Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Wednesday…along with the minimums Wednesday:
75 – 67 Lihue, Kauai
80 – 71 Honolulu, Oahu
74 – 67 Molokai AP
76 – 69 Kahului AP, Maui
85 – 72 Kailua Kona
82 – 68 Hilo AP, Hawaii
Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands, as of Wednesday evening:
3.29 Kokee, Kauai
0.77 Punaluu Stream, Oahu
3.67 Puu Alii, Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
2.33 West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.94 Kapapala RAWS, Big Island
The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph)…as of Wednesday evening:
35 Mana, Kauai – NNW
44 Kuaokala, Oahu – NNE
27 Molokai – NE
32 Lanai – NW
46 Kahaloowe – NNE
30 Kapalua, Maui – N
40 Kohala Ranch, Big Island – NE
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
Big storm continues spinning well north of the islands…
with the recent cold front exiting the state
High cirrus clouds south and southwest
The cold front’s remnant clouds over the windward sides…
mostly clear leeward sides
Showers falling over the windward sides locally
looping radar image
Wind Advisory…strong winds over the windiest coasts and
channels around Maui County and the Big Island
20-30 mph with stronger gusts
Small Craft Advisory…coastal and channel waters across
all of the state of Hawaii
~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~
Winds are locally strong, gusty and cool from the north now…in the wake of the recent cold front. Here’s the latest weather map, showing the Hawaiian Islands, and the rest of the North Pacific Ocean. We find high pressure systems to the northeast and northwest of Hawaii. At the same time, we see a storm low pressure system to the north-northeast…with its associated cold front now over the ocean to the southeast of the Hawaiian Islands. In the wake of this front, we’ll have a surge of chilly north to northeasterly winds for several days. Trade winds will then return, and prevail through the weekend. The models are trying to show the trade winds backing-off again early next week, with kona winds, vog, and showers moving over the state Tuesday into the middle of next week…stay tuned.
There will be some localized showers…brought in by the recent cold front. This front has moved crossed all of the state, and is now southeast of Big Island. This front was quite shallow, although that didn’t stop it from dropping some decent moisture over many parts of the state. This cold front will likely stall over the ocean just southeast of the Big Island tonight into Thursday, with chances for windward showers remaining higher there…and perhaps over east Maui for a day or two as well. We’ll find cool conditions in the wake of this frontal passage, although generally fair, late winter weather conditions will prevail in most leeward areas. The next potential change…may be for showers arriving around the middle of next week, as a new cold front presents itself then.
Marine environment details: Winds have increased behind the front across most of the state, and will pick up southeast of the Big Island rapidly this evening. The strong and gusty north winds will continue through the night, then veer to the northeast on Thursday. The small craft advisory was expanded to include all coastal waters, and extended through much of the week. Even though winds gradually diminish over the next couple days…a large north swell will lead to hazardous seas over 5 feet (10 foot wave faces) for much of the area as well.
A strong low pressure system to our north-northeast, has generated a large north swell, which will increase across the state tonight. This will combine with locally generated wind waves to create rough and confused seas. The north swell will bring surf to near advisory levels for north facing shores. Reinforcing energy is expected on Friday, with similar heights. This will lead to at least advisory level surf for north facing shores, and may approach high surf warning levels. This northerly swell will gradually diminish over the weekend.
Here’s a wind profile…of the offshore waters around the islands – with a closer view
Here’s the Hawaiian Islands Sulfate Aerosol…animated graphic – showing vog forecast
Here in Maui County…It was partly to mostly cloudy early this Wednesday morning, depending upon location…with showers falling locally. Here in upcountry Kula, it was mostly clear, although with clouds approaching, with the air temperature 51F degrees before sunrise. The temperature at near the same time was 72 degrees down in Kahului under partly cloudy skies, 66 out in Hana under partly cloudy skies, and 43 atop the Haleakala summit. Meanwhile, Kahoolawe was 66 degrees, 66 at Lanai City, with 68 at the Molokai airport…with cloudy skies. / Now at 730am, it’s foggy and cloudy, with a moderately heavy shower falling at my place here in Kula. This appears to be the cold front passing over Maui County, as showers are falling elsewhere too. / Now at 1130am, it’s chilly, with northerly winds blowing…along with light rain.
– Mid-afternoon, under lots of clouds over Molokai, Maui, Lanai and Kahoolawe…especially the windward sides of the islands. Radar showers lots of showers, again on the north sides of the islands in particular. Here in Kula, it has been lightly showering or misting all day. The air temperature peak at 67 degrees, and is currently down to 64 degrees. The winds haven’t been much of an issue yet, and remain light to moderately strong at my place.
– Early evening, with cloudy weather, flying drizzle and mist, and the wind chill factor has me wearing my down jacket…here at my weather tower in Kula. The time is 620pm, and the temperature is 56 degrees, although it feels colder than that. As some of you know, I make it a habit to never close my windows up here in the tower, although today has been an exception…as the rain would be flying in my windows, and getting my bed wet on the windward side of the tower. My leeward side windows are wide open however! / 835pm, windy, clear overhead, although a little mist is still being blown over here in Kula…from the windward side of east Maui. The air temperature is 53.2 degrees, although with the wind chill factor, I’m looking forward to getting under that down comforter very soon.
World-wide tropical cyclone activity:
>>> Atlantic Ocean: The last regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlook of the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season…has occurred. Routine issuance of the Tropical Weather Outlook will resume on June 1, 2016. During the off-season, Special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued if conditions warrant. Here’s the 2015 hurricane season summary
Here’s a satellite image of the Atlantic Ocean
>>> Caribbean Sea: The last regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlook of the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season…has occurred. Routine issuance of the Tropical Weather Outlook will resume on June 1, 2016. During the off-season, Special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued if conditions warrant.
>>> Gulf of Mexico: The last regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlook of the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season…has occurred. Routine issuance of the Tropical Weather Outlook will resume on June 1, 2016. During the off-season, Special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued if conditions warrant.
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: The last regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlook of the 2015 North Pacific hurricane season…has occurred. Routine issuance of the Tropical Weather Outlook will resume on May 15, 2016. During the off-season, Special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued if conditions warrant. Here’s the 2015 hurricane season summary
Here’s a wide satellite image that covers the entire area between Mexico, out through the central Pacific…to the International Dateline.
Here’s the link to the National Hurricane Center (NHC)
>>> Central Pacific: The central north Pacific hurricane season has officially ended. Routine issuance of the tropical weather outlook will resume on June 1, 2016. During the off-season, special tropical weather outlooks will be issued if conditions warrant. Here’s the 2015 hurricane season summary
Here’s a link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)
>>> South Pacific Ocean:
>>> North and South Indian Oceans / Arabian Sea:
Tropical Cyclone 15S (Emeraude) remains active in the South Indian Ocean, with winds of 90 knots and gusts of 110 knots…located approximately 710 NM east-southeast of Diego Garcia. Here’s the JTWC graphical track map, a NOAA satellite image, a near real time wind profile…and what the computer models are showing.
Here’s a link to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC)
Interesting: Generating electricity with tomato waste – A team of scientists is exploring an unusual source of electricity — damaged tomatoes that are unsuitable for sale at the grocery store. Their pilot project involves a biological-based fuel cell that uses tomato waste left over from harvests in Florida.
The researchers present their work today at the 251st National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS, the world’s largest scientific society, is holding the meeting here through Thursday. It features more than 12,500 presentations on a wide range of science topics.
“We have found that spoiled and damaged tomatoes left over from harvest can be a particularly powerful source of energy when used in a biological or microbial electro-chemical cell,” says Namita Shrestha, who is working on the project. “The process also helps purify the tomato-contaminated solid waste and associated waste water.”
Shrestha is a graduate student in the lab of Venkataramana Gadhamshetty, Ph.D., P.E., at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. They are collaborating on this project with Alex Fogg, an undergraduate chemistry major at Princeton University. Other project collaborators include Daniel Franco, Joseph Wilder and Simeon Komisar, Ph.D., at Florida Gulf Coast University.
Tomatoes are a key crop in Florida, notes Gadhamshetty. He stresses that the project is important to the state because Florida generates 396,000 tons of tomato waste every year, but lacks a good treatment process.
Gadhamshetty began working on the topic as a professor at Florida Gulf Coast University. “The project began a few years ago when Alex visited my lab in Fort Myers, Florida, and said he was interested in researching a local problem, especially local tomatoes grown in our state and the large waste treatment issue,” Gadhamshetty says. “We wanted to find a way to treat this waste that, when dumped in landfills, can produce methane — a powerful greenhouse gas — and when dumped in water bodies, can create major water treatment problems.”
So, the team developed a microbial electro-chemical cell that can exploit tomato waste to generate electric current. Shrestha explains, “Microbial electro-chemical cells use bacteria to break down and oxidize organic material in defective tomatoes.”
The oxidation process, triggered by the bacteria interacting with tomato waste, releases electrons that are captured in the fuel cell and become a source of electricity. The natural lycopene pigment in tomatoes, the researchers have found, is an excellent mediator to encourage the generation of electrical charges from the damaged fruits.
Some of their results proved to be counter-intuitive. “Typical biotechnological applications require, or at least perform better, when using pure chemicals, compared to wastes,” Gadhamshetty notes. “However, we found that electrical performance using defective tomatoes was equal or better than using pure substrates. These wastes can be a rich source of indigenous redox mediators and carbon, as well as electrons.”
At the moment, the power output from their device is quite small: 10 milligrams of tomato waste can result in 0.3 watts of electricity. But the researchers note that with an expected scale up and more research, electrical output could be increased by several orders of magnitude.
According to calculations by Shrestha, there is theoretically enough tomato waste generated in Florida each year to meet Disney World’s electricity demand for 90 days, using an optimized biological fuel cell.
“Our research question at this time is to investigate the fundamental electron transfer mechanisms and the interaction between the solid tomato waste and microbes,” Gadhamshetty notes. They plan to improve the cell by determining which of its parts — electrode, electricity-producing bacteria, biological film, wiring — are resisting the flow of electricity. Then they will tweak or replace that part.
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