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

73 – 62  Lihue, Kauai – broke the low max record for the date Saturday…which was 74 in 1967
83 – 67  Honolulu, Oahu
77 – 68  Molokai
79 – 65   Kahului AP, Maui
80 – 65  Kailua Kona
78 – 66  Hilo AP, Hawaii

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

0.13  Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.02  Poamoho RG 1, Oahu
 0.06  Molokai
 0.00  Lanai
 0.00  Kahoolawe
0.05  West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.07  Kawainui Stream, Big Island

The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph) as of Saturday evening:

18  Port Allen, Kauai
22  Kuaokala, Oahu
22  Molokai
28  Lanai
22  Kahoolawe
28  Kapalua, Maui
21  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

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High pressure north, storms well north and northwest…cold front just north

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Deep clouds east of the state

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A few showers – Looping image


Small Craft Advisory…coasts and channels statewide except leeward Oahu, Maui County and Big Island waters

High Surf Advisory…north and west shores of Kauai, and north shores of Oahu, Molokai, Maui and the Big Island

 

~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~


Christmas Day forecast: Trades with off and on windward showers

 

New Year’s Eve/Day forecast: Trade wind weather pattern…windward showers

 

Broad Brush Overview: The seasonably cool trade wind flow will continue, bringing periods of clouds and a few light showers to north and east facing slopes and coasts. These winds will weaken Monday and shift south Monday night, as the next cold front approaches, with locally gusty southwest kona winds arriving Tuesday. The front is expected to bring showers, as it stalls near the islands around the middle of next week…with stronger trades for Thursday and Friday.

Details: These chilly winds (tropically speaking of course) will deliver varying amounts of stable low clouds, while leeward areas remain mostly clear to partly cloudy. The areas exposed to the wind will remain somewhat breezy, while lighter winds are being observed in sheltered leeward areas. Area radars have been detecting only isolated light showers at best…with most of those falling over the offshore waters at the time of this writing.

The high to our north will move quickly northeast through Sunday, with the long lasting trough remaining just east of the state. A new high building far northwest of the islands Sunday, is expected to bring a slight increase in trade winds, with some moisture pooled east of the islands moving into the windward sides of Maui and the Big Island Sunday and Sunday night. As this high tracks east and dissipates Christmas Day, a developing low passing by north of the state will lead to weakening trades.

Looking Further Ahead: By Monday night, the flow is expected to become southerly, with increasing kona winds Tuesday. As this cold front gets closer, showers will increase over the leeward sides. Moisture associated with the front may linger in the area Wednesday as it gradually dissipates. A new high building far northwest may bring increasing trade winds Thursday and Friday. The very low confidence forecast for New Year’s Eve/Day features a fairly typical trade wind flow.

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: Look for a north-northwest swell to increase, peaking tonight and then beginning to lower Sunday…with seas associated with this swell causing small craft advisory conditions. A slightly larger north-northwest swell will arrive next week Wednesday, likely resulting in advisory level surf for north facing shores. A small out of season south swell is expected to arrive Monday afternoon or evening…persisting into the middle of the week.

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World-wide Tropical Cyclone activity

>>> Here’s the latest PDC Weather Wall Presentation, covering Tropical Storm 33W (Tembin)…and the remnants of former tropical cyclone 32W


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>>> 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:

Typhoon 33W (Tembin) remains active, here’s a graphical track map…and a satellite image

>>> South 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: World’s Smallest Christmas Card Offers Season’s Tiniest Greetings – In a very, very, very small gesture of holiday goodwill, the U.K.’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL) has crafted the smallest Christmas card in the world, which is so tiny that it must be measured in microns — millionths of a meter.

The card is a mere 15 microns (0.015 millimeters) wide by 20 microns (0.02 mm) tall; to put that into perspective, a human hair is about 50 to 80 microns (0.05 to 0.08 mm) wide. It would take about 200 million of these minuscule “cards” to cover the surface of a single postage stamp, NPL representatives said in a statement.

On the tiny card’s cover is a jolly-looking snowman and the message “Season’s Greetings,” but you wouldn’t be able to read it without the help of a microscope. Inside the card is a second inscription of the holiday message, alongside “From NPL.” This whimsical holiday creation showcases the work conducted at the lab with materials at the micron scale, to test their performance, determine new applications and improve miniaturization methods for tools and machines used in electronics, computers and medicine, according to the statement.

Researchers crafted the card from a membrane of silicon nitride at a thickness of about 200 nanometers (0.0002 mm), coated with a 10-nanometer (0.00001 mm) layer of platinum. To carve the design and message on the card, the team used a focused ion beam, directing a fast-moving stream of charged particles toward the card’s surface.

A previous record holder for the world’s smallest seasonal greeting was presented by NPL in 2009, when the organization debuted a “nanosnowman” made from tin beads that are used to calibrate lenses in electron microscopes. It measured 10 microns (0.01 mm) wide. The tiny holiday sculpture was assembled using a system for manipulating particles on the nanometer scale, NPL explained in a statement. Then, a focused ion beam carved  the snowman’s eyes and smile, and the structure was welded together with platinum.

Over the past decade, scientists and engineers have investigated numerous methods for designing complex contraptions or objects that seem impossibly small, producing an inchworm-like microbot that measures 250 microns (0.25 mm) long; the world’s smallest hot-rod, or “nanodragster,” that is 50,000 times smaller than a human hair; and light-activated molecular “scissors” that measure 3 nanometers in length.

And in 2016, three scientists shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work creating the world’s smallest “machines,” linking molecules together to form devices with moving parts that perform very tiny tasks.

The NPL’s diminutive Christmas card is “a fun way to mark the festive season,” but it also serves to spotlight the developing technologies that enable engineers to conduct delicate work with materials at such a small scale, David Cox, one of the creators of the card and an NPL research fellow, said in a statement.

“We are using the tools that created the card to accurately measure the thickness of extremely small features in materials, helping to unlock new battery and semiconductor technologies,” Cox said.

“It’s a genuinely exciting development that could help to make new technologies and techniques a reality,” he said.