Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Sunday…along with the low temperatures Sunday:
82 – 74 Lihue, Kauai
86 – 76 Honolulu, Oahu
80 – 72 Molokai AP
85 – 71 Kahului AP, Maui
85 – 72 Kailua Kona
84 – 67 Hilo AP, Hawaii
Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands…as of Sunday evening:
1.31 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.76 Palisades, Oahu
0.30 Puu Alii, Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
1.26 West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.95 Mountain View, Big Island
The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph)…as of Sunday evening:
20 Poipu, Kauai
32 Kuaokala, Oahu
28 Molokai
28 Lanai
30 Kahoolawe
23 Kaupo Gap, Maui
32 Upolu AP, 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.
Aloha Paragraphs
There’s a low pressure far north of the state…
with a trailing cold front to our northwest
Scattered low clouds in the area of the islands…with
thunderstorms far south
Clear to partly cloudy, with a minor band of scattered low clouds moving
over the islands locally…a bit of high clouds near Kauai
Showers falling locally…a few locally generous
Looping radar image
Small Craft Advisory…windiest coasts and channels
from Maui County to the Big Island
~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~
Gusty trade winds remaining active for another day or two…then easing up some around mid-week. Here’s the latest weather map, showing moderately strong high pressure systems well to the north-northeast of Hawaii. At the same time, there’s a nearly stationary cold front/trough well to the northwest of Kauai. Our local trade winds will ramp-up a notch now, and remain on the breezy side into Tuesday, with a small craft wind advisory active over the windiest parts of the islands for the time being. A trough of low pressure is expected to develop in our general area, which will help to soften our trade wind flow for a couple of days by Wednesday. The winds may swing around the southeast, with some volcanic haze arriving then. As we move into the weekend…the trade winds will increase again.
Here’s a wind profile…of the offshore waters around the islands – with a closer view
Here’s the Hawaiian Islands Sulfate Aerosol animated graphic – showing vog forecast
Showers will continue to favor windward and mountain areas, with a modest increase in shower activity today…as moisture moves towards us in the trade wind flow. Satellite imagery shows clear to partly cloudy skies in most places across the state, with just a few cloudy areas along the windward sides…at the time of this writing. Although, both satellite and radar images show scattered showers moving towards the islands, which will arrive along the windward coasts and slopes today. The models continue to point out the chance of an increase in showers around the middle of the new week. As the winds become lighter during the second half of this work week, we may see convective showers popping-up over the leeward slopes during the afternoon hours.
Marine environment details: The small craft advisory remains across the typically windy waters around the Big Island and Maui County. Winds are expected to ease slightly tonight and Monday. The small craft advisory will likely be dropped by Monday night as winds decrease further.
Surf will remain below advisory levels on all shores through the forecast period. Small surf is affecting north, west and south shores. A small southwest swell is possible this coming week…while surf along windward shores will continue.
Poipu Beach…Kauai
Here on Maui – Before sunrise on this Sunday morning, we find clear to partly cloudy skies. The windward sides are cloudier, with some passing showers. Here at my place in upcountry Kula, it’s calm…with an air temperature of 50.5F degrees at 535am. Meanwhile, at about the same time, the Kahului AP was reporting clear skies, with an air temperature of 73 degrees…with the same reading out in Hana as well. The summit of the Haleakala Crater was 39 degrees.
– Early afternoon, partly cloudy, with the most concentrated areas of moisture along the windward sides…as usual. The trade winds are blowing briskly, keeping the clouds banked-up against the windward slopes and coasts. There’s a few showers, although most of them are rather uneventful. / 210pm, partly cloudy skies, with a light shower here in Kula. / 310pm, still partly cloudy…another light shower with big drops. / 415pm, lots of clouds over Maui, some showers, even here at my place in Kula…we had a short period of heavy rain.
– Early evening, still lots of clouds around before sunset, with showers falling from some of them. Here in Kula, at my weather tower, we’re still having off and on showers…ranging between very light and occasionally heavy. / Now at 640pm, just before sunset, the clouds are beginning to evaporate to some degree.
World-wide tropical cyclone activity:
>>> Atlantic Ocean: The last regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlook of the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season…has occurred. Routine issuance of the Tropical Weather Outlook will resume on June 1, 2016. During the off-season, Special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued if conditions warrant. Here’s the 2015 hurricane season summary
Here’s a satellite image of the Atlantic Ocean
>>> Caribbean Sea: The last regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlook of the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season…has occurred. Routine issuance of the Tropical Weather Outlook will resume on June 1, 2016. During the off-season, Special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued if conditions warrant.
>>> Gulf of Mexico: The last regularly scheduled Tropical Weather Outlook of the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season…has occurred. Routine issuance of the Tropical Weather Outlook will resume on June 1, 2016. During the off-season, Special Tropical Weather Outlooks will be issued if conditions warrant.
Here’s a satellite image of the Caribbean Sea…and the Gulf of Mexico
Here’s the link to the National Hurricane Center (NHC)
>>> Eastern Pacific: No active tropical cyclones
Tropical cyclone formation is not expected during the next 5 days.
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, 2016. During the off-season, special tropical weather outlooks will be issued if conditions warrant. Here’s the 2015 hurricane season summary
Here’s a link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)
>>> South Pacific Ocean: No active tropical cyclones
>>> North and South Indian Oceans / Arabian Sea: No active tropical cyclones
Here’s a link to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC)
Interesting: GMOs May Be Safe to Eat, But Some Are Still Bad for the Planet – For years, one of the major arguments that has been made against genetically engineered crops is the fear that, by tampering with a plant’s DNA, it could potentially cause health issues for consumers. It’s an understandable worry, however, the scientific consensus now seems to be undeniable: Whatever faults GMO crops may have, they are safe for human consumption.
A new, incredibly comprehensive 400-page analysis from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine argues very persuasively that the past two decades of research have revealed no increased ill effects in populations that have consumed GMOs. And it’s important to be clear about one thing: This is not simply another industry study bankrolled by Monsanto or Dupont. Most of the 20 experts involved in putting together this review are academics.
It is, instead, the result of a review of more than 1,000 studies on the effects of GMOs, testimony from more than 80 expert witnesses, and more than 700 public comments. It’s basically a summary of everything the scientific community has learned about GMOs over the past two decades.
While some of the researchers involved have served as consultants for bioengineering companies in the past, the fact that the report pulled data from thousands of different sources makes any claims of direct industry influence on the results implausible. At most, environmental organizations have accused the authors of this study of watering down their findings to avoid taking a firm stance one way or the other on the issue.
The researchers compared disease reports from the U.S. since the ’90s with those from Europe, where GM crops are not widely eaten, and found absolutely no long-term pattern indicating an increase in disease coinciding with the introduction of GM crops. There was no demonstrable correlation between GMO consumption the development of cancer, obesity, Type II diabetes, celiac disease, food allergies or autism.
At a certain point, we need to accept that the overwhelming scientific evidence indicates that GMOs are safe to eat, and insisting otherwise is no longer a reasonable objection environmentalists and consumer advocates can aim at the industry.
Just Because GMOs Are Safe to Eat, Doesn’t Mean They’re Vindicated
However, the new report is not unequivocally pro-GMO, and just because the crops in question are safe to eat doesn’t mean there aren’t good reasons to support mandatory labeling in food. There are still plenty of reasons consumers might want to avoid products that use this method in their production. For one thing, there are plenty of us who find Monsanto’s business practices unethical, and would prefer not to support them. For another, there’s the potential environmental impacts of GMO crops to consider.
One thing the authors of the report have stressed, over and over, is the fact that we should be evaluating GM crops on a case-by-case basis, rather than simply writing off the entire method used to create these new breeds of plants. While the report found no direct link between GMOs and environmental damage, it also noted that there is plenty of evidence of insects developing resistance to crops which contain built-in pesticides, and that many weeds are rapidly developing a resistance to the herbicide glyphosate.
That’s a major agricultural problem: These crops were created with the intention of requiring lighter applications of pesticides and herbicides, but farmers are increasingly going to have to use larger amounts of more toxic chemicals to keep weeds and pests in check.
The report doesn’t address the controversy over the increased use of glyphosate or the fact that it’s recently been classed as a probable human carcinogen by multiple government organizations. This is actually one case where accusations of the report “watering down” information are probably warranted, and it’s disappointing that the authors couldn’t find room in a 400-page document to discuss the issue.
All that being said, pesticide resistance isn’t a problem unique to GM crops — it’s a built-in feature of our industrialized agricultural system. But given that GM crops like Roundup Ready plants and BT corn aren’t actually solving the problem they were originally created to address, it raises the question: What advantage is there to growing these GM versions over conventional crops?
In the past, the industry has claimed that herbicide- and insect-resistant crops have an overall increased yield when compared to conventional plants. However, the new report shows that not to be the case: In fact, it seems that GMOs have failed to increase American farmers’ crop yields at all. Given this new information, it’s worth asking whether these particular genetic modifications are necessary and which GM crops, if any, have a legitimate place in our agricultural system.
Not All GMOs Are Created Equal
As much as the anti-GMO lobby hates to admit it, there are cases in which GM crops are actually a positive development for human health and agriculture. While Roundup Ready and BT crops appear not to be among them, by tarring all GMOs with a broad brush, we risk stifling projects that could help fight malnutrition in poor countries and rejecting crops with an improved ability to resist devastating viruses and fungi that could potentially wipe out entire harvests. While these two applications are not the reason behind most genetic engineering in the U.S. market, this is not research we should be discouraging or trying to ban.
Scientist and media personality Bill Nye made the astonishing announcement about a year ago that, after lengthy study and a personal visit to Monsanto’s headquarters, he had changed his mind about GMOs and no longer broadly opposed the industry. While some were suspicious that he was being paid to endorse the biotech industry, Nye’s views on the subject appear to be much more nuanced than simply cheering on Monsanto.
What Nye has actually said is that he no longer believes that GMOs are inherently bad, but that introducing any new species to the environment can have unintended consequences: By creating vast monocultures, we’re reducing genetic diversity in the environment and harming many plant and animal species.
While many GM crops, in particular staple crops like corn and soy, are a major part of this problem, we do ourselves a disservice by only pointing the blame at biotech. This is actually a much larger problem with the agriculture industry in general, and the more time we spend focusing on GMOs as the villain, the less effectively we’re going to be able to address the root cause.
What’s really important is focusing on developing a more sustainable and eco-friendly system of agriculture in general, not simply ridding our food supply of GMOs. Purchasing organic foods and supporting GM labeling laws can still be part of that effort, but it can’t be the only focus.
Many anti-GMO organizations are understandably disappointed with the content of the National Academies’ research for not vindicating their long-held beliefs about GMOs — but instead of trying to deny the findings or invalidate them, we should be using them to drive a new conversation about the dangers that industrial agriculture poses to the environment and finding real solutions to mitigate those problems where possible.
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