Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Friday:
Lihue, Kauai – 80
Honolulu airport, Oahu – 86 (record for Friday – 90 in 1989)
Kaneohe, Oahu – 80
Molokai airport – 83
Kahului airport, Maui – 85
Kona airport 83
Hilo airport, Hawaii – 82
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops…as of 5pm Friday evening:
Barking Sands, Kauai – 86
Kaneohe, Oahu – 75
Haleakala Crater – 52 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 41 (over 13,500 feet on the Big Island)
Here are the 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Friday afternoon:
1.82 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
1.03 Manoa Lyon Arboretum, Oahu
0.07 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
1.12 West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.92 Kawainui Stream, Big Island
Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a 1028 millibar high pressure system to the north of our islands. Our local trade winds will remain active Saturday and Sunday.
Satellite and Radar Images: To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with this Infrared Satellite Image of the islands to see all the clouds around during the day and night. This next image is one that gives close images of the islands only during the daytime hours, and is referred to as a Close-up visible image. Finally, here's a Looping IR satellite image, making viewable the clouds around the islands 24 hours a day. To help you keep track of where any showers may be around the islands, here’s the latest animated radar image.
Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live web cam on the summit of near 13,500 foot Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. The tallest peak on the island of Maui is the Haleakala Crater, which is near 10,000 feet in elevation. These two web cams are 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.
Tropical Cyclone activity in the eastern and central Pacific – Here’s the latest weather information coming out of the National Hurricane Center, covering the eastern north Pacific. You can find the latest tropical cyclone information for the central north Pacific (where Hawaii is located) by clicking on this link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. A satellite image, which shows the entire ocean area between Hawaii and the Mexican coast…can be found here. Here's a tropical cyclone tracking map for the eastern and central Pacific.
Aloha Paragraphs
Trade wind weather pattern, showery at times…
especially on the windward sides
The trade winds will blow through the weekend…into the new week ahead. Glancing at this weather map, we find our primary high pressure system weighing-in at 1028 millibars…located to our north. The placement of this area of high pressure, and its associated ridge running westward from the center, will keep our trade winds blowing…increasing a notch today into the weekend. We find a small craft wind advisory in place over those windiest locations in Maui County and the Big Island. There’s no end in sight as far as these trade winds go, at least not from this vantage point.
Our trade winds will remain active…the following numbers represent the strongest gusts, along with directions early Friday evening:
31 Port Allen, Kauai – NE
28 Waianae, Oahu – NE
22 Molokai – NE
32 Kahoolawe – ESE
32 Kahului, Maui – ENE
06 Lanai – SW
38 South Point, Big Island – NE
We can use the following links to see what’s going on in our area of the north central Pacific Ocean Friday night. Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we find lots of lower level clouds in all directions of the Hawaiian Islands, especially towards our east and northeast. We can use this looping satellite image to see shower bearing clouds being carried towards our windward sides by the trade winds. The departing upper level low pressure system to our west is spinning away. We find a rather large area of high cirrus clouds to our southwest…taking aim on our islands. Checking out this looping radar image we see showers being carried along in the trade wind flow, keeping the windward sides showery at times, particularly during the nights.
Sunset Commentary: The trade winds, and their friends the windward showers, are working in tandem…keeping passing showers in the forecast. As has been the case lately, and very often during trade wind episodes such as this, the night and early morning hours find the most frequent precipitation. The trade winds are strong enough now too, that a few showers could get carried over into the leeward sides…on the smaller islands of Oahu and Kauai.
Meanwhile, if you're a fan of high cirrus clouds, you're in luck. These icy clouds up high, at the jet stream levels of the atmosphere, are swiftly moving in our direction. Checking out this looping satellite image, we see them heading in our direction from the southwest. They of course delight our local communities with colorful sunset and sunrise colors. They might miss the islands, although it looks like about a 100% chance of their arrival to me….soon!
Turning our attention away from weather for a moment, I want to share what film that I'll be seeing this evening. I wanted to see the new Woody Allen film, but it came and left too soon, and I missed it. So, I'm going to see the new one called Super 8, starring Kyle Chandler and Elle Fanning, among many others. A synopsis: in the summer of 1979, strange and unusual disappearances begin to take place, in a small town after a catastrophic train crash. Ok, ok, perhaps this doesn't sound all that interesting, I may have to agree with you. I just feel like heading into Kahului and getting something to eat, and then plop down in the theater seat, and space out for a couple of hours. It's been once again another long work week, and I feel like just letting my mind be taken along for the ride. I'll let you know my impression Saturday morning, when I'll be back next. By the way, the critics are giving this film a B grade, while the viewers are providing a slightly better B+ rating. Here's a trailer if you have an interest in seeing what J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg have produced.
Looking out the windows of my office here in Kihei at 530pm, it looks pretty normal, with partly cloudy skies prevailing. I'm heading out right now, and trust that you will have a great Friday night wherever you happen to be reading from! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting: Why don't you ever see baby pigeons? For the same reason you don't see many chicks: they can't fly. It can take months for their partially developed wings and flight muscles to become airworthy, and by then the youngsters are almost fully grown. However, long before their maiden flight, pigeon chicks probably put their developing wings to use, flapping as they run up steep branches.
Brandon Jackson from the University of Montana, USA, explains that Ken Dial and his son first noticed this strange behavior when filming chuckar chicks negotiating obstacles: instead of flying over, the birds ran up the object flapping their wings. And when Dial discussed this behavior with local ranchers and hunters, some described adult chukars flapping to run up cliffs.
So why do adult birds flap and run up steep objects when they are perfectly capable of flying? Jackson, Dial and their colleague Bret Tobalske wondered whether pigeons might use 'flap running' to save energy, so they measured the amount of power generated by the flight muscles of flap running and flying birds and found that flap running birds use less than 10% of the energy of birds flying at the same angle.
Their discovery is published in The Journal of Experimental Biology. First, the team familiarized the birds with the ramps they were to ascend and trained them to fly to a perch so that they could compare the muscle power output from the flight muscle as the birds 'flap ran' and as they flew up at the same angle. Then they implanted sensors into the birds' wing and flight muscle to measure the power output and muscle activity.
Finally, the team filmed the birds as they flap ran up an almost vertical ramp (85deg) and a steep ramp at 65deg, and flew at various take-off angles to the perch. Watching the muscle activity trace as the birds flap ran up the 65deg incline, the team could barely see any electrical activity in the flight muscle. 'We thought, "It's flapping, there must be activity," so we zoomed in on the computer screen and there was the signal, it was just over an order of magnitude smaller in amplitude,' recalls Jackson.
The birds seemed to be using hardly any power to flap their wings as they ran up the slopes. And when the trio calculated the power produced by the flapping flight muscle, it was less than 10% of the power required for the bird to fly at the same angle. The flap running birds were making significant power savings in their flight muscles by flap running up slopes.
The team also realized that the adults only increased their flight muscle power output by small increments as the slope angle increased. 'The basic story comes out that once you can run up a nearly vertical substrate your muscle and wings are ready to control your descent. They are ready even to fly on the level,' says Jackson.
So, by building up slowly from flap running up shallow inclines to ascending steeper slopes, flap running could be an essential stage in chicks learning to fly, allowing them to build up their muscles gradually before the first take off. Jackson also adds that flap running could have been a key stage in the evolution of flight. 'At some point birds came from bipedal dinosaurs with small forelimbs that evolved into small wings,' explains Jackson.
Knowing that archaeopteryx's flight muscles were probably too small to power flight, he suggests that they may have been large enough to help it flap run up steep obstacles. So, just as flap running appears to be a key stage in learning to fly, it could also have been a major breakthrough in the evolution of flight.
Interesting2: The gyrfalcon is a species of falcon which lives on the arctic coasts and islands of North America, Europe, and Asia. It is the largest of all the falcon species. Being well adapted to cold weather, the gyrfalcon has thick plumage and spotted white feathers for blending into the icy background. A recent study from the University of Oxford has uncovered a very unique trait which this species possesses. It is the only known land-based predatory bird to make its home on icebergs floating over the ocean.
The study tracked the seasonal movements of 48 gyrfalcons using radio transmitters. They found that some spent most of the winter months over the ocean using sea ice and icebergs as bases from which to hunt. This is unheard of for a predator bird that is not at all adapted to life on the water. The falcon does not possess the adaptations of sea birds like gulls, gannets, terns, and ducks.
It does not have webbed feet for paddling or an oily coating on its feathers to keep it dry. What the gyrfalcon does have is strong talons, quick speed, and an impressive ability to catch winged prey. Because it hunts other birds, it does not have to dive into the water. It can soar above the waves and, using its speed, capture sea birds and carry them to its iceberg for consumption.
Kurt Burnham, who led the research while at Oxford University's Edward Grey Institute and now runs the High Arctic Institute, told Matt Walker at BBC Nature: "I was very surprised by this finding… These birds are not moving between land masses, but actually using the ice floes or pack ice as winter habitat for extended periods of time…In the big picture this shows how adaptable and mobile gyrfalcons have to be in order to survive and reproduce in the harsh arctic environment they live in."
Gyrfalcons have long impressed humans with their mastery of the sky. In Canada’s Northwest Territories, it is the official bird. It is also represented on the Icelandic coat of arms. During medieval times, it was considered a royal bird throughout Europe, Asia, and as far south as Egypt. Today, they are used by people for hunting and the art of falconry. This new study shows that the gyrfalcon is capable of living and thriving in some of the world's harshest climates. It has been published in the journal Ibis, the International Journal of Avian Science.
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