Air Temperatures – The following high temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Friday…along with the low temperatures Friday:
81 – 64 Lihue, Kauai
84 – 67 Honolulu, Oahu
83 – 62 Kahului AP, Maui
81 – 70 Kailua Kona
82 – 70 Hilo AP, Hawaii
Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands Friday evening:
0.81 Kapahi, Kauai
0.83 Poamoho RG 1, Oahu
0.08 Molokai
0.02 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.57 Hana AP, Maui
2.34 Waiakea Experiment Stn, Big Island
The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph) Friday evening:
15 Poipu, Kauai
20 Kii, Oahu
08 Molokai
12 Lanai
10 Kahoolawe
15 Maalaea Bay, Maui
21 PTA Range 17, Big Island
Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of our tallest mountain Mauna Kea (nearly 13,800 feet high) on the Big Island of Hawaii. Here’s the webcam for the Haleakala Crater on Maui. These webcams are available during the daylight hours here in the islands, and at night whenever there’s a big moon shining down. Also, at night you will be able to see the stars — and the sunrise and sunset too — depending upon weather conditions.
Aloha Paragraphs
High pressure system far northeast…and a gale low to the north-northwest, with its associated cold front northwest
A large swatch of clouds east…thunderstorms west
Cloudy areas locally
Showers…mostly around the Big Island – Looping image
~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~
Broad Brush Overview: A cold front passing north of the state will push a surface ridge over the islands for the next few days. Light winds will allow onshore sea breezes to occur during the late morning through early evening hours, with light offshore flowing land breezes overnight. The most frequent showers are expected across the windward Big Island, otherwise clouds and showers will favor interior sections during the afternoons and evenings. A stronger cold front is expected Tuesday night and Wednesday…bringing more widespread showers.
Details: Winds have diminished as a cold front to the north has pushed a surface ridge near the state, thereby cutting off island trade winds. A southeast flow near the Big Island and some slight instability aloft is prompting moderate showers over the windward and southeast slopes. Afternoon sea breezes will bring clouds and showers for mainly interior and mountain areas of the state, with some showers drifting down over the coasts locally. Skies will clear through the night as land breezes push most clouds and showers offshore. This land and sea breeze pattern will continue through Monday.
Looking Further Ahead: The various models have been fairly consistent in bringing a stronger cold front towards Kauai Tuesday, with southeast and southerly kona winds ahead of the front, bringing moisture up from the deeper tropics towards the Big Island and Maui County. We may see some volcanic haze (vog) arriving then locally too. The current forecast brings wet weather Tuesday night through Thursday, brought by the one-two punch associated with the cold front…and the tropical moisture preceding it. As a long shot, we could see off and on wet weather continuing into next Friday and Saturday.
Here’s a wind profile of the Pacific Ocean – Closer view of the islands / Here’s the vog forecast animation / Here’s the latest weather map
Marine environment details: Surf is expected to remain below advisory levels for the next several days. Strong winds east of of the state will produce an east swell through early next week. Lows to the north will send a series of small to moderate north swells through Hawaiian waters. The largest of these swells will peak around the middle of next week. Distant storms off Japan will produce some small northwest swells for the next several days. A new storm low forming next week may produce a larger northwest swell peaking next Thursday.
Light winds…localized showers
World-wide Tropical Cyclone activity
>>> Here’s the latest PDC Weather Wall Presentation, covering Tropical Cyclone 07S in the South Indian Ocean…and a tropical disturbance being called Invest 93P
>>> Atlantic Ocean:
>>> Caribbean Sea:
>>> Gulf of Mexico:
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:
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:
Here’s a link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)
>>> Northwest Pacific Ocean: No active tropical cyclones
>>> North and South Indian Oceans / Arabian Sea:
Tropical Cyclone 07S
JTWC textual forecast warning
JTWC graphical track map
NOAA satellite image
Here’s a link to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC)
Interesting: ‘Disturbing’ Results Show High Pollution Levels in Mariana Trench – The vast underwater wilderness of the deep sea may be largely unexplored by humans, but it’s still incredibly polluted, a new study finds.
Researchers made the finding by using baited traps to capture tiny crustaceans in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean — the deepest known spot on Earth — and the Kermadec Trench, which sits off the northeastern coast of New Zealand.
Surprisingly, pollution concentrations in the crustaceans plucked from the Mariana Trench were 50 times higher than those in crabs found in paddy fields fed by the Liaohe River, one of the most polluted rivers in China, the researchers wrote in the study.
“The only Northwest Pacific [Ocean] location with values comparable to the Mariana Trench is Suruga Bay (Japan), a highly industrialized area,” the researchers wrote in the study.
Humans know more about the surface of the moon than they do about the ocean floor. To learn more, the scientific team studied the hadal zone, “the last major marine ecological frontier,” which encompasses the area 3.7 miles to 6.8 miles under the water’s surface, the researchers said.
The hadal zone includes deep-sea trenches. People usually assume that deep-sea trenches are pristine, but in reality, these trenches are the dustbins of the ocean, collecting debris as it slowly sinks to the ocean floor, the researchers said.
To get a better idea of the pollutants there, the researchers set baited traps for teeny crustaceans, called amphipods, that live and scavenge in deep-sea trenches. The scientists analyzed the amphipods’ fatty tissues for levels of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), which can disrupt hormones in living beings.
POPs can enter the environment through industrial accidents and discharges, leakage from landfills or incomplete incineration, the researchers said. Two POPs of great concern are polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs, used as dielectric fluid) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs, used as flame retardants), according to the scientists.
“The salient finding was that PCBs and PBDEs were present in all samples across all species at all depths in both trenches,” the researchers wrote in the study.
The amphipods in the Mariana Trench had higher PCB levels than did the amphipods in the Kermadec Trench, but it’s unclear why. One idea is that the Mariana PCBs come from the nearby North Pacific Subtropical Gyre — more commonly known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — the researchers said. The patch is about the size of Texas, and formed when millions upon millions of plastic and garbage fragments got trapped in a vortex between ocean currents.
The results show that human-caused contamination can be found at the far reaches of the Earth, even in the Mariana Trench, which is deeper than Mount Everest is tall, the researchers said.
The findings are “disturbing,” said Katherine Dafforn, a senior research associate in the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of New South Wales in Australia. Dafforn was not involved in the new study but wrote an accompanying editorial about it.
“This is significant since the hadal trenches are many miles away from any industrial source,” Dafforn wrote in the opinion piece. “[It] suggests that the delivery of these pollutants occurs over long distances despite regulation since the 1970s.”
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