Air Temperatures – The following high temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Friday…along with the low temperatures Friday:
76 – 68 Lihue, Kauai
80 – 69 Honolulu, Oahu
81 – 68 Molokai AP
85 – 68 Kahului AP, Maui
81 – 74 Kailua Kona
82 – 71 Hilo AP, Hawaii
Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands Friday evening:
0.23 Anahola, Kauai
0.88 Punaluu Pump, Oahu
0.01 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.00 Maui
0.68 Saddle Quarry, Big Island
The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph) Friday evening:
15 Port Allen, Kauai
27 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
27 Molokai
23 Lanai
35 Kahoolawe
17 Hana, Maui
28 South Point, 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 north-northeast, low pressure systems northwest and far northeast…which will keep our trade winds blowing temporarily
A large swath of clouds is hanging over the state…thunderstorms offshore
Partly to mostly cloudy skies over most areas
Showers, especially near or over Kauai and Oahu…moving east
Looping image
~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~
High Wind Warning…Big Island summits / 80-100 mph
Blizzard Warning…Big Island summits / 2-6 inches of snow
Flood Watch…statewide
Flood Advisory…Oahu
Broad Brush Overview: Partly to mostly cloudy conditions, along with moderately strong trades will continue for the time being. Showers will develop as an upper level trough of low pressure approaches the islands from the west. Most shower activity will remain focused along windward and mountains areas from Molokai to the Big Island…with heavier showers developing over Kauai and Oahu. Rain shower coverage will increase tonight into Saturday, with locally heavy rain and a few thunderstorms spreading eastward across the state. These wet conditions will continue through Sunday afternoon, with improving conditions spreading from west to east Sunday night into Monday morning. Lighter winds and drier conditions are forecast for the first half of next week.
Details: A trough to our west will deepen as it approaches the islands, destabilizing the atmosphere and developing a weak surface low later tonight…enhancing shower activity statewide. A surface low is forecast to move across the state Saturday, bringing deep tropical moisture and atmospheric instability. This in turn will lead to widespread moderate to heavy rainfall and a few thunderstorms spreading eastward across the state through the weekend.
The impacts will start over the western islands early Saturday morning and then spread eastward to Maui and the Big Island by late Saturday morning and afternoon. The onset timing of these impacts may vary a bit due to unforeseen smaller scale shower bands that may develop ahead of the main system. It would be wise to postpone outdoor activities this weekend near streams and low lying flood prone areas…until this flash flood threat passes.
Looking Ahead: The low center will drift north the islands Sunday, with improving weather conditions as drier air filters into the state through the first half of next week. Due to the position of this surface low north of the islands, we expect lighter winds with some land and sea breezes to develop Monday and Tuesday…with interior afternoon clouds and a few showers. Weak easterly trade winds should return Wednesday into Thursday.
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: The large northeast swell continues to gradually drop, and will continue to diminish this weekend.
Mariners who are making plans for boating activities this weekend should be aware of the threat of inclement weather. An area of low pressure is forecast to move across the state, which could produce an extended period of widespread precipitation, with a chance of thunderstorms and locally heavy rainfall. The current forecast continues to show a belt of localized south to southwest winds near 25 knot winds developing . Assuming this trend continues a Small Craft Advisory may be needed Saturday for portions of the waters adjacent to the western islands. Look for westerly winds to spread across the islands Saturday night through Sunday, followed by light and variable winds early next week.
Once the northeast swell subsides early this weekend, no other significant swells are expected through early next week. A modest north-northeast swell is expected Saturday night into Monday. A small northwest swell is also expected Sunday night through Tuesday, followed by another small northwest swell during the middle of next week. Small south-southwest and southwest swells are also expected now into early next week.
Wet weather on the horizon…(Koolau Mountains on Oahu)
World-wide Tropical Cyclone activity
Here’s the latest Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) Weather Wall Presentation covering Tropical Cyclone 15S (Marcus) in the South Indian Ocean, along with Tropical Cyclone 16P (Nora), in addition to Invest 96W in the western Pacific, Invest 95P in the southwest Pacific…and Invest 96S in the South Indian Ocean
>>> 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
Tropical Cyclone 16P (Nora)
JTWC textual forecast warning
JTWC graphical track map
NOAA satellite image
>>> North and South Indian Oceans / Arabian Sea:
Tropical Cyclone 15S (Marcus)
JTWC textual forecast warning
JTWC graphical track map
NOAA satellite image
Here’s a link to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC)
Interesting: 1 in 10 Sober People Have Cocaine or Heroin on Their Fingertips – There’s a lot of cocaine and heroin in the world, and there’s a pretty good chance you’ve got a tiny bit of it on your body right now — even if you’ve never knowingly touched the stuff.
That’s the conclusion of a new paper published in the journal Clinical Chemistry today (March 22), which found that 13 percent of drug-free study participants had traces of the drugs on their fingertips. The participants, residents of the United Kingdom tested at the University of Surrey, didn’t have enough heroin or cocaine on their fingers for it to be visible, and certainly not enough to get them (or anyone) high. But they did have enough cocaine or heroin on their hands to trip very sensitive instruments called mass spectrometers.
But the point of the study wasn’t just to reveal that there’s a whole lot of trace narcotics floating around out there.
Instead, researchers were trying to establish a baseline for how much trace heroin or cocaine would turn up in a non-drug user’s fingerprint. (When a person does a fingerprint test, some of the substances on their fingertips are transferred to the print.) They compared non-drug users’ fingerprints to the fingerprints of recent heroin or cocaine users, in hopes of establishing a level over which they could confidently say the fingerprint belonged to someone who had recently used drugs.
While they did arrive at such a cutoff, they also found that there’s a lot of environmental contamination on people’s fingers — and that it doesn’t go away when study participants wash their hands.
Chemists already knew that trace amounts of cocaine and heroin are everywhere, said Rolf Halden, director of the Biodesign Center for Environmental Health Engineering at Arizona State University.
“Think of cocaine on paper money,” Halden told Live Science. “We know that a lot of currency is contaminated with cocaine.”
Halden would know: His lab collects sewage water samples from all over the world and tests them for traces of drugs. While most people might not admit to using drugs, he can tell how much certain drugs are actually getting used in a given city based on the traces they leave in the sewage system.
Still, Halden said, the fingerprint finding is new and interesting, and could represent a method of quick drug testing that’s less invasive than drawing blood or collecting hair samples.
That said, Halden cautioned that the results would be much more uncertain than those existing methods. Where people live and which things they regularly touch might lead to a wide range of baseline-level drug traces among different people. A bank teller or tollbooth operator, he speculated, might have much more significant drug traces just from touching cash all day.
“If I’m a lawyer and my client tested for drugs this way, this would be an easy way out [of a conviction],” he said. “I predict it could be potentially helpful [for drug testing], but it would not very rapidly replace other types of testing, like bodily fluids.”
While it might surprise readers to learn they have a reasonably good chance of having drugs they’ve never used on their fingertips, Halden said it’s nothing to worry about.
“The levels are way too low to be consequential,” he said.
The reality is that chemists’ instruments are so sensitive that they can detect even the tiniest traces of substances.
“We also can detect a lot of prescription drugs in drinking water,” Halden said. “There [are] a few molecules in there — enough for us to detect them as analytical chemists, but not enough to have a measurable impact on people.”
In other words, no one’s getting high from finger-molecules of old cocaine on their banknotes. And they don’t represent any kind of individual danger to anyone.
That said, Halden added, there just isn’t enough data yet to know if there might be some kind of population-level effect from this kind of widespread contamination. But if it’s there, he said, it’s vanishingly subtle — to the point of having zero measurable effect on any one individual — and people should not worry about it.
Anurag Says:
hi glenn – WHERE are those waterfalls in the photo? gorgeous!
~~~ Hi Anurag, those are the Koolau Mountains on Oahu, I agree with you…very dynamic and beautiful!
Aloha, Glenn
Diane Says:
Dear Glenn,
I just read your “Interesting” article which is very interesting! Long, long time ago I was a bank teller and even was the Vault Operations Officer. I counted and verified the currency that was ordered to verify it was correct. I can’t wait to tell my Daughter because she prepares the end of of the day totals from 3 separate registers at her job on the college campus.
Thank you again for your WHOLE website….you spend lots of time on it and it sures shows
Aloha,
Diane(NorCal)
~~~ Hi Diane, glad you enjoyed not only today’s interesting article, AND my whole website too!
I happen to be in NorCal now too, at least for a little while…before heading back to Maui next week.
Take care…
Aloha, Glenn