Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha Paragraphs / August 31 – September 1, 2014

Light winds through this Labor Day holiday…with daytime sea breezes along the leeward beaches. Here’s the latest weather map, showing the Hawaiian Islands, and the rest of the North Pacific Ocean, along with a real-time wind profile of the central Pacific. We find a moderately strong high pressure system to our north-northeast. At the same time, there’s a former tropical cyclone to the northeast of Hawaii…moving westward slowly. This low pressure system will help to weaken our trade wind flow considerably. We’ll see daytime sea breezes into the first couple of days of the new week, bringing muggy conditions to the state. The more customary trade winds will rebound again around the middle of the week…although may remain somewhat lighter than normal for this time of year.

Satellite imagery shows clear to partly cloudy skies…cloudy over and around the islands in places. Looking at this larger looping satellite image, it shows clear to partly cloudy conditions over most of the state…with cloud stacking over and around the mountains. Meanwhile, there’s areas of thunderstorms far offshore to the west, south and southeast.  There’s low clouds being carried our way, which will drop a few showers locally. The lighter winds will also cause afternoon clouds and some showers over our leeward upcountry areas at times locally too. Here’s the looping radar, showing a few showers moving across our island chain, which will continue in an off and on manner…a few of which will be moderately heavy at times.

The computer models are keeping the threat of tropical cyclones well away from Hawaii…for the time being. As we move through the next several days, the remnant circulation of former tropical cyclone Marie…will move very slowly across the area well northeast and then north of Hawaii. This former tropical cyclone will disrupt our trade wind flow, with clear mornings giving way to afternoon clouds and showers over the upcountry slopes, and interior sections. These lighter winds will cause rather muggy conditions to prevail during the days, especially near sea level locations. I’ll be back with more updates on all of the above and below, I hope you have a great Sunday night wherever you happen to be spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Saturday Evening Film: I ended up seeing a film that was a heavy duty cartoon of sorts, which was fast paced and full of action. It was called Sin City, and was jam packed with action and special effects. It was also full of major actors and models, which added a good twist. Here’s a partial list of these men and women of the night: Josh Brolin, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mickey Rourke, Rosario Dawsin, Bruce Willis, Ray Liotta, Jessica Alba, Juno Temple, Stacy Keach, Lady Gaga…among many others. The synopsis: Sin City’s most hard-boiled citizens cross paths with some of its more reviled inhabitants. ~~~ Given the piece of work that it was, and what it should have been, I think it definitely did the job…and I was glad I saw it. As for a grade, I’ll go with a strong B, although given the subject matter, and harsh reality involved, I’m not going to be providing a trailer. I went to see it with my neighbor, and he and I drove over to a couple of Kihei dive bars afterwards, which seemed fitting somehow. It was good to get out on the dance floor for a couple of hours, kind of shake the film’s intensity off. This film was so intense, it made me go into a coffee shop and order a strong and dark shot of espresso at 10pm, before even taking the drive to Kihei…just call me wild man!

World-wide tropical cyclone activity:

Central Pacific: There are no active tropical cyclones

Here’s a link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)

Northwest 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

Here’s a link to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC)


Interesting:  Water scarcity is not a problem just for the developing world – In California, legislators are currently proposing a $7.5 billion emergency water plan to their voters; and U.S. federal officials last year warned residents of Arizona and Nevada that they could face cuts in Colorado River water deliveries in 2016.

Irrigation techniques, industrial and residential habits combined with climate change lie at the root of the problem. But despite what appears to be an insurmountable problem, according to researchers from McGill and Utrecht University it is possible to turn the situation around and significantly reduce water scarcity in just over 35 years.

In a new paper published in Nature Geoscience, the researchers outline strategies in six key areas that they believe can be combined in different ways in different parts of the world in order to effectively reduce water stress. (Water stress occurs in an area where more than 40 percent of the available water from rivers is unavailable because it is already being used — a situation that currently affects about a third of the global population, and may affect as many as half the people in the world by the end of the century if the current pattern of water use continues).

The researchers separate six key strategy areas for reducing water stress into “hard path” measures, involving building more reservoirs and increasing desalination efforts of sea water, and “soft path” measures that focus on reducing water demand rather than increasing water supply thanks to community-scale efforts and decision-making, combining efficient technology and environmental protection. The researchers believe that while there are some economic, cultural and social factors that may make certain of the “soft path” measures such as population control difficult, the “soft path” measures offer the more realistic path forward in terms of reducing water stress.

“There is no single silver bullet to deal with the problem around the world,” says Prof. Tom Gleeson, of McGill’s Department of Civil Engineering and one of the authors of the paper. “But, by looking at the problem on a global scale, we have calculated that if four of these strategies are applied at the same time we could actually stabilize the number of people in the world who are facing water stress rather than continue to allow their numbers to grow, which is what will happen if we continue with business as usual.”