data via satellites back to the team, the scientists receive a “vertical picture” of what sea temperatures look like.
With that vertical picture, the scientists can work out an overall figure. This is known as the Ocean Heat Content or OHC, a figure used to estimate the strength and severity of a hurricane as it forms. The more accurate that data, the better the estimate is. Given that the marine animals are on the front lines, as it were, the data they can gather is extremely valuable when the difference in a couple of degrees can predict the difference between a tropical storm and potentially dangerous hurricane.
The breadth of the area that the marine life can cover may also help scientists. “We’ve had fish move from Veracruz, Mexico, to the mouth of the Mississippi River in 30 days. Plus, they go back and forth, it’s not a straight route, you could get tens of millions of data records,” marine biologist Jerald Ault is quoted as saying.
The scientists believe that if they increase the number of tags, they could potentially generate millions of data points, and with that data finesse a system that could monitor storms as they form and the paths they take with a detail that until now has been impossible.
Email Glenn James: 
