Hawaiian Islands Weather Details & Aloha Paragraphs / April 4-5, 2018

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

84 – 74  Lihue, Kauai
84 – 77  Honolulu, Oahu
82 – 73  Molokai AP
85 – 75  Kahului AP, Maui
86 – 74  Kailua Kona
85 – 73  Hilo AP, Hawaii

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

3.35  Waialae, Kauai
0.73  Hakipuu Mauka, Oahu
0.12  Molokai
0.08  Lanai
0.19  Kahoolawe
0.46  Puu Kukui, Maui
1.26  Keaumo, Big Island

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

29  Lihue, Kauai
33  Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
31  Molokai
27  Lanai
16  Kahoolawe
33  Kahului AP, Maui
37  Kaupulehu, 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

Lows north and west-northwest, with the tail-end of a cold front near the Big Island…while a high pressure ridge remains south of the state

A second cold front is northwest

Clear to cloudy…showery clouds locally

Showers locally over the islands and offshore
Looping image

 

~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~

 

Broad Brush Overview: The low pressure systems, passing by northwest and north of the islands, will keep the warm, moist southwest kona winds blowing through Thursday. As we push into Thursday night, a cold front will push down the island chain into Friday. In the wake of this front, our winds will turn back to trades, reaching the Big Island Saturday morning. Remnant moisture from this front will keep the trades rather showery, especially over the windward coasts and slopes through the weekend…into early next week.

Details: These unusually long lasting kona winds are bringing a wide swath of deep moisture across the state. The upper levels haven’t been particularly supportive of deep convection over the islands during the last day or so. There are some narrow bands of low level moisture however…with embedded showery cumulus and towering cumulus. Look for a mix of these bands, as well as some clouds and showers forming over the upcountry areas during the afternoons…along with the possibility of a few downpours and thundershowers.

Looking Ahead:  High pressure far west-northwest will help to push a cold front down the chain later Thursday. This front will be accompanied by a band of clouds and showers, although perhaps more importantly, it will finally bring the return of our long lost trade winds to the smaller islands Friday. The front will likely stall near the Big Island, thus it may take the trades until Friday night or even Saturday morning before they eventually arrive there.

This isn’t all good news however, as the trades are expected to remain rather wet and showery, with a nearly stationary band of abundant moisture, associated with the frontal remnants, streaming across parts of the state into early next week. This remnant moisture may get some reinforcement during the weekend, as a trough moves over the state. The windward sides should be fairly wet…while the leeward sides may be on the receiving end of a few of these showers locally too.

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: Winds will reach Small Craft Advisory (SCA) threshold over waters around Kauai and Oahu, as a low passes by the western end of the island chain. Otherwise, look for winds to remain below SCA criteria into this weekend. A slight chance of thunderstorms and heavy rain is forecast for the western waters…as the low passes by.

A small northwest swell is expected to arrive and continue through Thursday, then gradually lower Friday. Surf along north and west facing shores will remain below advisory levels. Choppy surf is expected along most south facing shores…due to the southwest kona winds. A small south swell is forecast to arrive early Friday.

A new moderate north-northwest swell arriving late Friday will likely increase surf along most north and west facing shores of the smaller islands Friday night into Saturday. This swell will slowly subside late Saturday through Sunday. Surf is expected to reach the High Surf Advisory (HSA) criteria along most north and west facing shores of the smaller islands early next week…due to a large northwest swell arriving early Monday.

 

World-wide Tropical Cyclone activity

Here’s the Wednesday Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) Weather Wall Presentation covering Tropical Cyclone 17P (Iris) offshore from the Queensland coast of Australia…and a tropical disturbance being referred to as Invest 91P

>>> 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: No active tropical cyclones

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


Interesting: Snow Monkeys Love Hot Baths Just Like Humans Do, and Now We Know Why – Japanese macaques, or “snow monkeys,” have been spotted taking baths in man-made hot springs during winter for decades. Now, researchers have discovered exactly why the monkeys do this.

The results are not exactly Earth-shattering: The monkeys are cold.

But the researchers also found that indulging in a hot-spring bath may lower the monkeys’ levels of biological stress.

“This indicates that, as in humans, the hot spring has a stress-reducing effect in snow monkeys,” study lead author Rafaela Takeshita, of Kyoto University in Japan, said in a statement. “This unique habit of hot spring bathing by snow monkeys illustrates how behavioral flexibility can help counter cold-climate stress,” Takeshita said.

The study was published April 3 in the journal Primates.

Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) live the farthest north of any species of nonhuman primate in the world. They are especially adapted to living in the cold; they grow thicker and longer fur in the winter.

But in 1963, a female Japanese macaque living in Jigokudani Monkey Park in Nagano, Japan, was seen bathing in an outdoor hot spring belonging to a nearby hotel, and other monkeys soon copied this behavior, the researchers said. As you might imagine, a bunch of monkeys bathing in a hot spring meant to hold people was not exactly hygienic, so the park management built a new hot spring just for the monkeys. By 2003, about a third of the Japanese macaques living in this park regularly bathed in the hot spring in the winter. The bathing monkeys are now a popular tourist attraction.

The bathing monkeys seemed to be bathing to stay warm, but scientists had no physiological data to support this hypothesis, they said.

In the new study, the researchers collected data from 12 adult female monkeys in Jigokudani Monkey Park between April and June, and again from October to December. They examined how much time the monkeys spent in the hot spring, and also analyzed fecal samples for “fecal glucocorticoid,” a metabolite linked with levels of biological stress in monkeys.

The researchers found that female snow monkeys did indeed use the hot spring more often in the winter than in the spring, especially during colder weeks.

In addition, during the winter months, the monkeys had lower fecal glucocorticoid levels during the weeks that they bathed, compared with the non bathing weeks.

The researchers also found that dominant females spent the most time bathing — a benefit of their status — but they were also involved in more aggressive conflicts, resulting in higher energy use and stress levels compared with lower-ranking females. So the dominant females experienced a trade-off between the costs of their high rank and the benefits of the hot spring, the researchers said.

The researchers concluded that hot-spring bathing is an “opportunistic tradition that provides physiological benefits to the monkeys.”

The researchers now want to study blood or saliva samples from the monkeys to see if these samples show any other short-term changes in stress levels tied to bathing.