April 18-19 2008

Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Friday: 

Lihue, Kauai – 80
Honolulu, Oahu – 87
Kaneohe, Oahu – 81
Kahului, Maui – 85
Hilo, Hawaii – 83
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii – 83

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level at 4 p.m. Friday morning:

Honolulu, Oahu – 85F
Molokai airport – 77   

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:

0.16 MOUNT WAIALEALE, KAUAI
0.53 OLOMANA FIRE STATION, OAHU
0.02 MOLOKAI
0.11 LANAI
0.00 KAHOOLAWE
0.12 PUU KUKUI, MAUI
0.04 HILO AIRPORT, BIG ISLAND

Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a low pressure system moving away to the north. This is allowing high pressure to establish itself to the NE and NW. Our trade winds will picking up strength through the weekend.

Satellite and Radar Images: To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with the Infrared Satellite Image of the islands to see all the clouds around the state 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…out from the islands. 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 cloud conditions.


Aloha Paragraphs



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Dolphins in Hawaiian waters 
Photo Credit: flickr.com

The trade winds came charging back into Hawaiian waters Friday! A long lasting low pressure system, to the north of the islands, finally moved northward. This in turn allowed the return of what started out as light trade winds…which increased quickly during the day. The thick volcanic haze of late, and the muggy air too, are quickly leaving…as the trade winds scrub the air clean. These moderately strong trade winds will continue this weekend, and into the new week ahead. The long range computer forecast models suggest that by next Wednesday, they will relax in strength for several days.

The returning trade winds will provide good weather conditions well into the future. As is always the case, or at least almost always, we’ll see the return of a few showers to the north and east facing windward sides. The south and west sides, referred to as leeward, will remain mostly dry and sunny during the days. This looping satellite imagery shows high cirrus clouds looming to the west and southwest, so that we may see that high level moisture arriving, carried on the upper winds aloft…eventually. Otherwise, most of the clouds will occur along the windward sides…where a few showers will spill along those coasts and slopes.

It’s Friday evening as I begin updating this last section of today’s narrative. Friday was a transition day, taking us out of the light winds, muggy and hazy weather conditions…back into a freshening trade wind weather pattern. Most areas of the state have had to put up with hazy conditions, caused by the volcanic emissions from the Big Island, carried up the island chain on the southeast wind flow. We started the day off in a voggy way (vog is what we call volcanic haze in Hawaii), but relief came on heels of the stiffening trade winds. It took most of the day, but the vog is rapidly thinning, and will continue to do so into the weekend.

~~~ You may have noticed the growing size of the moon lately? Well, if not, I’m pretty sure you will over the next couple of nights. The April full moon occurs Saturday night, and will be reflecting all kinds of sunshine after dark!

~~~ I had a hard time trying to decide which film to see this evening, as there are so many good ones to chose from. I finally picked the new film called The Forbidden Kingdom (2008), starring Jackie Chan, Jet Li, among others. An American teenager who is obsessed with Hong Kong cinema and kung-fu classics makes an extraordinary discovery in a Chinatown pawnshop: the legendary stick weapon of the Chinese sage and warrior, the Monkey King. With the lost relic in hand, the teenager unexpectedly finds himself traveling back to ancient China to join a crew of warriors from martial arts lore on a dangerous quest to free the imprisoned Monkey King. I love this kind of action flick, and am looking forward to seeing it! Here’s the trailer for this flim, see what you think. I’ll let you know what I thought early Saturday morning when I’m here with your next new weather narrative from paradise then. Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting: The first typhoon to threaten China this year churned toward the southern island province of Hainan on Friday, forcing about 120,000 people to evacuate fish farms and low-lying areas, forecasters and media said. Fifty-six fishermen were reported missing.  Typhoon Neoguri was expected to sweep over Hainan’s northeastern coast on Friday night or early Saturday, lashing the city of Wanning or Wenchang, the nation’s meteorological observatory said.  The last time a typhoon threatened China so early in the season was before 1949, Chen Lei, a flood relief official, was quoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua News Agency. Neoguri, which means "raccoon" in Korean, was packing winds of up to 75 miles per hour as it swirled across the South Sea and approached Hainan, famous for its resorts, beaches and tropical fruit orchards, forecasters said.  About 21,800 fishing boats with 80,000 crew sought shelter in ports or reefs in Hainan, and 20,000 more sailed to safer waters in nearby Guangdong province, Xinhua said. 

Interesting2: Scientists studying the icy depths of the sea around Antarctica have detected changes in salinity that could have profound effects on the world’s climate and ocean currents. The scientists returned to the southern Australian city of Hobart on Thursday after a one-month voyage studying the Southern Ocean to see how it is changing and what those changes might mean for global climate patterns. Voyage leader Steve Rintoul said his team found that salty, dense water that sinks near the edge of Antarctica to the bottom of the ocean about 5 km (3 miles) down was becoming fresher and more buoyant.  So-called Antarctic bottom water helps power the great ocean conveyor belt, a system of currents spanning the Southern, Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans that shifts heat around the globe. "The main reason we’re paying attention to this is because it is one of the switches in the climate system and we need to know if we are about to flip that switch or not," said Rintoul of Australia’s government-backed research arm the CSIRO. "If that freshening trend continues for long enough, eventually the water near Antarctica would be too light, too buoyant to sink and that limb of the global-scale circulation would shut down," he said on Friday.

Interesting3: Just as canaries help miners monitor underground gases, marine turtles are emerging as excellent indicators of the effects of climate change. “Turtles are a really good way to study climate change because they depend on healthy beaches as well as mangroves, sea grass beds, coral reefs and deep oceane cosystems to live”, said Dr. Lucy Hawkes, coordinator of an initiative to develop adaptation strategies for climate change impacts to turtles. As part of the initiative, WWF launched a new website today, Adaptation to Climate Change in Marine Turtles (ACT). “Understanding of how climate change may affect the beaches, the reef and the open ocean will not only benefit endangered sea turtle populations, but also the millions of people who live along the coastlines of the world and depend upon marine resources and environemental services.” The public, educators, conservationists and scientists will be able to share information and projects to try to gain a better picture of how climate change will affect turtles and what might be done to combat the impacts.

Interesting4: Full moons are said to be behind many strange things, but here’s one you didn’t know about: At full moon, our favorite satellite (the moon) is whipped by Earth’s magnetotail, causing lunar dust storms and discharges of static electricity. This new finding, announced this week by NASA, is important to future lunar explorers: Astronauts may find themselves "crackling with electricity like a sock pulled out of a hot dryer," according to an agency statement. The effect on the moon was first noticed in 1968, when NASA’s Surveyor 7 lander photographed a strange glow on the horizon after dark. Nobody knew what it was. Now scientists think it was sunlight scattered by electrically charged moon dust floating just above the surface. That fits with data from NASA’s Lunar Prospector, which orbited the moon in 1998-99. During some crossings of the magnetotail, the spacecraft recorded big changes in the lunar night-side voltage.