Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha paragraphs / October 2-3, 2012

Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Tuesday afternoon:

Lihue, Kauai –                       84  
Honolulu airport, Oahu –         83  
Molokai airport –                    82
Kahului airport, Maui –       85 
Kona airport     –                 85  
Hilo airport, Hawaii –              80

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops around the state…as of 830pm Tuesday evening:   

Lihue, Kauai – 79
Hilo, Hawaii – 73   

Haleakala Summit –   52        (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 41        (near 13,800 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. Here's the Haleakala Crater webcam on Maui…although this webcam is not always working correctly. 

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.

Aloha Paragraphs

Volcanic haze (vog) around the islands in places

Good sunset and sunrise colors over the
next several days…at times locally

As this weather map shows, we have a strong near 1038 high pressure system located far to the northeast of the islands. At the same time, we have low pressure systems to our north and northwest, with their associated cold fronts moving southeast towards Hawaii. This has pushed a high pressure ridge down over the Kauai end of the island chain. Our local winds will be generally light from the southeast…then perhaps light trade winds returning later Wednesday into Thursday.

The following numbers represent the most recent top wind gusts (mph), along with directions as of Tuesday evening:

13            Port Allen, Kauai – SE
20            Kahuku Trng, Oahu – SE
15            Molokai – ENE    
18            Kahoolawe – ENE
10            Kaupo Gap, Maui – SW
12            Lanai – NE
20            Upolu airport, Big Island – NE

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.

Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Tuesday evening:
 
0.01               Wainiha, Kauai
0.92               Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.00               Molokai
0.01               Lanai
0.00               Kahoolawe
2.45               Kepuni, Maui
0.53               Mountain View, Big Island  

                                                       ~~ Hawaii Sunset Commentary ~~ 

Our local winds will remain generally light through the next week, coming in from variable directions…although mostly from the east to southeast, and south and southwest by this weekend. We find a strong high pressure system (1038 millibars) (weather map), located far to the northeast of the islands this evening. At the same time we find a couple of low pressure systems to our north and northwest…with their associated cold fronts northwest of Kauai. The closest cold front's presence will keep our winds on the light side…although a light trade wind flow might develop later Wednesday into Thursday. For the time being, the light southeast breezes are carrying volcanic haze over parts of the island chain into Wednesday morning…some of which is quite thick in places. The trade winds will rebound a little through Thursday. The models show another early season cold approaching the state this weekend, which will cut off our trade winds, and turning them south to southwest. The question becomes, will this frontal cloud band bring showers to Kauai or even Oahu…stay tuned for the answer.

As we look at this satellite image, it shows lots of high and middle level clouds around the state…with some lower level clouds too.  If we shift to this looping satellite image, we see that the clouds, at least the lower level ones, are moving up from the south to southeast…on the islands from Maui up through Kauai. The clouds are still coming into the Big Island from the east-southeast. At the same time, there's an area of high cirrus, and mid-level altocumulus clouds coming up from the west-southwest. Then, if we turn to this even larger satellite image, we see the brighter white area of clouds associated with the cold front to the north and northwest of Kauai…which has a few embedded thunderstorms by the way.

Here in Kula, Maui at 5pm Tuesday evening, it was mostly cloudy, with rather thick volcanic haze…and an air temperature of 66.9F degrees.  Our winds remain quite lighter now, coming up from the southeast in most areas. This is occurring in response to a couple of low pressure systems to our north and northwest. These low pressure systems have associated cold fronts, offshore to the northwest and north of Kauai, which in turn, has pushed a ridge of high pressure down over the western part of the island chain. Volcanic haze has spread up from the Big Island vents, over other parts of the state for the time being. This lighter wind regime, with locally hazy skies and afternoon upcountry clouds with a few showers…will prevail through Tuesday. Thereafter, the ridge will move northward again slowly, as the nearby cold front dissipates, allowing light trade winds to return later Wednesday through Thursday. Looking further ahead, the next early season cold front will approach the state this weekend. We may see similar conditions then, as we're seeing now, with the light trade winds giving way to light winds from the south or even southwest. This next cold front will get closer to the state than the current one, so we may see some showers falling around Kauai or even Oahu by Sunday. All of the information above points directly towards the fact that we're actively pushing into our autumn season now, leaving the typical summer trade wind weather patterns behind. I'll be back again early Wednesday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Tuesday night wherever you're spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

By the way: I want to let you know that I'll be flying out of the Kahului, Maui airport this Thursday, on a flight to San Francisco. The daily weather forecasts will remain available in my absence, located in the upper left hand corner of all pages on this website. Just go to that area, and click on the island you want a forecast for…as shown below. I'll write more about my vacation before I leave…and will provide reports along the way as usual.

Extra: Youtube music video, Gabby "Pops" Pahinui…Ipo Lei Manu

                     World-wide tropical cyclone activity:

Atlantic Ocean/Caribbean Sea: Tropical storm Nadine remains active, located about 405 miles west-southwest of the Azores….in the Atlantic Ocean. Sustained winds were 50 mph, moving east at 14 mph. Here's the NHC graphical track map, along with the satellite image showing never ending Nadine's position. Tropical storm conditions associated with Nadine will spread over the northwestern Azores tonight or early Thursday morning. 

Tropical depression 15L is now active, located about 1160 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands….in the Atlantic Ocean. Sustained winds were 35 mph, moving northwest  at 15 mph. Here's the NHC graphical track map, along with the satellite image for what will soon be short-lived tropical storm Oscar.

Gulf of Mexico: There are no active tropical cyclones

Eastern Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones

An area of disturbed weather remain intact several hundred miles south of the southern coast of Mexico. It has a low 10% chance of developing into a tropical cyclone over the next 48 hours. Here's a satellite image showing where this area is.

Central Pacific Ocean:  There are no active tropical cyclones

Western Pacific Ocean:  Tropical storm Maliksi (20W) remains active about 470 NM south-southeast of Tokyo, Japan. This tropical cyclone has 45 knot sustained winds, with gusts to near 55. Here's a JTWC graphical track map, along with a satellite image of this storm.

Tropical storm Gaemi (21W) remains active about 580 NM east of Hue, Vietnam. This tropical cyclone has 55 knot sustained winds, with gusts to near 65 knots. Here's a JTWC graphical track map, along with a satellite image of this storm.

South Pacific Ocean:   There are no active tropical cyclones

North and South Indian Oceans:  There are no active tropical cyclones

Interesting:  Ambivalence over the name of the third season of the year reflects its status as a relatively new concept. As natural as it seems today, people haven't always thought of the year in terms of four seasons. Fifteen hundred years ago, the Anglo-Saxons marked the passage of time with just one season: winter, a concept considered equivalent to hardship or adversity that metaphorically represented the year in its entirety.

For example, in the Old English epic poem "Beowulf," the title character rescues a kingdom that had been terrorized by a monster for "12 winters." According to "Folk Taxonomies in Early English" (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2003) by Earl R. Anderson, the importance of winter in marking the passage of time is evidenced by the constancy of its name over time and across many languages.

"Winter" probably derives from a root word meaning "wet" that traces back more than 5,000 years. Summer is also a time-honored concept, though perhaps never quite as weighty a one as winter, and this is evidenced by greater ambivalence over its name.

In Old English, the word "gear" connoted the warmer part of the year. This word gave way to the Germanic "sumer," which is related to the word for "half." Eventually, speakers of Middle English (the language used from the 11th to 15th centuries) conceived of the year in terms of halves: "sumer," the warm half, and "winter," the cold half. This two-season frame of reference dominated Western thinking as late as the 18th century.

Incidentally, Chinese culture also had a two-season framework, but there, the major seasonal polarity was autumn (symbolizing adversity) and spring (symbolizing regeneration), with little importance given to the extremes of summer and winter. In the West, the transitional seasons, being more trivial, were "not fully lexicalized in the language" until much later, Anderson wrote. Lexicalization is the realization of an idea in a single word.

In 12th- and 13th-century Middle English, spring was called "lent" or "lenten" (but this also meant the religious observance), and fall, when it was considered a season at all, was called "haerfest" (which also meant the act of taking in crops). In the 14th and 15th centuries, "lenten" gave way to a panoply of terms, including "spring," "spryngyng tyme," "ver" (Latin for "green"), "primetemps" (French for "new time"), as well as more complicated descriptive phrases.

By the 17th century, "spring" had won out. In terms of seasons, the period spanning the transition from summer to winter had the weakest credentials of all, and so it got lexicalized last. "Autumn," a Latin word, first appears in English in the late 14th century, and gradually gained on "harvest." In the 17th century, "fall" came into use, almost certainly as a poetic complement to "spring," and it competed with the other terms.

Finally, in the 18th century, "harvest" had lost its seasonal meaning altogether, and "fall" and "autumn" emerged as the two accepted names for the third season. But by the 19th century, "fall" had become an "Americanism": a word primarily used in the United States and one that was frowned upon by British lexicographers.

The persistence of two terms for the third season in the United States, while somewhat of a mystery, may have something to do with the spread of English to the American continent at the very epoch when "fall" began jockeying for position with "autumn": the 17th century. At that time, both terms were adopted stateside, and the younger, more poetic "fall" gained the upper hand. Back in Britain, however, "autumn" won out.

The continued acceptance of "autumn" in the United States may reflect the influence, or at least the proximity, of English culture and literature. According to Slate, British lexicographers begrudgingly admit that the United States got the better end of the stick. In "The King's English" (1908), H.W. Fowler wrote, "Fall is better on the merits than autumn, in every way: it is short, Saxon (like the other three season names), picturesque; it reveals its derivation to every one who uses it, not to the scholar only, like autumn."