Hawaiian Islands Weather Details & Aloha Paragraphs / May 28-29, 2018

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

81 – 73  Lihue, Kauai
86 – 74  Honolulu, Oahu
85 – 68  Molokai AP
m  –  m  Kahului AP, Maui
84 – 72  Kailua Kona
83 – 67  Hilo AP, Hawaii

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

0.88  Mount Waialeale, Kauai
1.00  Poamoho RG 1, Oahu
0.05  Molokai
0.02  Lanai
0.02  Kahoolawe
0.49  Hana AP, Maui
0.69  Kawainui Stream, Big Island

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

23  Port Allen, Kauai
25  Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
28  Molokai
25  Lanai
39  Kahoolawe
22  Hana, Maui
27  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 and northeast…with the tail-end of a cold front north

Lots of high and middle level clouds…over and around the state

Partly cloudy, some clear areas locally…deep clouds west

Showers locally over the islands…and offshore
Looping image

 

Here’s the latest Vog Forecast Animation

Here’s the Vog Information website

Special Weather Statement…continues to highlight the potential for ashfall (trace amounts) across portions of the Big Island’s Kau District. The low-level flow has shifted to the east-southeast and will likely continue. The latest UH vog model guidance reflects this and depicts volcanic emissions from the Kilauea volcano shifting over other locations on the Big Island and potentially nearing the smaller islands by the end of the day. The low-level flow is forecast to shift back to a more easterly direction through second half of the work week beginning Wednesday.

Small Craft Advisory…Maalaea Bay, Pailolo and Alenuihaha Channels, Big Island leeward and southeast waters

 

~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~

 

Broad Brush Overview: The recent strong trade wind flow has weakened, although will become stronger again Tuesday…through the rest of the week. Partly to mostly cloudy conditions will continue through at least Tuesday across much of the state, due to an upper low developing west of the state. Showers will continue to focus over windward and mountain locations, although a few showers could fall over upcountry leeward areas across the western end of the state in the near term.

Details: Models show a surface trough evolving in response to an upper level low developing to the west. The persistent trades will briefly weaken as a result, and veer to a more east-southeast direction. The weak surface trough, increasing moisture, and lighter winds will prompt an increase in shower coverage…mainly over the western end of the state.

The greatest chance for thunderstorms will remain west of Kauai, where the source of instability and deeper moisture are located. Elsewhere, showers will continue to focus over windward and mountain areas. Cloudy conditions, mainly in the form of high clouds, will hold tight across much of the state…due to the considerable mid and high level moisture being drawn northward.

Looking Ahead: The models go on to show a more typical trade wind pattern returning by mid-week, and continuing through the second half…as low pressure shifts westward and away from the area. This combined with drier air filling in within the trades from the east, will bring fewer showers. The mid to upper level clouds may continue later in the week, as the upper low shifts eastward or back toward the state.

Here’s a near real-time Wind Profile of the Pacific Ocean – along with a Closer View of the islands / Here’s the latest Weather Map

Marine Environmental Conditions: Trade winds will decrease, as an upper trough approaches from the northwest and prompts a weak surface trough over the area. Winds are expected to strengthen again Tuesday as the trough moves west, and a strong high builds north of the area.

Surf will remain below advisory levels along all shores through the week. Only small surf is expected along north facing shores. A series of swells from the Tasman Sea in the southern hemisphere, will keep surf along south facing shores near the summertime average into Tuesday. South shore surf will build to above average heights by mid-week. Surf along east facing shores will subside early this week as the trade winds weaken…then builds again by mid-week as the trades strengthen.

 

World-wide Tropical Cyclone Activity

Here’s the Monday Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) Weather Wall Presentation covering a tropical disturbance in the Bay of Bengal…being referred to as Invest 95B

Here’s the Monday Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) Weather Wall Presentation covering Subtropical Depression Alberto…having moved inland over the southeast United States

 

>>> Atlantic Ocean: No active tropical cyclones

>>> Caribbean Sea:

>>> Gulf of Mexico:

Subtropical Depression Alberto

NHC textual advisory
NHC graphical track map
NOAA satellite image

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: No active tropical cyclones

Tropical cyclone formation is not expected during the next 5 days.

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: No active tropical cyclones

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: Massive Ice Highways Found Hiding Under Antarctica – Scientists have found huge valleys linking the smaller West Antarctic Ice Sheet to the massive East Antarctic Ice Sheet, hidden deep under the ice.

Three canyons — named Foundation Trough, Patuxent Trough and Offset Rift Basin — slice through the mountain ranges that divide the two major regions of the frozen continent. Foundation is 217 miles long (about the distance from Los Angeles to Las Vegas) and 22 miles wide. Patuxent is a bit shorter and half Foundation’s width. Offset is half Foundation’s length but just as wide. Each of them provides a highway for ice to flow from the larger, stabler East Antarctic Ice Sheet into the smaller, less stable West Antarctic Ice Sheet. And each of them was completely unmapped and unseen under the ice until a recent survey mission, which was described online May 4 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

That’s because the two major ice-mapping satellites orbiting Earth have big blind spots in the center of Antarctica. The inclination of their orbits prevents them from seeing into the ice of the southernmost continent. So, between 2015 and 2017, an international team of researchers started flying planes with sensitive mapping instruments on board over the Antarctic gap in order to fill in the blind spot in Earth’s ice maps.

This finding is a big deal because it offers scientists a framework for figuring out how the more landlocked ice of the Eastern Ice Sheet might behave as the climate changes.

Right now, researchers said, the mountain ranges dividing Antarctica’s east and west hold back the eastern ice. But ice already flows between them, through these valleys.

“If the ice sheet thins or retreats, these topographically controlled corridors could facilitate enhanced flow of ice farther inland, and could lead to the west Antarctic ice divide moving,” lead study author Kate Winter, a researcher at Northumbria University in England, said in a statement. “This would, in turn, increase the speed and rate at which ice flows out from the center of Antarctica to its edges, leading to an increase in global sea levels.”

Already, scientists have found alarming warning signs of how the West Antarctic Ice Sheet could begin to collapse into the ocean in this climatically altered world, with major consequences for global sea levels. Now, researchers can begin to model what kind of role its much vaster twin will play in this future.