Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha paragraphs / February 6-7, 2013

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

Lihue, Kauai –                        76  
Honolulu airport, Oahu –     80  
Molokai airport –                    75
Kahului airport, Maui –           73 
Kona airport     –                 80   
Hilo airport, Hawaii –              79

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops around the state…as of 430am Thursday morning:

Kailua Kona – 73
Port Allen, Kauai – 64

Haleakala Summit –   36     (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 28      (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. Here's the Haleakala Crater webcam on Maui.

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.  The 2012 hurricane season is over in the eastern and central Pacific…resuming on May 15th and June 1st 2013.

Aloha Paragraphs

Small Craft Advisory for gusty trade winds…around parts
of Maui and the Big Island

Looping Radar Image…for the Hawaiian Islands

~~~538am HST Thursday morning: clear, calm…
at my upcountry Kula, Maui weather tower: 51.8F degrees~~~

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

23       Port Allen, Kauai – NE
42       Kuaokala, Oahu – NNW
20        Molokai – NE 
28       Kahoolawe – NE
18       Lipoa, Maui – NE
28       Kealakomo, Big Island – NE

Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Wednesday evening:
 
0.97     Kilohana, Kauai
1.71     Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.51     Molokai
0.10     Lanai
0.00     Kahoolawe
5.63     Puu Kukui, Maui
1.39     Kawainui Stream, 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 Commentary ~~~ 

Our trade winds will remain moderately strong in general, although with stronger gusts locally…through the rest of the week into next week. Here's a weather chart showing a large, near 1029 millibar high pressure system located to the northeast of Hawaii. At the same time, we see a deep near 953 storm low pressure system far to our northwest…and less intense lows far northeast of our islands. Small craft wind advisories remain pared back to just those windiest areas around Maui and the Big Island this evening. These trade winds will continue through the remainder of this week…ranging between light to moderate, although locally strong and gusty at times too.

Satellite imagery shows generally low clouds over and around the islands…with some higher level clouds to our north and northwest. Showers here in the islands will be active, with increased in frequency and intensity locally at times. This was certainly true here on Maui, as the Puu Kukui rain gauge atop the West Maui Mountains, picked up 5.63" during the last 24 hours!  The bulk of these incoming showers will fall along our north and east facing windward coasts and slopes through mid-day Thursday or so. It looks like Maui County and the Big Island will have the most rainfall, although there will be showers elsewhere too, some of which will be locally heavy.

Increased low level moisture is arriving now from the east, helping to fuel these increasing showers. While this moisture is streaming over us from the east, a trough of low pressure aloft, is moving over us from the northwest now too. These two weather elements will gang up, to provide increased showers through the next 12+ hours. As the trade winds are still quite active, some of this moisture will be carried over into the leeward sides on the smaller islands to. Conditions should gradually become better during the day Thursday, starting from the Kauai end of the island chain…gradually reaching the Big Island with time.

As Friday and Saturday rolls around, we should see less showers, with a common trade wind weather pattern in force. The various weather models have been going back and forth, about whether a cold front would bring showers this weekend. First it's going to arrive, and then it will stall before arriving. Regardless, lets just put this question to the side for a day or so. The models have been quite clear in pointing out that an upper level trough will be moving over, or close to the islands later this weekend. If this upper low were to get into our area, it could enhance whatever showers that might be around then, similarly to what the current upper low is doing for us now. Do you read some uncertainty in all this, of course you do…and rightly so.

I apologize, as it leaves our weekend weather outlook…sort of hanging in the balance. I'm pretty sure that by tomorrow, the models will have sorted out the various choices, and made a decision. I just looked at the latest GFS weather model output, and it shows a fragmented cold front bringing some clouds, and likely some showers to our windward sides on Sunday into Monday morning. Let's go with this for the time being, and I'll update this prospect early Thursday morning, when I'll be back with your next weather narrative.  I hope you have a great Wednesday night wherever you're spending it! Aloha for now, Glenn.

World-wide tropical cyclone activity:

Atlantic Ocean/Caribbean Sea:  There are no active tropical cyclones

Gulf of Mexico: There are no active tropical cyclones

Eastern Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones

Central Pacific Ocean:  There are no active tropical cyclones

Western Pacific Ocean:  There are no active tropical cyclones

South Pacific Ocean:  There are no active tropical cyclones

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

Interesting: An earthworm is a tube-shaped, segmented animal that is commonly found living in soil. It is one of the more harmless creatures on Earth. Earthworms are long revered for their beneficial role in soil fertility, but with the good comes the bad: they also increase greenhouse gas emissions from soils, according to a study published Feb. 3 in Nature Climate Change by a research team that includes a University of California, Davis, soil scientist.

Earthworms travel underground by the means of waves of muscular contractions which alternately shorten and lengthen the body. The shortened part is anchored to the surrounding soil by tiny claw-like bristles set along its segmented length. The whole burrowing process is aided by the secretion of lubricating mucus.

They also work as biological pistons forcing air through the tunnels as they move. Thus earthworm activity aerates and mixes the soil, and is constructive to mineralization and nutrient uptake by vegetation.

The team found that earthworms do not, as was suspected, stimulate carbon sequestration in the soil, which helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, they actually increase greenhouse gas emissions through a variety of ways.

"There was a hypothesis that earthworms were having a positive effect on the greenhouse balance, but they don’t," said co-author Johan Six, a plant sciences professor at UC Davis during the study who is now a professor at ETH Zurich in Switzerland.

"I would never say you have to take out the earthworms because of greenhouse gases. It’s just that you cannot give them credit for reducing greenhouse gases." The team gathered all relevant published research to date: 57 different experiments. The research team then employed a statistical technique called meta-analysis to discern overall patterns in the data.

They found that the presence of earthworms increased nitrous oxide emissions from soil by 42 percent and carbon dioxide emissions from soil by 33 percent. But they found no indications that earthworms affect soil organic carbon stocks — the carbon stored within the soil.

According to the researchers, earthworms likely increase greenhouse gas emissions several ways: they mix organic plant residues in the soil, which may increase decomposition and carbon dioxide emissions; the earthworm gut acts as a microbial incubator, boosting the activity of nitrous oxide-producing microbes; and the earthworms, by burrowing through the soil, make it easier for greenhouse gases in the soil to escape into the atmosphere.

"Our literature search also pointed out a large gap in the published studies," Lubbers said. "We need more experiments that include growing plants, as well as more long-term studies and more field studies before we can decide to what extent global worming leads to global warming."