Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs

Our weather will be turning a little warmer, as our winds turn east to southeast now. The latest weather map shows a 1031 millibar high pressure system to the north, and a trough of low pressure just to the east. The trough will move over the islands Tuesday through Wednesday…ending up to the west of Kauai by Thursday. This migration of the trough across Hawaii, will cause lighter winds from the east and southeast, then stronger trade winds will return Thursday into next weekend.

There will be a localized increase in showers…as the trough of low pressure moves across the state. As this trough moves over the state Tuesday into Wednesday, our overlying atmosphere will become less stable, and more shower prone. Therefore, we can look for increased showers Monday night through Wednesday…a few of which could be locally heavy. As the trade winds return Thursday, we’ll see most of the shower activity occurring along the windward coasts and slopes.

It’s Monday evening as I begin updating this last paragraph of today’s narrative. The long lasting low pressure system, which has been meandering around in the area NE of Hawaii, has started to shift westward now. This low has kept our local winds coming in from the NE, which has caused cool and breezy conditions. As this low, which has become a trough Monday evening, moves over us…our local winds will take on a more easterly, or even southeasterly orientation. This will bring warmer air into the Aloha state. ~~~ Meanwhile, during the second half of the week, a new upper low pressure will arrive in the area NW of the state. The counterclockwise air circulation around that low, will dip into the deep tropics to our SW, drawing up varying amounts of high cirrus clouds over the islands…muting our Hawaiian sunshine during the days. At the same time, the cold air aloft will continue the enhancement of incoming showers, taking aim on the windward sides, likely through the rest of the week. ~~~ So, in sum, warmer weather soon, with some increase in showers through mid-week, then stronger trade winds and sun dimming and filtering high clouds during the second half of the week…along with continued windward biased showers. ~~~ Monday was a nice day, a day in between the periodic shower bands that have been arriving across the state during the last week…with lots of sunshine just about everywhere. The winds were still coming out of the NE, so that there was still a little cool air around, with most sea level locations almost getting to 80F degrees. The Honolulu airport was the hot spot for the day, reaching all the way to a warm 84F degrees. ~~~ I’ll be back again very early Tuesday morning with your next new weather narrative. I hope you have a great Monday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn. 

Interesting: If any country can claim to be pitched on the global warming front line, it may be the North Atlantic island nation of Iceland.  On a purely physical level, this land of icecaps and volcanoes and home to 300,000 people is undergoing a rapid transformation as its glaciers melt and weather patterns change dramatically. But global warming is also having a profound effect on Iceland economically — and in many ways the effects have actually been beneficial.  Warmer weather has been a boon to Iceland‘s hydroelectric industry, which is producing more energy than before as melting glaciers feed its rivers.  Climate change, stoked by human use of fossil fuels, has also focused attention on Iceland‘s energy innovations and created demand for its ideas and expertise in fields such as geothermal energy and fuel technology. 

Scientists from Africa to the Americas are exploring what Icelandic universities and energy researchers are up to. And foreign companies are teaming up with the small island’s firms.  Two-thirds of electricity in Iceland is already derived from renewable sources — its plentiful rivers and waterfalls and the geothermal heat that warms 90 percent of Iceland‘s houses.  Some observers say forward-thinking comes naturally on an island where climate change can already be seen in thawing ice and balmier winters.  "People are already now planning for a future that will be different from the past," said Tomas Johannesson, a geophysicist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office.