Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Monday:
78 Lihue, Kauai
80 Honolulu, Oahu
76 Molokai
78 Kahului, Maui
82 Kona, Hawaii
77 Hilo, Hawaii
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops on Maui and the Big Island…as of 930am Tuesday morning:
Kailua Kona – 78
Port Allen, Kauai – 68
Haleakala Summit – 48 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 34 (13,000+ feet on the Big Island)
Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live web cam on the summit of near 13,800 foot Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. This web cam is available during the daylight hours here in the islands…and when there’s a big moon shining down during the night at times. Plus, during the nights you will be able to see stars, and the sunrise and sunset too… depending upon weather conditions.
Aloha Paragraphs
Trade winds becoming lighter today into Wednesday…increasing
from the south and southwest Thursday into Friday
An active Pacific cold front will arrive late Thursday night into
Friday…improving weather by the weekend
Showers locally around the Big island, possibly heavy…just a
few elsewhere
Flash Flood Watch…for the windward side of the Big Island
until 6pm this evening
The following numbers represent the most recent top wind gusts (mph), along with directions as of Tuesday morning:
07 Mana, Kauai – NE
16 Bellows, Oahu – NE
16 Molokai – SE
31 Lanai – NE
27 Kahoolawe – NNE
14 Kula 1, Maui – WSW
25 PTA Keamuku, Big Island – NE
Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Tuesday morning:
0.46 Kilohana, Kauai
0.47 Kahana, Oahu
0.30 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.35 Hana aiport, Maui
14.61 Island Dairy / 14.40 Waiakea Uka – Big Island
We can use the following links to see what’s going on in our area of the north central Pacific Ocean. Here’s the latest NOAA satellite picture – the latest looping satellite image… and finally the latest looping radar image for the Hawaiian Islands.
~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~
Trade winds becoming lighter today into Wednesday…then stronger from the south to southwest Thursday into Friday. Here’s the latest weather map, showing the Hawaiian Islands, and the rest of the Pacific Ocean. ~~~ We find high pressure systems far to the northeast of the state, with a second closer high pressure cell north of Hawaii. At the same time, we see a low pressure system to our north-northeast, with the tail-end of its cold front over the ocean just east of the Big Island. ~~~ The winds will come in from the trade wind direction, although will ease up during the day into Wednesday. They will increase in strength, from the south to southwest Thursday into Friday. This will occur as our next cold front approaches the Aloha State then. We may see an increase in volcanic haze (vog) locally over the next couple days…as the winds swing around through the southeast and south directions.
Fair weather for most of the state into mid-week…still the chance of a few heavy showers over parts of the Big Island today. Satellite imagery shows clouds over and around most of the islands, with the exception of Oahu, Molokai and Lanai at the time of this writing. The most prominent clouds are over parts of east Maui and the Big Island, associated with a low pressure system to the northeast. This low and its cold front continue to bring rainfall to parts of the Big Island. The other islands aren’t seeing the prolonged rains, with just a few light showers here and there. Here’s the looping radar image, showing showers offshore and over parts of the Big Island. Looking at this larger satellite image, which is in the looping mode, we can see how showers continue to be anchored over the Big Island, at least the windward side of that already soaked island on this last day of the year. The Big Island has had so much precipitation the last several days…its just incredible!
The localized heavy flooding rains on the Big Island, will gradually give way to drier weather…hopefully. As noted above, an area of rainy clouds have brought lots of rainfall to the Big Island, and have hung in there along the windward side for the last two days. The two largest rainfall amounts were 14.40″ at Waiakea Uka…and 14.61″ at Island Dairy during the last 24 hours! In contrast, some parts of the Big Island have seen no rainfall at all…as it continues to be anchored over the north and east facing windward coasts and slopes. There has been a little snow falling at times over the higher mountains, although it melts quickly during the day. All things considered though, we should see fairly dry weather conditions today in most areas of the state, although the Big Island looks to be the holdout for a while longer. ~~~ As we get into New Year’s Eve later today, and then into New Years Day, we’ll have lighter winds, which will prompt afternoon clouds around the slopes, with a few upcountry showers locally. The beaches should have the best chance of nice weather, with generally dry conditions there through New Years Day. ~~~ As we move into the second half of this week, the models continue showing another cold front approaching the state. If they are correct in their outlook, it will bring Kona winds (south to southwest) ahead of it, and rainfall to at least some parts of the state late Thursday into Friday. The latest forecast shows that conditions should improve by the weekend. I’ll be back many times during this last day of 2013 with more updates, I hope you have a great New Years Eve day here in the islands, or wherever you happen to be reading from! Aloha for now…Glenn.
New Years Eve: I’m going to be writing a few things in this space through the midnight hour, not sure what yet, although there will be something to read going forward…you may want to check back occasionally.
>>>Perhaps I should start off with the bottle of champagne that I’ve picked out for the celebration tonight. It’s French, and is called Billecart-Salmon Brut Rose. Here’s what the experts are saying:
94 points Wine Enthusiast - Such an elegant, ethereal wine, this orange-pink wine is dry and crisp with fruity raspberry flavor at the fore. This particular bottling could improve for a year, but makes a great food Champagne now.
92 points Wine Spectator – The ripe black cherry, strawberry and damson plum fruit flavors offer an enticing profile in this seamlessly integrated rosé. Mouthwatering acidity and a mineral undertow mesh with hints of fruit cake, smoke and spice.
92 points Stephen Tanzer – (roughly 50% chardonnay, 35% pinot noir and 15% pinot meunier): Light orange. Vibrant strawberry and orange zest aromas are complicated by notes of tea rose, smoky lees and chalky minerals. Bright, incisive red fruit flavors pick up a toasty nuance with air. Fresh, incisive and refreshingly tangy, with impressive finishing clarity and stony persistence.
Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate – The NV Brut Rose is a pretty, gracious wine. Freshly cut roses, red berries and spices take shape nicely in the glass as the wine shows off its understated, timeless personality. Billecart-Salmon’s NV Brut Rose is a reliably tasty wine.
Champagne Quotes: I drink champagne when I’m happy and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I’m not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it – unless I’m thirsty. ~ Madame Lilly Bollinger
Champagne has the taste of an apple peeled with a steel knife. ~ Aldous Huxley
Come quickly, I am tasting the stars! ~ Dom Perignon, at the moment he discovered champagne
World-wide tropical cyclone activity:
Atlantic Ocean: The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1st through November 30th. Here’s the 2013 hurricane season summary
Here’s a satellite image of the 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: The Eastern Pacific hurricane season runs from May 15th through November 30th. Here’s the 2013 hurricane season summary
Here’s a wide satellite image that covers the entire area between Mexico, out through the central Pacific…to the International Dateline.
Central Pacific Ocean: The Central Pacific hurricane season runs from June 1st through November 30th. Here’s the 2013 hurricane season summary
Here’s a link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)
Western Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones
South Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones
North and South Indian Oceans: Tropical Cyclone 06S (Bejisa) remains active in the South Indian Ocean, here’s the JTWC graphical track map…and a NOAA satellite image.
Here’s a link to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC)
Interesting: Water year round in the land of ice - In Greenland where three quarters of the land mass is covered by the earth’s only inhabited ice sheet, water is not so easy to obtain. University of Utah researchers however, have discovered a new reservoir/aquifer in Greenland’s ice sheet. The reservoir is known as a “perennial firn aquifer” and covers 27,000 square miles an area larger than the state of West Virginia. Called a firn because water persists within layers of snow and ice that doesn’t melt for at least one season, researchers believe the discovery will aid in the understanding of snowmelt and ice melt as it relates to rising sea levels.
“Of the current sea level rise, the Greenland Ice Sheet is the largest contributor — and it is melting at record levels,” says Rick Forster, lead author and professor of geography at the University of Utah. “So understanding the aquifer’s capacity to store water from year to year is important because it fills a major gap in the overall equation of meltwater runoff and sea levels.”
In southeast Greenland since 2010, Forster’s team is studying the variability of snowfall accumulation. The little studied area covers 14% of southeast Greenland but receives 32% of the entire ice sheet’s snowfall.
In 2010, the team drilled core samples in three locations and returned in 2011 to approximately the same area, but at lower elevation. Two of the four core samples taken in 2011 came to the surface with liquid water pouring off the drill amidst air temperatures of minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit. Water was found at 33 feet below surface at the first hole and at 82 feet in the second.
“This discovery was a surprise,” Forster says. “Although water discharge from streams in winter had been previously reported, and snow temperature data implied small amounts of water, no one had yet reported observing water in the firn that had persisted through the winter.”
The aquifer is similar in form to groundwater potable aquifers on land accept that water is stored in the airspace between ice particles, like the juice in a snow cone instead of between rocks. Forster adds. “The surprising fact is the juice in this snow cone never freezes, even during the dark Greenland winter. Large amounts of snow fall on the surface late in the summer and quickly insulates the water from the subfreezing air temperatures above, allowing the water to persist all year long.”