July 16-17, 2010
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Friday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 83
Honolulu, Oahu – 88
Kaneohe, Oahu – 83
Kaunakakai, Molokai – 83
Kahului, Maui – 87
Hilo, Hawaii – 85
Kailua-kona – 83
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops too…as of 5pm Friday evening:
Kahului, Maui – 84
Kapalua, Maui – 77
Haleakala Crater – 55 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 45 (near 14,000 feet on the Big Island)
Precipitation Totals – The following numbers represent the largest precipitation totals (inches) during the last 24 hours on each of the major islands, as of Friday afternoon:
0.75 Kilohana, Kauai
0.34 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.09 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.04 Kahoolawe
0.18 West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.22 Kamuela Upper, Big Island
Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a 1034 millibar high pressure cell far to the northeast, which will keep the trade winds blowing moderately strong Saturday and Sunday.
Satellite and Radar Images: To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with this Infrared Satellite Image of the islands to see all the clouds around during the day and night. This next image is one that gives close images of the islands only during the daytime hours, and is referred to as a Close-up visible image. This next image shows a larger view of the Pacific…giving perspective to the wider ranging cloud patterns in the Pacific Ocean. Finally, here’s a Looping IR satellite image, making viewable the clouds around the islands 24 hours a day. To help you keep track of where any showers may be around the islands, here’s the latest animated radar image.
Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of near 14,000 foot Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. The tallest peak on the island of Maui is the Haleakala Crater, which is near 10,000 feet in elevation. These two webcams are available during the daylight hours here in the islands…and when there’s a big moon rising just after sunset for an hour or two! Plus, during the nights and early mornings you will be able to see stars, and the sunrise too…depending upon weather conditions.
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. Here’s a tracking map covering both the eastern and central Pacific Ocean. A satellite image, which shows the entire ocean area between Hawaii and the Mexican coast…can be found here. Of course, as we know, our hurricane season won’t begin again until June 1st here in the central Pacific.
Aloha Paragraphs
Na Pali coast…on Kauai
Photo Credit: Johnathan Esper
Our local trade winds will remain more or less in the moderately strong category this weekend. There are expected to be fairly minor variations in our local wind speeds through the next week, with some days a bit stronger…and others somewhat lighter. The computer forecast models suggest that wind speeds will be blowing in the range between 10-25 mph in general…stronger in gusts at times. During those lighter wind days, we won’t see small craft wind advisory flags hoisted, with flags going up in those windiest channel and coastal waters in
Similar to the winds described above, our rainfall will show some range in intensity and frequency through the next week. As is almost always the case, when the trade winds are the main driver in our
It’s Friday evening as I begin writing this last section of today’s narrative update. As noted above, our trade winds will continue well into the future, as will our off and on showers…generally along the windward sides of the islands. I don’t see anything out of the ordinary on the weather horizon at this time. ~~~ Since its Friday evening, I’m heading into Kahului, from here in Kihei, to take in a new film. l’m a bit nervous about seeing this film, as I’m hoping it won’t freak me out too much. It’s called Predators (2010), starring Adrien Brody and Alice Braga…among others. The synopsis is: a group of elite warriors realize they’ve been brought together on a distant planet to be systematically hunted by alien Predators. There are some films that just look a bit too scary, and this one is right on the edge for this Maui weatherman…I must admit. I may have to avert my eyes a couple of times, although I hope not. I can’t recommend that everyone checks this trailer out, but there may be a few of you that would enjoy seeing what I’ll be taking in this evening. I just watched the trailer, and found myself gulping again, and asking myself "am I really ready to sit through this? I’ll be back Satuday morning with your next new weather narrative, and my thoughts of this film too. I hope you have a great Friday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting: The world is hotter than ever according to new temperature data. March, April, May and June set records, making 2010 the warmest year worldwide since record-keeping began in 1880, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says. "It’s part of an overall trend," says Jay Lawrimore, climate analysis chief at NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center. "Global temperatures … have been rising for the last 100-plus years. Much of the increase is due to increases in greenhouse gases." There were exceptions: June was cooler than average across Scandinavia, southeastern China and the northwestern U.S., according to NOAA’s report.
If nothing changes, Lawrimore predicts: -Flooding rains will be more common. "The atmosphere is able to hold more water as it warms, and greater water content leads to greater downpours," he says. -Heavy snow, like the record snows that crippled Baltimore and Washington last winter, is likely to increase because storms are moving north. Also, the Great Lakes aren’t freezing as early or as much.
"As cold outbreaks occur, cold air goes over the Great Lakes, picks up moisture and dumps on the Northeast," he says. -Droughts are likely to be more severe and heat waves more frequent. -More arctic ice will disappear, speeding up warming, as the Arctic Ocean warms "more than would happen if the sea ice were in place," he says. Arctic sea ice was at a record low in June.
Marc Morano, a global-warming skeptic who edits the Climate Depot website, says the government "is playing the climate fear card by hyping predictions and cherry-picking data." Joe D’Aleo, a meteorologist who co-founded The Weather Channel, disagrees, too. He says oceans are entering a cooling cycle that will lower temperatures. He says too many of the weather stations NOAA uses are in warmer urban areas.
"The only reliable data set right now is satellite," D’Aleo says. He says NASA satellite data shows the average temperature in June was 0.43 degrees higher than normal. NOAA says it was 1.22 degrees higher. A typhoon that left a trail of destruction and dozens dead in the Philippines killed two people in southern China before moving toward northern Vietnam on Saturday as a strong tropical storm.
Interesting2: Typhoon Conson turned billboards lethal on China’s southern resort island of Hainan. The state-run Xinhua News Agency said a falling billboard killed a motorcycle rider Friday night, and another toppled and buried a security guard under debris. By 8 a.m. Saturday, Hainan’s meteorological station said Conson was moving northwest over open water again and had downshifted into a strong tropical storm.
It was expected to hit northern Vietnam on Saturday afternoon or evening and was moving at 12 miles (20 kilometers) an hour. Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung urged authorities in 23 northern and central provinces on Friday to ban ships and fishing trawlers from sailing. He also ordered local governments to evacuate people from high-risk areas and to advise others to stockpile food and medicine.
The storm left a mess in Hainan, China’s version of Hawaii. Provincial officials said 79 flights were canceled Friday night in the resort city of Sanya, and almost 40,000 people across the province had been evacuated to safer ground by Friday evening. China’s first typhoon of the year roared in after striking the Philippines, where 39 people were dead and 84 were missing.
Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, in a nationally televised emergency meeting, scolded the weather bureau for failing to predict that Conson would hit Manila, which left government agencies unprepared for the onslaught. As the storm moves northwest, the southern areas of China’s manufacturing-heavy Guangdong province and the neighboring Guangxi region were expected to see torrential rains.
But Conson was not expected to hit areas in China already battered by weeks of flooding. Flooding and landslides in communities along the Yangtze River and other scattered parts of China have killed more than 130 people so far this month, and Xinhua reported Friday night that flooding and landslides killed at least 11 people Friday in the central province of Hubei.
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