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

80 – 63  Lihue, Kauai
82 – 69  Honolulu, Oahu
8362  Molokai AP
82 – 63  Kahului AP, Maui 
82 – 68  Kona AP, Hawaii
82 66  Hilo, Hawaii

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

0.01  Waialae, Kauai
0.20  Lualualei, Oahu
0.02  Molokai
0.04  Lanai
0.02  Kahoolawe
0.06  Haiku, Maui
0.26  Saddle Quarry, Big Island

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

12  Waimea Heights, Kauai
14  Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
15  Molokai
09  Lanai
23  Kahoolawe
15  Maalaea Bay, Maui
20  Pali 2, Big Island

Hawaii’s MountainsHere’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 10,000+ feet high 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.

 

https://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/west/tpac/ft-animated.gif
Multiple gale and storm lows are moving by to our north

(click on the images to enlarge them)

 

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The next cold front for Hawaii is approaching to the northwest

 

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Clear to partly cloudy…some cloudy areas

 

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A few showers locally – Looping image

 

 

 High Surf Advisory…pink color below

 Small Craft Advisory…purple color below

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Hawaii Weather Narrative
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Broad Brush Overview: A high pressure ridge will remain nearly stationary just north of Kauai, with generally pleasant winter weather conditions prevailing…and fairly light east to southeasterly winds over the state. The next cold front from the northwest will reach Kauai Friday, then continue southeast, past the Big Island through Saturday…bringing clouds and showers with it.

Looking Ahead: Yet another cold front, in a long serious of ongoing fronts from the northwest this winter, will reach Kauai Friday, then move down the chain pushing pass the Big Island through Saturday. A band of showery low clouds along the front will bring showers to windward areas, reaching leeward areas of the smaller islands at times…although in a more limited manner.

A high pressure system in the wake of the front will provide gusty north-northeast winds and cooler temperatures over the area. The latest forecast solutions continue to differ on how long the breezy weather will last over the islands, as the GFS model has much weaker winds by early next week, while the European ECMWF keeps the stronger northerly winds blowing…prolonging the chilly weather.

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: Light to moderate east to southeast winds will continue, with light winds with overnight land and daytime sea breeze conditions near the coasts will prevail over the Oahu and Kauai waters. Winds will quickly shift north and increase into the moderate to strong category through the latter half of the day Friday, as the cold front advances down the island chain. A more typical trade wind pattern will return over the weekend as high pressure builds north of the state. Small craft advisory conditions due to a combination of strong winds following the front and a reinforcing large swell expected tonight through Friday will continue for exposed waters through Saturday.

Surf along exposed north and west facing shores will likely hold near warning levels, due to a large west-northwest swell that filled in from a distant storm across the northwest Pacific earlier in the week.

A similar reinforcement out of the same direction is expected tonight through Friday…with a gradual downward trend expected through the weekend.

The small craft and high surf advisories have been extended into the weekend due to a combination of the reinforcing swell and strong northerly winds expected behind the front Friday.

Surf along east facing shores will remain up through Friday despite the lighter winds locally….gradually lowering over the weekend. The models are also depicting a moderate to large north-northeast swell filling over the weekend.

 

 

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Molokai

 


World-wide Tropical Cyclone Activity

 

Here’s the latest Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) Weather Wall Presentation covering the western Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and the Arabian Sea, including Tropical Cyclone 11S (Riley)…tropical disturbances 93S and 95P


>>> Atlantic Ocean: The 2019 hurricane season begins June 1, 2019

Here’s a satellite image of the Atlantic

>>> Gulf of Mexico: The 2019 hurricane season begins June 1, 2019

>>> Caribbean Sea: The 2019 hurricane season begins June 1, 2019

Here’s a satellite image of the Caribbean Sea…and the Gulf of Mexico

>>> Eastern Pacific: The 2019 hurricane season begins May 15, 2019

Here’s the link to the National Hurricane Center (NHC)

>>> Central Pacific: The 2019 hurricane season begins June 1, 2019

Here’s the link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)

 

>>> Northwest Pacific Ocean: No active tropical cyclones

>>> South Pacific Ocean: No active tropical cyclones

>>> North and South Indian Oceans / Arabian Sea:  

Tropical Cyclone 11S (Riley)

JTWC textual advisory
JTWC graphical track map

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

 

Interesting: Fish Farmers of the Caribbean – UC Santa Barbara researchers see a wealth of potential for aquaculture in the Caribbean

There are only so many fish in the sea. And our appetite for seafood has already stressed many wild fisheries to the breaking point. Meanwhile, the planet’s growing population will only further increase the need for animal protein, one of the most resource-intensive types of food to produce.

With this in mind, a team led by researchers at UC Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science & Management and the Marine Science Institute (MSI) looked at the feasibility of fish farming, or aquaculture, in the Caribbean. The team focused specifically on offshore mariculture — ocean-based operations done far from shore — which offers a promising alternative to land-based and coastal aquaculture, where space is limited and environmental impacts are often high.

The group discovered that even under conservative estimates, the region could produce over 34 million metric tons of seafood per year. This potential yield is more than two orders of magnitude larger than the region’s current seafood production. The results appear in the journal Nature Sustainability.

“The Caribbean has a large potential for off-shore mariculture,” said Lennon Thomas, the study’s lead author, who serves as a project researcher at MSI. “And meeting this potential can be accomplished by developing mariculture in a relatively small amount of ocean space.”

The researchers’ model predicts the region could produce 40 million metric tons of seafood in less than 1.5 percent of its countries’ exclusive economic zones. This is roughly half of the current global wild fisheries catch, Thomas said. Under current market conditions, the Caribbean could match its current seafood production by farming in just 179 square kilometers, or a mere 0.006 percent, of its marine space.

The team used cobia as their model species to estimate the Caribbean’s potential for commercial mariculture. Cobia is a premium fish with high market value that is well suited to farming in warmer waters. By combining elements like fish growth and habitat suitability with factors such as farm profitability and investment risk, the model developed by the group provided more realistic estimates of mariculture potential than if it had focused solely on biology or economics.

Thomas’s team considered socioeconomic and political factors to estimate the risk levels associated with investing in mariculture in each of the countries in the region, and came up with three scenarios. The first considered the results of farming in all suitable areas, while the second considered only areas that would be profitable over a 10-year timeframe, at a 10-percent discount rate. The third, most conservative case mirrored the second, but with discount rates between 10 and 25 percent, based on the relative risk of investment estimated for each country.

Other papers have examined the physical and environmental factors influencing mariculture production potential on a global level, and researchers have previously applied bio-economic models to individual farms. But this new study is one of the first to analyze mariculture potential from a bio-economic angle at a regional level, explained Tyler Clavelle, a researcher at MSI and one of the paper’s coauthors. This gave the group a better understanding of the tradeoffs when developing farms in different areas within and across countries.

The results in all scenarios are promising. “Even accounting for the economics of an expensive operation like cobia farming, there are large areas of the Caribbean that could be profitable for off-shore aquaculture,” said Clavelle. Trinidad and Tobago and the Bahamas have the largest potential, with roughly 8,500 and 4,100 square kilometers, respectively, of area profitable for mariculture.

Insufficient capital presents one significant barrier to mariculture development in the Caribbean. Offshore mariculture is a relatively new, and therefore riskier, industry. Adding in the political and economic instability in certain parts of the region creates a higher risk for foreign investors, Thomas explained.

Thomas and Clavelle acknowledged that many people distrust aquaculture, believing it is bad for the environment. The researchers suspect the industry suffers this negative reputation because most of it is currently done on land or near the shore, where the farms’ feed, waste and other inputs can have negative impacts on surrounding ecosystems.

“Offshore mariculture overcomes many of the shortcomings and potential negative impacts that people often associate with coastal or inland aquaculture,” said Thomas. Deeper water and stronger offshore currents can prevent negative water quality impacts from aquaculture, while also avoiding sensitive nearshore habitats like coral reefs and seagrass meadows.

“Mariculture is very space efficient. And we have vast expanses of offshore ocean areas,” said co-author Sarah Lester, an assistant professor at Florida State University who completed her PhD at UC Santa Barbara. “So we can be really selective about where we locate fish farms, choosing locations where profitability is high and environmental impacts are low.”

While the team looked specifically at cobia production in the Caribbean, the model could be applied to other species and regions as well. And the group intends to consider these in future work. They also plan to explore how climate change and increasing ocean temperatures will affect offshore aquaculture.

“In the Caribbean, like we see globally, seafood demand is increasing while many wild fisheries have been overfished,” said Lester. “Currently many Caribbean countries import large amounts of seafood — aquaculture offers a promising avenue for economic development and tasty, sustainable local seafood production.”