Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha Paragraphs / September 7-8, 2014

The generally light trade winds will remain active into the new week ahead…perhaps shifting to the southeast with time. 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 high pressure systems to the north and northeast. At the same time, there’s low pressure troughs not far to the north of Hawaii. Meanwhile, there’s a near 984 millibar gale low pressure system far to the north-northwest. Our winds will remain quite light, trending towards the southeast at times, which will keep our atmosphere a bit on the humid side.

Satellite imagery shows clear to partly cloudy skies over the islands…with lots of high cirrus clouds to our southwest. Looking at this larger looping satellite image, it shows a large area f thunderstorms well offshore to the southwest  of Hawaii…with the cirrus tops being transported towards our area locally.  The light winds over our region will prompt afternoon clouds and some showers over our leeward upcountry slopes in places. The trade winds, despite being on the light side, will bring the windward sides some incoming showers too. Here’s the looping radar, showing some showers moving across our island chain, which will continue in an off and on manner. 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.

Friday Evening Film: This time around I’ve seen most of the new films that were of interest to me, although there’s one that I’ve been considering seeing, it’s called Magic in the Moonlight, starring Eileen Atkins, Colin Firth, Marcia Gay Harden, Hamish Linklater, Simon McBurney, and Emma Stone…among others. The synopsis: Chinese conjuror Wei Ling Soo is the most celebrated magician of his age, but few know that he is the stage persona of Stanley Crawford (Colin Firth), a grouchy and arrogant Englishman with a sky-high opinion of himself and an aversion to phony spiritualists’ claims. Persuaded by his friend, Howard Burkan (Simon McBurney), Stanley goes on a mission to the Côte d’Azur mansion of the Catledge family: mother Grace (Jacki Weaver), son Brice (Hamish Linklater), and daughter Caroline (Erica Leerhsen). He presents himself as a businessman named Stanley Taplinger in order to debunk the alluring young clairvoyant Sophie Baker (Emma Stone) who is staying there with her mother (Marcia Gay Harden). Sophie arrived at the Catledge villa at the invitation of Grace, who is convinced that Sophie can help her contact her late husband, and once there, attracted the attention of Brice, who has fallen for her head over heels. What follows is a series of events that are magical in every sense of the word and send the characters reeling. In the end, the biggest trick MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT plays is the one that fools us all. This film is directed and produced by Woody Allen

~~~ It was a perfectly fine film, as one would expect from Mr. Allen. It was Colin firth and Emma Stone, by far, who carried the film on their shoulders for the most part. It was a little strange, given the vast age difference between these two actors, although in this day and age…what else is new I suppose. The scenery and location in southern France were certainly delightful to see, which uplifted the film in my eyes. The costumes were great too, given that the film was set in 1928. Overall, I was sufficiently entertained, and as for a grade, I’m going with a B, no higher…although not a touch lower either. If this holds any interest for you, here’s the trailer.

Saturday Evening Dancing:  My neighbor Jeff’s girlfriend just flew in from Germany, and we all drove over to Kihei to a good dive bar we know of. This place is called the Kahale’s Beach Club, and has a good band playing. The dance floor was a bit crowded at times, although I always found enough space to have fun. Besides the good danceable music, the other thing about this place that I like, is that the band starts playing at a reasonably early 9pm. It’s a bit of a drive from upper Kula, about 40 minutes, although I like the fact that its available. I didn’t know anyone there, although I just blend into the dancing crowd, and often just dance around my neighbors on the floor.

Sunday Service: I had a very good friend pass away about three weeks ago, his name was Don Vanhorn. There are many of his friends that are getting together at the beach today, to celebrate his life. I’d known Don since the early days here on Maui, back in the late 1970’s in fact. He and I used to get together all the time, and were best of friends over the years. We were both living in Haiku, not far from each other back then, although he had moved to the Big Island recently. He was an entertainer, well known as Stanley The Clown, and was the best Salsa dancer around…thus very popular with the gals. At any rate, we’re getting together for a pot luck today, and to tell stories about our old friend, whose no longer with us. This is the second very good friend that I’ve lost over the past five years or so, the other was an old girlfriend named Dr. Julie Holmes. It makes it hard not to remember that life isn’t forever, and that it’s wise to take advantage of our time while we still have it.


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: Tropical Storm 13W (Fengshen) remains active in the northeast Pacific, located about 264 nautical miles south of Yokosuka, Japan…with sustained winds of near 63 mph. Here’s a graphical track map…along with a satellite image. 

Tropical Depression 14W is now dissipating in the northeast Pacific, located about 182 nautical miles west-southwest of Hong Kong…with sustained winds of near 30 mph. Here’s a graphical track map…along with a satellite image  – Final Warning

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: Ozone pollution in India kills crops that could feed starving population – In one year, India’s ozone pollution damaged millions of tons of the country’s major crops, causing losses of more than a billion dollars and destroying enough food to feed tens of millions of people living below the poverty line.

These are findings of a new study that looked at the agricultural effects in 2005 of high concentrations of ground-level ozone, a plant-damaging pollutant formed by emissions from vehicles, cooking stoves and other sources. Able to acquire accurate crop production data for 2005, the study’s authors chose it as a year representative of the effects of ozone damage over the first decade of the 21st century.

Rising emissions are causing severe ozone pollution in some of India’s most populated regions. Pollution in Delhi, the nation’s capital, has reached levels comparable to Beijing, one of the most polluted cities in the world, according to India’s Air Monitoring Center.

The main component of smog, ozone at ground level can cause leaf damage that stifles plant growth, injuring and killing vegetation. There are currently no air quality standards in India designed to protect agriculture from the effects of ground-level ozone pollution, according to the new study. Ground-level ozone is formed when nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds react with sunlight after the chemicals’ release from vehicles, industry, or burning of wood or other plant or animal matter.

According to the new study published in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, surface ozone pollution damaged 6.7 million U.S. tons of India’s wheat, rice, soybean and cotton crops in 2005.

India could feed 94 million people with the lost wheat and rice crops, about a third of the country’s poor, according to Sachin Ghude, an atmospheric scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) in Pune, India and lead author of the new study. There are about 270 million Indians that live in poverty, according to the study.

Wheat — one of the country’s major food sources — saw the largest loss by weight of the four crops studied in the new paper, with ozone pollution damaging 3.8 million U.S. tons of the crop in 2005. Another major food source, rice, saw losses of 2.3 million U.S. tons, according to the new study.