From 135 mph wind gusts on Â鶹´«Ã½ Island to 62 inches of rainfall on Maui, a recent Kona low system brought weather conditions usually reserved for major hurricanes to the state. These extreme totals were captured by the University of ±á²¹·É²¹¾±ʻ¾±â€™s Â鶹´«Ã½ Mesonet, a weather monitoring system that is mapping localized threats across areas that previously had no data available. UH’s Â鶹´«Ã½ Climate Data Portal team created a report on the storm.

Alongside immense flooding, the storm brought destructive winds. The Â鶹´«Ã½ Mesonet station at Kaiāulu Puʻuwaʻawaʻa on Â鶹´«Ã½ Island recorded a maximum wind gust of 135.4 mph. Winds were briefly sustained at speeds equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane, averaging 105 mph over a 15-minute period.

Maui was hit the hardest, with peak rainfall totals reaching 62 inches in localized regions. Â鶹´«Ã½ Island also saw heavy precipitation, with areas recording 16–32 inches, and isolated spots also nearing 62 inches. Both Kauaʻi and Oʻahu recorded maximum totals ranging 16–32 inches. Molokaʻi and Lānaʻi experienced peak amounts 4–16 inches.

The upper elevations of Haleakalā experienced the most extreme rainfall, with 33.2 inches falling during the 24-hr period beginning March 13 at 8:30 a.m., nearly double the highest 24-hr rainfall previously recorded there. That amount is much greater than the NOAA‘s official estimate of 19.7 inches in 24 hours for the 1000-year storm (the rainfall amount with a 0.1% chance of being equalled or exceeded in any given year). Rainfall was even higher at the Kuiki Â鶹´«Ã½ Mesonet station on the east rim of Haleakalā crater with 36 inches falling in 24 hours beginning at 6 p.m. on March 13. This amount exceeded the NOAA 24-hr 1000-year extreme rainfall estimate of 28.5 inches.

“Before the project began, Â鶹´«Ã½ was one of only 20 states without a comprehensive statewide weather monitoring system, meaning we previously had no access to information in many of these areas,” said Tom Giambelluca, Â鶹´«Ã½ Mesonet project lead, and former director of the UH Water Resources Research Center. “Now, the system is constantly collecting data on rainfall, soil moisture, and other weather variables that can tell us in real time if an area is highly susceptible to fires or flooding, which ultimately allows us to be as prepared as possible”

To make this information accessible, UH launched a real-time weather dashboard offering public access to live weather data from more than 70 monitoring stations currently active across the state. The dashboard updates data every 15 minutes, allowing users to view current, localized conditions including temperature, rainfall, wind, humidity, solar radiation and soil moisture. This creates one of the most comprehensive and timely weather resources available in Â鶹´«Ã½.

In 2025, Â鶹´«Ã½ experienced its second–driest year in more than a century, alongside persistently above average temperatures throughout the year—a stark reality detailed in the inaugural . Published by the , this first-of-its-kind report uses plain language, along with easy-to-interpret maps and figures, to summarize statewide rainfall, temperature, and drought conditions over the past year.

The report is designed to connect communities, resource managers, and policymakers with the climate data behind what many experienced firsthand, providing essential information to support climate preparedness and long-term planning across the islands.

This report reflects decades of effort to monitor Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s climate and conduct high-level scientific research, paired with more than eight years of collaboration by a team of climate and data scientists to develop an expanding suite of high-quality climate maps and decision support tools. These maps are hosted on the Â鶹´«Ã½ Climate Data Portal (HCDP) and, for the first time, make it possible to summarize climate conditions consistently across the entire state.

“Throughout 2025, we heard people across the state talking about just how hot and dry the year felt,” said Ryan Longman, director of the Â鶹´«Ã½ Climate Data Portal. “Now we have the data to show what people were experiencing on the ground. We hope this type of reporting helps connect residents to their own lived experiences with Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s climate and gives communities the information they need to plan for what’s ahead.”

The report is accompanied by a detailed, interactive website that allows users to explore the same climate information for individual islands and even for specific ahupuaÊ»a or watersheds. Together, the report and website provide a clear picture of what many residents across Â鶹´«Ã½ experienced firsthand in 2025.

Highlights from the report

• 2025 was the second driest year in Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s 106-year record, with statewide rainfall averaging just 42 inches—about 20 inches below the 30-year average.
• Maui experienced its driest year on record, while Â鶹´«Ã½ Island recorded its second driest year.
• Rainfall was below average for 11 out of 12 months, and August ranked as the driest August in the past 35 years.
• Statewide, 2025 ranked as the sixth warmest year on record, averaging 0.8°F warmer than normal. For Maui and Kauaʻi, it was the third warmest year since 1990.
• Drought conditions were widespread and severe. By the end of the year, 65% of the state was classified as abnormally dry or worse, and all of Molokaʻi experienced dry conditions. The most intense drought occurred in February, when 56% of HawaiÊ»i was in severe drought or worse.

Future data collection to expand

Looking ahead, the establishment of the Â鶹´«Ã½ Mesonet is expected to further improve the quality and detail of future reports by expanding on-the-ground climate observations. This report marks the first in a new annual series, to be released at the start of each year and refined and expanded over time as Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s climate data and monitoring networks continue to grow.

The report also announced the launch of monthly climate update summaries, expected later this spring, which will send the latest information on rainfall, temperature and drought directly to subscribers’ inboxes, with a focus on the parts of the island chain that matter most to the individual subscribers.

“The goal of the monthly climate summaries is to provide an early signal of emerging rainfall and drought conditions,” said Longman. “By delivering site-specific information at the scales people actually work at, these updates can support more proactive planning and decision-making.”

The report was compiled by the Â鶹´«Ã½ Climate Data Portal and Â鶹´«Ã½ Mesonet teams. Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation, the State of Â鶹´«Ã½ Commission on Water Resource Management, and the U.S. Geological Survey Pacific Islands Climate Adaptation Science Center.

A new tool developed by University of Â鶹´«Ã½ researchers allows anyone in the state to generate custom, site-specific climate reports to support decisions related to drought, wildfire and land management—a major step forward in Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s climate resilience efforts.

The was unveiled at a May 2025 meeting of the Â鶹´«Ã½ Climate Data Portal (HCDP) User Group, which drew lawmakers, emergency managers and wildfire officials. The new system lets users select or draw an area of interest, enter basic details and receive a tailored climate portfolio by email. It is free to use and portfolios are generated and delivered in less than an hour.

“We used to generate these portfolios one at a time, but the demand for them was so great that we decided to automate the entire process,” said Ryan Longman, lead researcher on the HCDP project and the UH consortium director of the .

The tool is part of the larger project, which is working to transform how the state tracks weather, drought and wildfire risk using advanced climate modeling, real-time data systems and artificial intelligence. Change Â鶹´«Ã½ is part of the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research or .

Real-time dashboard

At the meeting, researchers also rolled out a newly developed, open-source dashboard for the Â鶹´«Ã½ Mesonet—a growing network of 110 weather monitoring stations statewide, 66 of which are now operational. Each station collects 21 environmental variables and generates more than a million data points daily that feed into predictive models for wildfire and drought.

• Read more about the dashboard on UH News

“This dashboard puts real-time data at the fingertips of the people who need it most,” said Tom Giambelluca, Â鶹´«Ã½ Mesonet project lead, Change Â鶹´«Ã½ co-principal investigator and former director of the at UH. “High-quality data has never been easier to access, and future applications with the data are limitless.”

Wildfire system

The team has developed daily wildfire probability maps and forecasts statewide through the use of optimized machine learning models for more accurate fire behavior forecasting and drought assessment. The user-friendly, real-time data is accessed through the HCDP, which is publicly available. Read more on UH News.

The goal is to provide early warning to fire managers, emergency responders and landowners so they can deploy resources, issue public advisories and reduce risks through more informed planning. This wildfire system can identify critical wildfire ignition factors, including relative humidity, temperature, rainfall, normalized difference vegetation index (components of wildfire fuel) and land cover.

Future efforts will leverage robust cyberinfrastructure, advanced data visualization, and innovative AI and machine learning applications, including computer vision and edge AI systems, to create a more resilient Â鶹´«Ã½.

A new real-time dashboard launched by the University of Â鶹´«Ã½ at ²ÑÄå²Ô´Ç²¹ offers public access to live weather data from nearly 70 monitoring stations across the state, marking a major milestone in the Â鶹´«Ã½ Mesonet project. The launch coincides with Wildfire Awareness Month and represents a pivotal moment in the effort to make climate data available to the public.

Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s diverse geography and microclimates present unique challenges that require precise monitoring to accurately capture weather events. Annual rainfall in parts of Maui, for example, can vary by more than 140 inches within a single mile. The Â鶹´«Ã½ Mesonet’s data has the potential to inform planning and decision-making in emergency management, agriculture, water resource, conservation and many other sectors.

Developed by an interdisciplinary team of scientists at UH ²ÑÄå²Ô´Ç²¹ and the Â鶹´«Ã½ Department of Land and Natural Resources, the project aims to deploy 100 high-tech weather stations to provide critical data for forecasting, disaster response and improving climate resilience. The dashboard is expected to play a critical role in supporting wildfire and flood early warning systems, particularly as climate-related disasters are expected to become more frequent and severe.

• Access the dashboard

The dashboard allows users to view current weather conditions at stations spanning the Hawaiian Islands, including temperature, rainfall, wind, humidity, solar radiation and soil moisture. The real-time data is updated every 15 minutes, creating one of the most comprehensive and timely weather data resources available in the state.

“This dashboard represents years of effort to build a system that’s tailored to Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s unique needs,” said Tom Giambelluca, Â鶹´«Ã½ Mesonet project lead, long-time professor in the , and former director of the UH (WRRC) “It’s not just about data—it’s about giving our communities the tools to adapt and respond.”

The launch comes as federal agencies such as the National Weather Service and NOAA face data removal and staffing cuts under the Trump administration. With gaps in data availability growing, the Â鶹´«Ã½ Mesonet system is poised to become a key source of reliable, localized weather intelligence.

Data from the system is stored in Â鶹´«Ã½ Climate Data Portal (HCDP), which is available to the public and is used to create recently launched new wildfire risk maps and other climate maps. The HCDP pulls data from multiple sources, including the Â鶹´«Ã½ Mesonet and as well as other federal datasets.

“The real concern is that most of these federal datasets will no longer be available in the near future—making the Â鶹´«Ã½ Mesonet and the HCDP the sole resource for real time weather and climate information in the state,” Pacific Islands Climate Adaptation Science Center University Consortium Director Ryan Longman said. “A big uncertainty is how the state will fill critical funding gaps left by the federal government to support these important efforts.”

For more information, visit the Â鶹´«Ã½ Mesonet website.

The University of Â鶹´«Ã½ at ²ÑÄå²Ô´Ç²¹ hosted the from March 15 to 23, bringing together 32 students and 19 instructors from 16 countries. The program provided an immersive learning experience focused on El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a climate pattern that influences global weather.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of key milestones in ENSO research, including the work of Klaus Wyrtki, the late renowned oceanographer from UH ²ÑÄå²Ô´Ç²¹. His groundbreaking studies helped shape modern understanding of El Niño and its impacts on weather patterns worldwide.

• Related UH News story: Â鶹´«Ã½ State Legislature honors late oceanographer Klaus Wyrtki, March 19, 2025

Over the nine-day program, participants engaged in morning lectures covering ENSO fundamentals, followed by student-led discussions on influential scientific papers. Afternoons featured student presentations, hands-on training and collaborative research projects. The curriculum provided participants a more thorough look at ENSO through real-world data analysis, modeling techniques and forecasting methods.

“This year’s ENSO Winter School was an incredible opportunity for students to engage directly with leading researchers and gain hands-on experience in ENSO science,” said Christina Karamperidou, chair of the school’s scientific organizing committee, and professor and associate department chair in UH ²ÑÄå²Ô´Ç²¹â€™s . “Seeing participants from around the world collaborate and deepen their understanding of climate variability was truly inspiring. By hosting this vibrant community of scientists and future research leaders, the University of Â鶹´«Ã½ at ²ÑÄå²Ô´Ç²¹ reinforces its reputation as a central hub for cutting-edge ENSO research.”

“Participating in the ENSO Winter School has not only deepened my understanding of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation but also broadened my perspective on nature and its dynamics, as well as strengthened my professional network,” said Roger Manay-Torres from the Instituto Geofísico del Perú. “This experience has been incredibly valuable, both academically and professionally, and it has far exceeded my expectations.”

Regina R. Rodrigues, a professor of physical oceanography at the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Brazil was one of the lecturers, and talked about ENSO’s impacts on weather extremes, etc.

“It was a great experience to spend more than a week with students, earlier career researchers and many of the most prominent experts on ENSO,” Rodrigues said. “I learned more about past ENSO from paleoclimate records and about future ENSO from climate projections.”

Jérôme Vialard, a senior scientist at Institut de Recherche pour le Développement in Paris, added, “I have worked on ENSO for almost 30 years, but found the lectures of other instructors useful. Some refreshed my memory, and some taught me new things on topics I know less about, such as paleo-climate or machine learning.”

The school was supported by UH ²ÑÄå²Ô´Ç²¹â€™s , International and U.S. CLIVAR, IAPSO/IUGG, CIMAR and the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research.

To strengthen ±á²¹·É²¹¾±ʻ¾±â€™s flood and wildfire early warning systems and improve the state’s response to natural disasters and climate change impacts, a team of researchers at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½ at Mānoa, in partnership with the Â鶹´«Ã½ Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR), is installing an advanced network of 100 weather monitoring stations across the state to enhance weather and climate monitoring and forecasting. The data collected can also be used for water resource management, agriculture, ranching, ecosystem and cultural resource protection and more.

The 61st weather station of the system, called , was installed next to a Honolulu Board of Water Supply reservoir on the top of Mariner’s Ridge in Â鶹´«Ã½ Kai in December 2024. The system is already providing real time data that is also available to the public through an easy-access web interface. Once the remaining 39 stations are deployed over the next two years, the Â鶹´«Ã½ Mesonet will fill a critical gap for Â鶹´«Ã½. According to Tom Giambelluca, project lead for the Â鶹´«Ã½ Mesonet, “Before the project began, Â鶹´«Ã½ was one of only 20 stations without a comprehensive statewide weather monitoring system.”

“It’s about being able to be as prepared as possible, especially when you consider recent events like the devastating Los Angeles wildfires and the terrible Lahaina fire here at home,” said Giambelluca, a long-time professor in the Geography and Environment Department, and former director of the UH (WRRC). “For instance, the system that is constantly collecting data on soil moisture can tell us in real time if an area is highly susceptible to fires or flooding. This same data collected over time can be used by farmers and ranchers.”

Â鶹´«Ã½‘s unique landscape

Building a network like this is all the more important in Â鶹´«Ã½ as the state’s unique landscape and climate patterns create significant variability in temperature, rainfall and other factors. For example, annual rainfall in West Maui can differ by more than 140 inches within one mile, requiring precise and localized data to inform decision-making.

The network requires approximately $600,000 annually for operations, maintenance and data management. Currently, the NOAA National Mesonet Program covers 40% of the cost. The program is seeking additional state funding from the legislature for the DLNR Commission on Water Resource Management to support the UH program. Â鶹´«Ã½ State Rep. Linda Ichiyama says she is a supporter.

“The Â鶹´«Ã½ Mesonet represents a critical investment in the safety, resilience and sustainability of our island communities,” said Ichiyama. “This advanced weather monitoring system will empower us to make informed decisions in the face of increasingly severe weather events and climate challenges, like we are seeing in Los Angeles now. Supporting this initiative ensures that Â鶹´«Ã½ is better equipped to protect our communities, manage our natural resources, and plan for a more resilient future.”

Real-time insights

Each station is equipped with cutting-edge sensors that measure rainfall, air temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, air pressure, solar radiation and soil conditions at multiple depths. Sensors scan every second, recording averages and statistics every five minutes. Data is transmitted every 15 minutes, ensuring real-time insights for weather forecasting, emergency management, water resource planning and more. The data captured by the Â鶹´«Ã½ Mesonet is publicly available on the UH Â鶹´«Ã½ Climate Data Portal.

“The network spans the whole archipelago, so we are able to get information in places that previously we had no access to,” said Ryan Longman, UH Pacific Islands Climate Adaptation Science Center consortium program director. “We can monitor and analyze weather phenomena such as extreme winds and heavy rainfall events, with much more accuracy now than we had in the past. We are also using the data to create climate maps that can give us high resolution information anywhere and those maps are already being used by a range of stakeholders. Ranchers, resource managers, water managers are all using those maps to get information on the ground at site specific locations even in places where a mesonet station doesn’t exist.”

The Â鶹´«Ã½ Mesonet has secured more than $1.5 million in funding for equipment from the National Science Foundation, with additional contributions from the Honolulu Board of Water Supply and state funding to the DLNR Â鶹´«Ã½ Commission on Water Resources Management. Installation costs are supported by WRRC and the UH .

For more information about the Â鶹´«Ã½ Mesonet, visit .

In a significant development for climate research and management, the Â鶹´«Ã½ Climate Data Portal (HCDP) is set to expand its reach to additional Pacific islands, and provide more data to help decisionmakers. Launched in 2022, the free online portal developed by researchers from the University of Â鶹´«Ã½ and the East-West Center is expected to catalyze new research initiatives and inform policy decisions to mitigate climate risks and safeguard natural and human systems.

A major enhancement to the HCDP is the integration of data from the Â鶹´«Ã½ Mesonet, which plans to establish 100 new climate stations across the state over the next two years. Similar efforts are underway in American Samoa, and funding is being sought for a mesonet in Guam.

“The Â鶹´«Ã½ Mesonet is filling critical gaps in our understanding of climate in Â鶹´«Ã½. Improving monitoring across the Pacific is a goal we are working towards, one station at a time,” said Tom Giambelluca, UH Water Resource Research Center director.

The HCDP‘s recent inclusion in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society underscores its importance in streamlining access to climate information. The HCDP team plans to leverage decades of work developing the portal and expand its utility and function to serve other regions in the Pacific.

User friendly, comprehensive datasets

The user-friendly interface and comprehensive datasets make the HCDP an invaluable resource for improving awareness and facilitating collaboration across sectors. Recent updates feature new gridded surfaces, such as seasonal land cover and daily rainfall and humidity maps.

“Accessing high-quality climate data for Â鶹´«Ã½ has never been easier,” said Ryan Longman, East-West Center Oceania researcher. “This means greater opportunities for research, community outreach, and developing decision support tools to aid resource managers.”

Federal agencies increasingly leverage HCDP data for various applications:

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture Risk Management Agency uses the data for an insurance product for ranchers in Â鶹´«Ã½.
• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration produces a monthly state-of-climate report.
• The U.S. Geological Survey develops models to track avian malaria using HCDP‘s gridded products.

Since its launch on March 3, 2022, more than 45,000 unique users have accessed more than 20 million HCDP files. Upcoming developments include mapping hourly wind speed and solar radiation and creating tools for wildfire risk assessment and drought forecasting.

Rainfall estimations on Oʻahu can be more accurate by combining Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s two main types of rainfall observations, radar and rain gauge, according to a study by University of Â鶹´«Ã½ at ²ÑÄå²Ô´Ç²¹ researchers. Current observations are based on one or the other, where specific weather stations are checked (rain gauge), or weather radars are observed to view patterns. The study is an effort to better understand Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s complex weather patterns and hydrological consequences.

Like most of the world, Â鶹´«Ã½ is experiencing more extreme weather, yet often lacks adequate data. By bridging the gap between radar and gauge data, experts can now gain a better understanding of the complex rainfall patterns in mountainous tropical areas across the state, as well as the inherent uncertainties associated with various storm types and structures when simulating streamflow.

The new dataset, which stemmed from combining radar and rain gauge data, also creates better synergy across disciplines. Meteorologists and hydrologists can deepen their understanding, leading to more accurate assessments of flash flood risks, urban planners can test their plans and products against rainfall data, and emergency responders can be more prepared for natural disasters.

“The significance of this research is not only for its immediate benefit to resource managers, weather forecasters and emergency managers, but also for its potential to jumpstart new scientific advances in atmospheric and water sciences,” said Thomas Giambelluca, director of the UH ²ÑÄå²Ô´Ç²¹ .

The study, “,” was published in the Journal of Hydrometeorology. It was conducted by in the ’ and the in the .

Better preparation, resilience

Radar rainfall observation provides rain rate over a large spatial area within a specific time frame (~every five minutes) but struggles with accuracy, while rain gauges provide “ground truth” values (information from direct observation and measurement), but only measures at limited point locations.

Recognizing the need to combine these two observation types to collect more accurate data, the UH ²ÑÄå²Ô´Ç²¹ researchers built off of (hourly rainfall data available ), and merged the two main types of rainfall observations to create a detailed hourly gridded rainfall dataset for Oʻahu. This incorporation of two data sources is also known as kriging with external drift (KED), allowing the researchers to refine rainfall values estimated only by a single instrument.

“With this developed and validated KED method, we are advancing Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s capacity to better prepare and build resilience when facing climate extremes,” said Yinphan Tsang, co-author of the study and principal investigator of the Tsang Stream Lab.

This research offers valuable insights into the performance of the KED method across various storm types, such as tropical cyclones, cold fronts, upper-level troughs and Kona lows, to accurately estimate rainfall in these scenarios for flood forecasting and impact applications.

“The validated KED hourly rainfall dataset is an especially valuable tool for ongoing research on extreme weather impacts and water resources in Â鶹´«Ã½,” said Giambelluca.

The effects of climate change are no longer far-off threats and are now contributing factors to many of today’s disasters, often exacerbating the frequency of wildfires, heat waves and flooding, and the intensity of rainfall during hurricanes and storms. These unprecedented weather events have triggered a global urgency to prioritize research-based initiatives to understand, predict, mitigate and reverse the impacts of climate change.

The at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½ at ²ÑÄå²Ô´Ç²¹ has earned both national and international acclaim for its research and is a part of the renowned . In a field often dominated by men, three distinguished female faculty are further elevating the department’s research and prestige, making atmospheric waves in climate modeling and cloud microphysics.

Enhancing global climate models

Professor Christina Karamperidou’s research focuses on El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which is the primary factor affecting variability in water temperature, rainfall and wind strength in the Pacific.

One of the methods Karamperidou uses to study ENSO is to synthesize climate model simulations with paleoclimate data, much of which is gathered from ancient, preserved material such as coral skeletons, shells or lake sediment, which can indicate past temperature and rainfall across the Pacific. Using paleoclimate ENSO records from the Holocene (the past 12,000 years) along with climate model simulations, Karamperidou and her team can study the climate mechanisms behind the ENSO phenomenon—its predictability, impacts and how its characteristics may change under the influence of natural or anthropogenic climate change.

“Coming out of a longer [three-year] La Niña (cooling of sea surface temperatures), most models currently predict a big El Niño for the end of this year, which could lead to potentially more tropical Pacific cyclones, and altered rainfall patterns in our islands and around the world,” said Karamperidou who recently received the Early Career Scientist Award from the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics. “Improving our understanding of ENSO mechanisms through our studies of modern and past climates allows us to improve ENSO representation in global climate model simulations to help reduce uncertainties and improve accuracy of El Niño prediction and future climate projections.”

Understanding clouds

One of the most uncertain and complex Earth systems represented in climate models is clouds and the aerosols that they form on. Studying the fundamental structure and processes involved in clouds and aerosols not only allows scientists to better parameterize them in models, but also improves our understanding of the atmosphere and weather patterns.

Associate Professor Alison Nugent studies orographic precipitation, how mountain topography induces or modifies precipitation. Breaking down cloud microphysics, Nugent explained, “In one cubic centimeter—the size of a sugar cube—a cloud has 100 cloud droplets. In a polluted atmosphere, it can have many more times that in the same volume. The size and number of cloud droplets is important for their relationship to precipitation and to radiation. For example, a cloud with many small cloud droplets will be brighter and reflect more radiation, and may take longer to precipitate than a cloud with fewer, large droplets.”

Nugent recently received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development award that will allow her team to investigate the role of wind, waves and other atmospheric and oceanic properties that influence the production of sea salt aerosols in coastal environments on three Pacific islands. Nugent also helped to secure funding to install 84 climate stations throughout the state.

Broadening horizons in atmospheric sciences

Another researcher making major strides is Associate Professor Jennifer Griswold, the atmospheric sciences department’s first female chair. Since becoming chair in 2021, she has spearheaded a national initiative locally for the past few years called Expand Your Horizons–Â鶹´«Ã½, an annual STEM conference for young women in sixth to eighth grades to encourage and support young girls’ enthusiasm in STEM careers.

Prior to joining UH, she helped build the first Phase Doppler Interferometer (PDI) and data processing program, a breakthrough innovation and process that significantly improved the study of cloud structures and properties. Now used at several institutions, the PDI measures cloud droplet size and velocity for each spherical droplet. It also records the arrival time of the droplet to determine clustering and turbulence.

Griswold’s research continues to focus on improving the understanding of physical and dynamical processes governing global cloud aerosol precipitation interactions, from volcanic activity, biomass burning and even changes in anthropogenic aerosol levels during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown.

“Atmospheric sciences, especially climate and seasonal forecasting, is a data-intensive field and the most important and applied research areas going forward,” said Griswold. “Almost all industries will be impacted by climate change, and knowing how and when things will change can positively or negatively impact a business, community or individuals.”

For more, . Noelo is UH’s research magazine from the .

Improved weather and climate forecasting using machine learning and artificial intelligence is the focus of a new project. Results are expected to have a major impact in Â鶹´«Ã½ and other tropical climate areas around the world.

Associate Professor Peter Sadowski from the in the earned a five-year, $424,293 CAREER grant from the (NSF). CAREER grants are designed to support early-career faculty to serve as academic role models in research and education.

“One of the risks of climate change for Â鶹´«Ã½ is extreme weather events, and current scientific models are poor at estimating these risks,” Sadowski said. “This project will provide a completely new approach modeling these risks, using the latest advancements in AI (artificial intelligence).”

Sadowski’s project will develop machine-learning methods to predict the risk of adverse weather and climate events. AI will be used to develop new data-driven computational methods for modeling risk and apply these methods to weather applications.

In particular, these models will be applied to forecasting solar irradiance and precipitation, two areas that are particularly important for tropical islands such as the Hawaiian Islands. Estimating the risk of rapid changes in solar power generation is necessary for managing energy grids that are seeing a rapid increase in variable renewable sources, and floods claim hundreds of lives and billions in property damage each year in the U.S. alone.

Artificial intelligence methods have greatly improved translating text into predictions using images and video. A key development is the ability to learn probabilistic models of images and video. The research will leverage existing data from numerical simulations of atmospheric variables, observations from satellites and ground-based weather station data from the . The machine-learning methods developed by this project will complement existing physics-based weather prediction models by providing location-specific forecasts with increased speed, higher resolution and probabilistic accuracy.

Fostering the next generation

This research will be paired with an educational outreach program that includes a summer data science course for high school students and a workshop to share data science teaching materials with Â鶹´«Ã½â€™s K–12 teachers.