Hawaiian Islands Weather Details & Aloha Paragraphs / April 2-3, 2018

Air Temperatures – The following high temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Monday…along with the low temperatures Monday:

76 – 71  Lihue, Kauai
80 – 72  Honolulu, Oahu
79 – 69  Molokai AP
80 – 70  Kahului AP, Maui
84 – 74  Kailua Kona
84 – 69  Hilo AP, Hawaii

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

3.22  Waiakoali, Kauai
2.65   Manoa Lyon Arboretum, Oahu
3.37  Molokai
1.15  Lanai
0.01  Kahoolawe
1.83  Wailuku, Maui
2.36  Pali 2, Big Island

The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph) Monday evening:

14  Poipu, Kauai
20  Waianae Valley, Oahu
28  Molokai
24  Lanai
23  Kahoolawe
33  Kahului AP, Maui
22  Pali 2, 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

Low with a cold front just northwest…high pressure ridge over Oahu

Cold front remains stalled just northwest of Kauai

Partly to mostly cloudy over the islands

Showers…some are locally heavy
Looping image

 

~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~

 

Wind Advisory…Big Island summits / 40-65 mph

 

Broad Brush Overview: The ongoing unsettled conditions will continue this week, as several low pressure systems track across the state. Sultry and volcanically hazy south to southwest kona winds will prevail through Thursday. The first trough will move through the islands into Tuesday, producing showers over Kauai and Oahu…then spreading clouds and showers to Maui County.

A second trough of low pressure brings showers across the islands starting Wednesday morning. Deep moisture will remain in place over the islands through the week, with a weak cold front sweeping a third round of showers through the state Thursday and Friday. Trade winds return Saturday…although the muggy and cloudy weather continues.

Details: A high pressure system remains parked off the California coast, as a broad area of low pressure moves through the Central Pacific. A cold front remains in place between these two weather features, just northwest of the islands. Meanwhile, tropical moisture with voggy kona winds persists over the entire state.

An unusually complex weather pattern will develop through the week, with several upper level troughs passing west to east through the area. These upper troughs will cause weak lows to develop along the remnant cold front…bringing clouds and showers across the state as they pass through.

The first trough in this series moves over Kauai from the northwest, spreading clouds and showers eastward over that island and Oahu. The trough continues to push showers eastward into Maui County, with enhanced showers reaching the Big Island Tuesday.

Looking Ahead: Meanwhile far to the west of the islands, a second stronger trough moves into the picture, passing through Kauai and Oahu Wednesday morning. By Thursday, a high pressure system moving across the Central Pacific will help push a band of clouds and showers across Maui and Hawaii Counties through Friday.

As we push into the weekend, humid and cloudy weather will continue, as a surface trough will linger over the state. Models show kona winds finally being replaced by trade winds Saturday. These long missing trades will be strong enough to ventilate the volcanic haze (vog) away from the smaller islands.

Another round of showers is possible from Kauai to Maui County by the weekend. In sum, we can expect periods of moderate to locally heavy rainfall through the week. You may be thinking to yourself, is this unusual weather for the state of Hawaii? Well, stated very simply…you betcha!

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 models show a series of gales setting up over the northwest Pacific through the week, which will bring consistent surf out of the northwest…to our north and west facing shores through the upcoming weekend and next week.

The current west-northwest swell will continue to slowly lower through Tuesday. A small reinforcement out of the same direction will arrive Wednesday through Thursday…with yet another Friday into the weekend.

Choppy surf along south facing shores will become a possibility Tuesday through mid-week…as south to southwest kona winds increase locally.

A large north-northwest swell, reaching warning levels will become a possibility along north and west facing shores early next week.

 

Photo: Kim Taylor Reece

World-wide Tropical Cyclone activity

Here’s the latest Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) Weather Wall Presentation covering Tropical Cyclone 18P (Josie) south of Fiji…along with Tropical Cyclone 17P (Iris) offshore from the Queensland coast of Australia

>>> 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 18P (Josie)

JTWC textual forecast warning
JTWC graphical track map
NOAA satellite image

>>> North and South Indian Oceans / Arabian Sea: No active tropical cyclones

Here’s a link to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC)


Interesting: Legalizing Marijuana Could Have This Unexpected Benefit – Rates of opioid prescriptions went down in states that implemented laws allowing access to medical marijuana, according to two studies published today in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

The findings suggest that access to medical marijuana may have cut patients’ need for opioids to manage their pain, the researchers said.

“There has been substantive evidence that marijuana can relieve pain at a lower risk of addiction than opioids and with virtually no risk of overdose,” said lead study author Hefei Wen, an assistant professor of health management and policy at the University of Kentucky College of Public Health in Lexington, Kentucky. “The potential for marijuana policies to reduce the use of addictive opioids deserves consideration, especially in states that have been hit hard by the opioid epidemic.”

In one of the studies, Wen and her colleague Jason M. Hockenberry, associate professor of health policy at Emory Universtiy in Atlanta, analyzed rates of opioids prescriptions during 2011 and 2016 for Medicaid enrollees — a population that has a a relative high risk for chronic pain and opioid addiction, Wen said. They found that the rates of opioid prescribing in states that had legalized medical marijuana dropped by 5.9 percent annually, on average. What’s more, states that widened access further, by legalizing the recreational use of marijuana, saw a 6.4-percent annual decrease, on average.

In the second study, another team of researchers looked at the number of opioid prescriptions filled under Medicare in all U.S. states from 2010 through 2015. Studies suggest marijuana use is rising fastest among older Americans—a group that’s also most likely to have the type of pain conditions that respond best to marijuana, the researchers said. Opioid prescriptions fell by 2.21 million daily doses per year, on average, in states that legalized medical marijuana — an 8.5-percent decrease — compared with opioid prescriptions in states that didn’t legalize the drug.

Marijuana vs. opioids

Studies show that cannabinoids — chemical components in Cannabis plants — can be effective in alleviating some kinds of pain, and “a mountain of anecdotal evidence from patients” suggests that some who turn to medical marijuana for chronic pain end up needing fewer opioids, said Dr. Kevin Hill, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School who was not involved with the studies.

“And now, with these two papers, plus a handful of previous studies, we’ve got pretty compelling evidence that shows that we need to really to think about cannabis as a potential way to curb the opioid crisis,” said Hill, who co-authored an editorial that was published alongside the two studies in the same journal.

Opioids are a class of strong pain medications, including drugs such as OxyContin (oxycodone) and Vicodin(a combination of hydrocodone and acetaminophen). Opioids bind to opioid receptors in the body and cause feelings of euphoria. They are highly addictive, and can lead to drug abuse, severe complications and overdose deaths. The number of Americans dying from opioid overdoses continues to rise; there were more than 42,000 U.S. deaths from this cause in 2016, up from 33,000 deaths in 2015, according to a March 30 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Most people, including teenagers, with an opioid-use disorder start out with a legitimate prescription for the drugs from health care providers for pain management. Marijuana may be an alternative to consider for some of these patients, experts say; the cannabinoids in the drug bind to the body’s cannabinoid receptors, which are part of an internal pain-relieving system.

Still, it may not be possible to replace all kinds of pain medications with marijuana. So far, clinical studies suggest that marijuana is effective in easing chronic pain, neuropathic pain (pain caused by damage to the nervous system), and involuntary and continuous muscle contractions associated with multiple sclerosis. Although to know whether marijuana is as effective for other types of pain, more research needs to be done, he added.

What’s more, studying prescription data from states can only reveal a correlation between medical-marijuana laws and a reduction in opioid use; it can’t show a cause-and-effect relationship, Hill said. Future studies should take a closer look at the link by performing randomized clinical trials to see the effects of taking marijuana for pain or following patients to see if marijuana helped them avoid opioids altogether or only lower their use.

Marijuana alone cannot fix the country’s opioid problem. “It is but one aspect of a comprehensive package to tackle the epidemic.” Other essential strategies include providing appropriate pain management and various nonopioid and nonmedical alternatives, as well as improving access to addiction treatment, she said.