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

77 – 70  Lihue, Kauai
82 – 74  Honolulu, Oahu
82 – 70  Kahului AP, Maui
85 – 70  Kailua Kona
86 – 73  Hilo AP, Hawaii

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

4.22  Mohihi Crossing, Kauai
0.84  Punaluu Pump, Oahu
 0.45  Molokai
 0.03  Lanai
 0.01  Kahoolawe
0.04  Puu Kukui, Maui
0.39  Pali 2, Big Island

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

16  Puu Opae, Kauai
28  Kuaokala, Oahu
10  Molokai
16  Lanai
20  Kahoolawe
12  Kula 1, Maui
23  Kaloko-Honokohau, 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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A high pressure ridge near the Big Island…will keep kona winds blowing over the state

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A cold front is northwest of the state

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Clouds mostly over Kauai…clear to partly cloudy elsewhere

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Showers around Kauai and Oahu…some are heavy
Looping image

 

~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~

 

Flash Flood Watch…Niihau, Kauai

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

Small Craft Advisory…due to a large northwest swell and strong southeast winds

 

Broad Brush Overview:  Sultry and voggy conditions, along with southerly kona winds will prevail through the weekend, as a broad upper trough and a cold front remain west of the state. Heavy showers will remain possible, especially over the smaller islands. A strong upper trough and cold front will approach, and slowly move down the island chain Sunday night through mid-week, bringing widespread showers and the potential for thunderstorms. Drier air and cooler northerly winds will fill in across the state in the wake of this front…as a ridge of high pressure finally builds back north of the state next Thursday.

Details: A swath of tropical moisture will remain over the smaller islands within the deep southerly flow, ahead of a cold front and upper trough to the west. Bands of showers, some heavy at times, will develop and lift northward over the smaller islands in an off and on manner. There’s always the chance that some of these bands could focus their efforts over a particular area, with even an occasional thunderstorm…causing flash floods to occur. The models suggest the mostly likely islands to be impacted will be the western islands, with the flash flood watch remaining in effect.

Looking Further Ahead: The models go on to depict a strong trough pushing a cold front down the island chain Sunday night. This in turn could support another round of heavy showers and thunderstorms moving down the island chain Monday through Tuesday. In addition to the active weather associated with this front, deep moisture and cold temperatures aloft could bring snow over the Big Island Summits Monday night through Tuesday. Drier air and cooler northerly winds will fill in across the state behind this front, as a ridge of high pressure builds north of the state.

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 current northwest swell has been subsiding, and may drop below advisory levels, although a new large northwest swell will be arriving in its place. The new swell will be larger and from a more westerly direction. Surf will likely build above warning levels on north and west facing shores of the smaller islands, and the swell will reach the Kona coast of the Big Island. Surf will likely remain above the advisory threshold through the weekend into Monday. The persistent north and east swells are both slowly subsiding and will fade out overnight.

A trough to the west and a ridge to the east will combine to produce southerly winds over the Hawaiian coastal waters through the weekend, generally from the southeast toward the Big Island and from the south or southwest toward Kauai County. The southeast winds blowing over the northwest swell should create rough seas.

A deep trough aloft is making the atmosphere quite unstable, so thunderstorms are expected over the coastal and offshore waters through the weekend. Some of these thunderstorms could produce dangerous lightning, strong winds and small hail.

A strong new front is expected to move into the offshore waters from the northwest Sunday and reach the coastal waters Sunday night. Winds will rapidly shift from southwest ahead of the front to northwest behind the front. The front is forecast to stall over the central coastal waters and weaken to a trough early next week.


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Localized heavy rain with isolated thunderstorms



World-wide Tropical Cyclone activity

>>> Here’s the latest PDC Weather Wall Presentation, covering Tropical Cyclone 07S (Cebile) in the South Indian Ocean


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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: No active tropical cyclones

>>> South Pacific Ocean: No active tropical cyclones


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

Tropical Cyclone 07S (Cebile)

JTWC textual forecast warning
JTWC graphical track map
NOAA satellite image

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


Interesting: Greenland: Earth’s Biggest Island – Greenland is the biggest island on Earth and the least-densely populated country, with only around 57,000 residents. Most of the inhabited places are found along the western coast; a thick ice sheet covers the interior of the country. Scientists are growing extremely concerned that global warming is melting the ice too quickly.

Geography

Greenland sits in the North Atlantic Ocean, northeast of Canada. The island covers about 836,000 square miles, or about three times the area of Texas. Only 158,000 square miles of that surface are ice-free.

One of Greenland’s most prominent geographic features is its massive ice sheet, which covers more than 80 percent of the country — around 700,000 square miles. The Jakobshavn Glacier is a large valley glacier in west Greenland. It moves about 100 feet day, making it one of the fastest-moving glaciers in the world, according to Smithsonian Ocean Portal. The Jakobshavn drains 6.5 percent of the Greenland ice sheet and produces about 10 percent of all the country’s icebergs (about 4 billion tons of ice entering the sea). It was also the source of the iceberg that sunk the Titanic.

The remaining ice-free land consists of the island’s coastal regions and is made primarily of highlands. Mountain chains run along the country’s east and west coasts, with the highest point reaching 12,139 feet at Gunnbjørn Mountain in the southeast.

Northern Greenland — the area north of the Arctic Circle — experiences perpetual daylight, or the midnight sun, for two months in the summer, and polar night, or perpetual darkness, in the winter. The Arctic Circle is an imaginary line that encircles the globe at 66 degrees, 34 minutes north. It marks the latitude above which the sun does not set on the summer solstice and does not rise on the winter solstice.

Government and people

Greenland is one of three constituents of the Kingdom of Denmark; the other two are Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Greenland is an autonomous division of the kingdom, with limited self-government and its own parliament and prime minister.

Around 12 percent of Greenland’s population is Danish, and 88 percent is Inuit, the area’s indigenous people.

About one-third of the island’s population lives in Nuuk, the largest city and the capital. Around two-thirds of Greenland’s budget revenue comes from Denmark, with the rest coming primarily from fishing.

History

Greenland was first inhabited about 4,500 years ago, by people who came from what is now Canada. However, those inhabitants disappeared about 3,000 years ago for unknown reasons, according to the website Countries and Their Cultures. Another Stone Age group, called the Dorset culture, followed them. The Dorset people lasted from about 600 B.C. to A.D. 200, before disappearing.

Then, in the 10th century, the Thule culture, which had developed kayaks, dogsleds and harpoons, spread across Greenland. Anthropologists agree that Greenland’s modern Inuits are descended from the Thule. The Kalaallit, indigenous Inuits who live on the island’s western region, named the country Kalaallit Nunaat (land of the Kalaallit).

Also in the 10th century, Norse settlers began to inhabit the southern part of the island. Norse viking Erik Thorvaldsson (Erik the Red), exiled from Iceland for his father’s crime of manslaughter, sailed west and in 982 came upon fertile valleys and a beautiful fjord landscape where he decided to settle. When he returned to Iceland four years later, he told everyone about this new land, calling it “the green land,” in the hope of attracting more settlers. (Research indicates, however, that the island’s climate was warmer — and the island greener — than it is today, so the name was not so far-fetched.)

In 986, Erik once again left Iceland for Greenland, this time leading 25 ships, according to Greenland Guide. There were 500 men and women on board the vessels. Of the 25 ships, only 14 reached Greenland.

The Vikings founded Brattahlid and the two small villages of Vesterbygden and Østerbygden. Around the year 1000, the population had reached around 3,000, with 300 to 400 farms, according to Greenland Guide. For around 500 years, the Vikings lived alongside the Inuit people.

Then, the Viking communities seemed to disappear in the late 15th century. What happened remains a mystery. Some people suggest the Vikings succumbed to a mini ice age or other harsh living conditions. They did leave behind many artifacts, however, providing clues to their living situations and way of life.

Europeans returned to Greenland in 1721, and Denmark claimed the island as a colony in 1775. In 1953, a new Danish constitution made Greenland a division of the Kingdom of Denmark, and in 1979, Greenland was granted status as a distinct nation within the kingdom.

Climate

Indeed, today the name Greenland is a something of a misnomer, because 80 percent of the island is covered in ice. Along the north-central coast, the climate is arctic, meaning that the summer temperatures hover around freezing (32 degrees Fahrenheit).

The climate is a little milder (subarctic) toward the south. In Nuuk, the most populated city located in the south, the summers are cold, and the winters are freezing, snowy, windy and overcast. The temperature in the city varies between 11 to 50 degrees F and rarely goes below minus 1 degree F or above 55 degrees F.

Because humidity is low and Greenland is one of the best countries in the world for air quality, visibility is excellent. Even far-off mountains look much closer than they are. And since the air is so dry, it doesn’t feel as cold as one might expect.

Harbinger of climate change

The Greenland Ice Sheet extends about 656,000 square miles, covering most of the island of Greenland, or three times the area of Texas, according to the National Snow & Ice Data Center. The Antarctic Ice Sheet covers nearly 5.4 million square miles. Both ice sheets are melting at a rate of about 0.04 inches per year. If the entire Greenland Ice Sheet — which is around 9,840 feet thick — were to melt, it would raise sea levels by nearly 23 feet.

Scientists are also concerned that warmer air and thinning ice are allowing a greater number of dark algae to grow on the ice. This algae absorbs more of the sun’s heat, thus accelerating the melting even more.

Animals

Greenland is home to many species of mammals and birds, including polar bears, reindeer, musk oxen, caribou, arctic foxes, eagles, ptarmigan, hares, lemmings and the Arctic wolf.

There are approximately 235 different species of birds in Greenland. Most of these are migratory, with around 60 species breeding on the island. Some of the more common types include Arctic terns, white-tailed eagles, northern fulmars, black guillemots, common eiders and rock ptarmigans.

The Arctic waters surrounding Greenland abound in whales, including the narwhal, humpback, sperm, pilot, blue, minke, beluga and fin whales. Seals are also extremely common, with a population of around 2 million. Walruses are often seen on the northern and eastern coasts. The Greenland polar bear hunts seals and birds from the sea ice year-round and sometimes comes on shore to consume vegetation in the summer. The bears usually do not hibernate during winter.

The island also holds the world’s largest national park, Northeast Greenland National Park, which is around 100 times larger than Yellowstone National Park. Covering an area of 375,291 square miles, with 11,184 miles of coastline, the park is home to numerous Arctic species. It features unique and dramatic scenery, including the highest portions of the Northern Hemisphere’s largest ice cap as well as the northernmost area of land on Earth.

Due to its relative inaccessibility, however, Northeast Greenland National Park is not a national park in the traditional sense. A visit to the park requires a lot of advance planning. Very few people live in the area — mainly researchers and armed forces personnel — and only Inuit hunters have regular access to the park. Due to the high numbers of Arctic animals living here, various Inuit cultures have survived in this frigid climate for thousands of years.