Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs

Aloha Paragraphs




Hula dancing right on the edge
Photo Credit: flikr.com

A weakening trough of low pressure remains in place to the west and northwest of the Aloha state Wednesday evening. The location of the trough is keeping light and variable winds blowing across Hawaii…although gusty in some spots. This wind flow has carried thick volcanic haze up the chain from the Big Island to Maui, on up the chain to Oahu and Kauai. We’ll find trade winds returning later Thursday into Friday, into the upcoming weekend…helping to carry the vog away then.

The trough, along with an upper level low pressure system to our SW, is keeping our atmosphere humid, and unstable…which will keep showers in the forecast into Thursday. We can look for showers, some of which will be locally heavy…with a few thunderstorms here and there. As the trade winds return later Thursday, we’ll see the bias for shower activity focusing most intently along the windward coasts and slopes. Looking ahead, there seems to be a good chance for a cold front to bring showers to Kauai and maybe Oahu this weekend.

It’s Wednesday evening as I begin updating this last section of today’s narrative. As the two paragraphs above mention, we aren’t "out of the woods" yet, in terms of both showers, and the hazy conditions. The volcanic haze has spread throughout the state, and not restricted to the Big Island, as is often the case. Our atmosphere will be murky with all the volcanic emissions for the time being. It will take the return of the trade winds to finally sweep this haze away. As for the showers, the air mass is ripe for their occurrence, some of which will be on the heavy side. In fact, so much so, that the NWS forecast office in Honolulu, is keeping the flash flood watch alive into Thursday for the entire state. The good thing about the showers will be their ability to wash the air to some degree, as the rain drops collect the haze on their way down to the ground.

The computer models continue to show a cold front approaching the state this weekend. It now appears that we’ll see this frontal cloud band move over Kauai and perhaps Oahu at some point this weekend. How much further into the state it may be able to push, if any, is still a question. The models go on to show, at least a few do…that an upper level low pressure system may edge up towards the islands around the middle of next week, which might bring a whole new round of heavy showers into our area. This is still too far out into the future to get overly worked up about now. 

~~~ I’m about ready to take the drive home to Kula, which I understand has been foggy and cool all day. I love driving home into a wall of thick fog as I go higher up the mountain. I’ll be back again very early Thursday morning with your next new weather narrative. I hope you have a great Wednesday night wherever you happen to be spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn. 

Interesting: In the future, all those DVDs you buy could be made from air pollution. If plans to remove carbon dioxide from smokestacks succeed, the gas could be harnessed and turned into plastic products, new research claims. Carbon dioxide is emitted into the air by the burning of fossil fuels, primarily by power plants and automobiles. It is the main greenhouse gas contributing to man-made global warming. Sucking the carbon dioxide from smokestack emissions could enable a process by which the heat-trapping gas would be turned into a raw material for making polycarbonates, a type of plastic, and keep it from raising global temperatures even more, according to two groups of researchers who presented their findings today at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans. "Using CO2 to create polycarbonates might not solve the total carbon dioxide problem, but it could be a significant contribution," said the leader of one team, Thomas Müller of the Institut für Technishe und Makromolekulare Chemie. Carbon dioxide is also cheaper and less toxic than other starting materials traditionally used to make plastics.

Interesting2: An enzyme from a microbe that lives inside a cow’s stomach is the key to turning corn plants into fuel, according to Michigan State University scientists.  The enzyme that allows a cow to digest grasses and other plant fibers can be used to turn other plant fibers into simple sugars. These simple sugars can be used to produce ethanol to power cars and trucks.   MSU scientists have discovered a way to grow corn plants that contain this enzyme. They have inserted a gene from a bacterium that lives in a cow’s stomach into a corn plant. Now, the sugars locked up in the plant’s leaves and stalk can be converted into usable sugar without expensive synthetic chemicals.  “The fact that we can take a gene that makes an enzyme in the stomach of a cow and put it into a plant cell means that we can convert what was junk before into biofuel,” said Mariam Sticklen, MSU professor of crop and soil science. She is presenting at the 235th national American Chemical Society meeting in New Orleans today. The work also is presented in the “PlantGenetic Engineering for Biofuel Production: Towards Affordable Cellulosic Ethanol” in the June edition of Nature Review Genetics.

Interesting3: A noted hurricane researcher predicted Wednesday that rising water temperatures in the Atlantic will bring a "well above average" storm season this year, including four major storms. The updated forecast by William Gray’s team at Colorado State University calls for 15 named storms in the Atlantic in 2008 and says there’s a better than average chance that at least one major hurricane will hit the United States. An average of 5.9 hurricanes form in the Atlantic each year.    The Atlantic is a bit warmer than in the past couple of years," said Phil Klotzbach, a member of the forecast team. "That is something we would like to keep an eye on."  Gray had projected seven hurricanes with three major storms in a preliminary forecast in December.  One of the most closely watched hurricane forecasters, Gray has been issuing hurricane predictions for more than 20 years. But he and others have been criticized in recent years for having forecasts that were off the mark. Gray’s team says precise predictions are impossible, and the warnings raise awareness of hurricanes.

Interesting4: Elevated sulfur dioxide levels from Kilauea volcano have forced the closure of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island for a second straight day. Superintendent Cindy Orlando says air conditions in the park have become worse. Park officials are hopeful they will be able to reopen Thursday with tradewinds expected to blow the sulfur-laden gas away. Officials Tuesday evacuated 2,000 people from the park, including guests and staff of the Volcano House hotel. Outside the park, the Volcano Charter School is also closed for the second day. Elevated levels of sulfur dioxide have been pouring from Kilauea‘s Halemaumau Crater and Puu Oo vent.