A Kauai Blog

While the American Gulf coast is likely going to suffer through another hurricane, the Pacific hurricanes are forming as well. For a while Jova had hurricane-strength winds and people were talking about preparedness, but it has dissipated into a tropical depression going north of Hawaii.

The following graphic is a copy of today’s satellite photo, click on it to see the more current forecast:

Image source: National Weather Service

The remnants of Jova are at the small end of the yellow drop. You can also see tropical storm Kenneth about 1000 miles SE of Hawaii and tropical storm Norma near Mexico.

The fact that hurricanes are generated by warm water seems to fit our experience here. Last year, we would get cold after snorkeling a while, even in the summer, and I don’t recall any hurricane watches. This year, I distinctly noted that we could snorkel as long as we wanted without getting cold, so I would assume the ocean temperature was at least 5 deg (F) warmer.

Living on the east coast of Kauai and having to get up early for work, I often see the sunrise. We are also fortunate to live uphill from the coast, so we can see some of the ocean and have generally open views to the east. Last winter, the sunrises were so impressive that I started taking pictures of them. Now that we have wet weather again, the clouds and rain catch the morning colors more than they did all summer.

Here is how my week started out last Monday:

I didn’t even notice the two birds in the upper-right hand corner until I downloaded the picture. From the silhouette, I think they are the non-native Myna birds, a more common relative of the talking Myna birds.