Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha Paragraphs / March 24-25, 2015

Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Tuesday…along with the minimum temperatures Tuesday:

81 – 66  Lihue, Kauai
83 – 69  Honolulu, Oahu
82 – 67  Molokai AP
83 – 64  Kahului, Maui
84 – 72  Kailua Kona
81 – 66  Hilo, Hawaii

Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands, as of Tuesday evening:

0.03  Kilohana, Kauai
0.35  Waimanalo, Oahu
0.01  kamalo, Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.30  Hana AP, Maui
0.49  Kapapala Ranch, Big Island

The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph)…as of Tuesday evening:

27  Port Allen, Kauai – WNW
17  Makua Range – NW
12  Molokai – NW
15  Lanai – WNW
17  Kahoolawe – W
12  Kula 1, Maui – NW
16  Kaupulehu, Big Island – NW

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.

Aloha Paragraphs



An approaching cold front to the northwest of Hawaii


The leading edge of the cold front is to the northwest of
Kauai…moving towards Hawaii at approximately 15+ mph

A few showers mostly over the nearby ocean…
stretching onshore locally

Here’s the looping radar image for the
Hawaiian Islands

 

~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~

The Mauna Kea Summit…on the Big Island of Hawaii

Small Craft Wind Advisory…strengthening northeast
winds today into the night

Our winds will strengthen Wednesday…bringing a cooler north to northeasterly air flow over us into Thursday. Here’s the latest weather map, showing the Hawaiian Islands, and the rest of the North Pacific Ocean, along with a real-time wind profiler of the central Pacific. We find high pressure systems well to the northeast and northwest of the state, with a ridge of high pressure close to Kauai…moving south. At the same time, we have low pressure systems well to the north of the islands, with a trailing cold front to our northwest. The current lighter winds, which are coming in from the southeast locally, are bringing volcanic haze to some parts of the state for the time being. Then as the upcoming cold front moves through, we’ll find gusty north to northeasterly winds returning Wednesday into Thursday…gradually becoming light to moderately strong northeasterly and east-northeasterly trade winds Friday into the weekend.

Cloudy periods and a few showers…although not many expected through early Wednesday morning. This next cold front is approaching the state, reaching Kauai early Wednesday morning. The front will slip down through the rest of the islands during the day, bringing a period showers, nothing heavy is expected however. There will be a noticeable increase in winds along and in the wake of the cold front, carrying showers to the windward coasts and slopes…and even into the leeward sides on the smaller islands locally. As the more classic trade winds return Friday into the weekend, there will be a few off and on windward biased showers locally, especially the eastern islands. This trade wind weather pattern will extend into early next week. I’ll be back with more updates on all of the above, I hope you have a great Tuesday night wherever you’re spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Here on Maui: The skies are clear to partly cloudy over Maui early this morning…with some new volcanic haze in our skies too. The low temperature was 52 degrees here at my Kula weather tower at 550am, while it was 66 degrees down at the Kahului, 70 at the Hana airport, and 46 degrees atop the Haleakala Crater at the same time. The warmest low temperature around the state was 72 degrees at Kailua Kona on the Big Island.

~~~ It’s now early afternoon at 1250pm, under partly to mostly cloudy skies, and generally light winds over Maui. Here in the upcountry area of Kula, we’re under a fairly dark layer of clouds, which have been trying to spit a few very light sprinkles. Looking down into the central valley, I can see light to moderately thick volcanic haze. The air temperature is a relatively cool 67 here at my weather tower, given the thick clouds overhead. At about the same time, it was 81 degrees at both Kahului and Kapalua, with 79 degrees in Hana…and 63 up atop the Haleakala Crater.

~~~ We’re into the early evening hours now at 555pm, under quickly clearing skies. Earlier in the day we had a short period of light showers, which was a nice thing…after the dry period we’ve been having. There’s still a fair amount of volcanic haze in the atmosphere, more commonly called vog of course. As you know if you had a chance to read above, we have a weather change on the horizon. It will take until the afternoon on Wednesday before this approaching cold front arrives over Maui County. Perhaps more important than the increasing showers, will be the cool and strengthening north to northeasterly winds following in its wake.

>>> Atlantic Ocean: The last regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlook of the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season…has occurred. Routine issuance of the Tropical Weather Outlook will resume on June 1, 2015. During the off-season, Special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued as conditions warrant.

Here’s a satellite image of the Atlantic Ocean

>>> Caribbean Sea: The last regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlook of the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season…has occurred. Routine issuance of the Tropical Weather Outlook will resume on June 1, 2015. During the off-season, Special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued as conditions warrant.

>>> Gulf of Mexico: The last regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlook of the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season…has occurred. Routine issuance of the Tropical Weather Outlook will resume on June 1, 2015. During the off-season, Special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued as conditions warrant.

Here’s a satellite image of the Caribbean Sea…and the Gulf of Mexico.

>>> Eastern Pacific: The last regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlook of the 2014 North Pacific hurricane season…has occurred. Routine issuance of the Tropical Weather Outlook will resume on May 15, 2015. During the off-season, Special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued as conditions warrant.

Here’s a wide satellite image that covers the entire area between Mexico, out through the central Pacific…to the International Dateline.

Here’s the link to the National Hurricane Center (NHC)

>>> Central Pacific: The central north Pacific hurricane season has officially ended. Routine issuance of the tropical weather outlook will resume on June 1, 2015. During the off-season, special tropical weather outlooks will be issued as conditions warrant.

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: Massive marine sanctuary created in the Pacific – Mutiny on the Bounty is a tale about the Royal Navy ship Bounty. On April 28, 1789, Fletcher Christian led sailors in a mutiny against their captain, Lieutenant William Bligh. So the story goes, the captain was set afloat in a small boat along with crew members who were loyal to him, while the mutineers settled on Pitcairn Island or Tahiti and burned Bounty off Pitcairn to avoid detection.

Today Pitcairn island’s population is about 50 people, including descendants of Fletcher Christian, and the surrounding waters where the Bounty supposedly went down in flames has just become the world’s largest contiguous ocean reserve.

This is great news for the sanctity of the Pacific ocean and its inhabitants.

The Pitcairn Islands is the last remaining British Overseas Territory in the Pacific, made up of four of the most remote islands in the world, situated in the central South Pacific, halfway between New Zealand and South America.

The newly appointed 322,138-square-mile reserve is roughly 3 ½ times the size of the United Kingdom, and home to at least 1,249 species of marine mammals, seabirds and fish.

This underwater development in the remote Pacific Ocean will now be protected thanks in part to the Pristine Seas project, which National Geographic and Explorer-in-Residence Dr. Enric Sala launched to find, survey and help care for the last wild parts of the ocean, using a combination of exploration, scientific research, economic analysis and more.

The project relies on global leaders, local communities, tourism operators, nongovernmental organizations and even the military—to help manage protected areas such as the Pitcairn Islands, because like national parks, marine protected areas not only need to be set aside, but also managed over time.

The Pitcairn Islands development was not the project’s first success. So far the Pristine Seas project has helped to inspire country leaders to create five large reserves totaling over 1.2 million square kilometers. (There’s a cool map on this page showing where the five reserves are.)

For the Pitcairn Islands, becoming the world’s largest single marine protected area didn’t happen overnight. It started with an expedition back in 2012.

The National Geographic Society, in cooperation with the Pew Charitable Trusts, set out on a mission to determine the health of the marine environment surrounding the four Pitcairn Islands. What they discovered was “an exquisite and highly functional ecosystem surrounding two of the more remote islands, filled with large predators and the southernmost functional coral reef ecosystem in the Pacific.”

The Pristine Seas team worked with the leaders of the local community to draft a proposal to create a no-take marine reserve in the entire Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the islands. The community then took a vote and it was unanimous in favor of creating the reserve, and in January 2013 a joint proposal was submitted to the UK Government for consideration.

In June 2014, National Geographic published a study of their findings in the scientific journal PLOS One, aptly named, The Real Bounty: Marine Biodiversity in the Pitcairn Islands.

Which brings us up to date, and British Prime Minister David Cameron’s announcement of the creation of the world’s largest single marine protected area. On March 18, 2015, the U.K. government established the world’s largest single fully protected no-take marine reserve around the Pitcairn Islands, protecting 322,138 square miles of some of the most virgin ocean habitat on the planet.

What exactly is a “marine protected area”? National Geographic describes them as “special places in the ocean designated to help protect and restore marine life and habitat, much like national parks protect wildlife and habitat on land.”

The three major threats to the health of our oceans, according to Nat Geo are: overfishing, marine pollution and the effects of climate change on the ocean (which impacts the temperature and chemistry of ecosystems).

Due to their remoteness and low human population, the Pitcairn Islands contains wildlife in an almost pristine state, including intact deep-sea habitats with many species new to science. The protected area is home to one of the world’s two remaining raised coral atolls, as well as “40 Mile Reef,” the deepest and most well-developed coral reef known to humans.

The Real Bounty findings revealed rare species such as the false catshark, 70 species of hard corals, the world’s deepest-known living plant (a species of encrusting coralline algae found 1,253 feet below sea level), and eight probable new species of reef fishes.

The report also noted unusual observations like typically shallow reef sharks at depths down to 300 meters, concluding that their findings “highlight the uniqueness and high biodiversity value of the Pitcairn Islands as one of the least impacted in the Pacific, and suggest the need for immediate protection.”

Will this protected reserve really be protected? Absolutely, according to the National Geographic announcement:

The Bertarelli Foundation announced a five-year commitment to support the monitoring of the Pitcairn Islands Marine Reserve, using a technology known as the Virtual Watch Room. With this satellite monitoring system, government officials will be able to detect illegal fishing activity in real time. This is the first time any government has combined creation of a marine reserve with the most up-to-date technology for surveillance and enforcement of a protected area.

The Real Bounty findings explain, “Because of the nearly pristine and unique nature of most marine ecosystems of the Pitcairn Islands, its EEZ has a unique global value that is irreplaceable.”

EEZ refers to a sea zone prescribed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea over which a state has special rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources.

The report illustrates:

There are only a handful of areas in the EEZs of the world that remain pristine, occupying probably less than 5% of the ocean. These places allow us to envision what the ocean was like before heavy human impacts, to understand what we have lost in other places because of human impacts, and most importantly, to set proper conservation and management goals for our oceans.

The Pitcairn Islands reserve is part of a growing international movement to safeguard ocean waters that has protected more than 2.5 million square miles to date. In April 2010, the British government created the Chagos Marine Reserve in the Indian Ocean — which until the Pitcairn Islands announcement, was the largest continuous, fully protected area of ocean in the world. And in September 2014, U.S. President Barack Obama significantly expanded the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, first created by President George W. Bush in the south-central Pacific.

The creation of the world’s largest fully protected marine reserve is certainly good news for the planet, but what makes the Pitcairn Islands development truly great news is the incorporation of technology for surveillance and enforcement of reserve rules to protect it from its true predators: human beings.