May 20-21 2008

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

Lihue, Kauai – 80
Honolulu, Oahu – 89
Kaneohe, Oahu – 83
Kahului, Maui – 88
Hilo, Hawaii – 84
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii – 83

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

Kahului, Maui – 86F
Kaneohe, Oahu – 76   

Precipitation Totals – The following numbers represent the largest precipitation totals (inches) during the last 24 hours on each of the major islands, as of Tuesday afternoon: 

1.36  Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.11 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.04 Molokai
0.05 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.20 Oheo Gulch, Maui
0.07 Kapapala Ranch, Big Island

Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a 1030 millibar high pressure system far to the NE of the state of Hawaii Wednesday. This high has a ridge extending SW, to a position near Kauai, moving southward. This pressure configuration will bring lighter breezes now, veering to the south and southeast through Thursday.

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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It will be a moonlit night in Hawaii
Photo Credit: flickr.com

Tuesday will be the last day of trade winds, until they begin again later Friday afternoon. A trade wind producing ridge of high pressure is still north of Kauai Tuesday night, the source of our recent light to moderately strong trades. As we move into Wednesday, a late season cold front will push our ridge down over the state…with light southeast winds, and more volcanic haze the result into Thursday.

Satellite imagery shows clouds being carried our way on the trade winds. Whatever showers that fall will make their splash down along the windward sides of the islands. The leeward sides will be generally dry, with lots of sunshine during the days. Our weather will take a turn back into a light wind convective weather pattern Wednesday, with interior showers falling locally during the afternoon hours.
 
An unusually late season cold front is bearing down on the islands from the NW. This cold front will stall before moving into the state however…so no rainfall is expected in association with the cloud band. The close proximity of the front will knock down our trade winds, and turn them southeast…ushering in volcanic haze Wednesday into Friday. It will take the trade winds returning later Friday into the weekend…to ventilate this haze away. 

I find myself using the word unusual more and more these days. The latest examples have been last week’s cold front, which dropped down into the islands as far as Oahu. This cold front brought a few showers to Kauai and Oahu, although more importantly, helped to fill our skies with thick volcanic haze. The frontal system didn’t bring the haze with it, but prompted light winds, which carried vog up from the volcanic vents on the Big Island…all the way up the chain of islands to Kauai.

The next example of exercising the word unusual is occurring this week, with yet another uncommon cold front bearing down on the state from the NW. Before I go any further, let me provide you with a looping satellite image of this cold front coming our way from the NW direction…in the upper left hand corner of the picture. A second interesting feature is the counterclockwise rotating upper level low pressure system to the east of the state…with its circular cloud shape! Back to the cold front, it will stop before reaching Kauai, but not before shoving our trade wind producing high pressure ridge down over the islands. This will effectively stop the trade winds.

The trade winds will be pushed to a location just south of the islands Wednesday and Thursday. The unfortunate prospect here is that there will be an air drift from the southeast, which will bring volcanic haze back over the islands…just at a time when we are seeing the end of the last hazy episode! It will stick around into Friday, and then be ventilated away, at least start to be, later in the day Friday into the weekend. Fair weather will return this weekend, and last well into next week.

~~~ The NWS forecast office in Honolulu recently issued their outlook for the upcoming 2008 hurricane season here in the central Pacific. It calls for slightly less than the normal amount of tropical cyclones forming, or passing into the central Pacific from the eastern Pacific. The normal number is 4-5 storms per hurricane season, with this year’s expectations being 2-3…which is of course good news! The NWS is fond of saying, it only takes one!

~~~ The trade winds remained active Tuesday, keeping the volcanic haze at bay down over the Big Island…where the Kona coast was very voggy today. As the trade winds stop, and the southeast breezes begin blowing, look for thickening volcanic haze in other parts of the island chain over the next several days. I’ll be back very early Wednesday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Tuesday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting: According to the 2000 census, America’s office workers spend an average of 52 hours a week at their desks or work stations. Many recent studies on job satisfaction have shown that workers who spend longer hours in office environments, often under artificial light in windowless offices, report reduced job satisfaction and increased stress levels.  How can employers make office environments more conducive to productivity and employee happiness" Try adding some “green” to your office. Not greenbacks—green plants! A research study published in the February 2008 issue of HortScience offers employers and corporations some valuable advice for upping levels of employee satisfaction by introducing simple and inexpensive environmental changes. Dr.Tina Marie (Waliczek) Cade, Associate Professor of Horticulture in the Department of Agriculture at Texas State University, explained that the project was designed to investigate whether employees who worked in offices with windows and views of green spaces and workers who had green plants in their offices perceived greater job satisfaction than employees who did not have access to these environmental components.

Interesting2: Los Angeles officials discussed Thursday a plan to conserve water which includes limiting water use, punishing water wasters and recycling waste water, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times. Officials say the City of Los Angeles will have a 15 percent increase in water demand by 2030. To accommodate the robust need, 32 billion gallons of water will have to be saved or recaptured each year.  Los Angeles officials discussed Thursday a plan to conserve water which includes limiting water use, punishing water wasters and recycling waste water, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times. Officials say the City of Los Angeles will have a 15 percent increase in water demand by 2030. To accommodate the robust need, 32 billion gallons of water will have to be saved or recaptured each year.

Interesting3: When major catastrophes strike, like the recent Asian earthquake and tsunami, the mass deaths can lead one to think that natural disasters are the most likely way people can die. Not by a long shot. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the leading causes of death in the United States are, in this order, heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic lower respiratory diseases, and "accidental injury," a broad category that includes a lot of stuff that just happens. You are more likely to commit suicide or fall to your death than be killed by a tsunami or any natural disaster, the odds say.  In less advanced countries, where residents often live in poverty and huddle near the sea or in poorly constructed houses, tsunamis, floods and earthquakes are a more looming threat. But even in such locales, there are far greater risks over the course of a lifetime. There are no formal estimates on the risk of death by tsunami, because they occur so infrequently. About 2,200 died in a Papua New Guinea tsunami in 1998; roughly 8,000 in the Philippines in 1976, about 120 in Hawaii and California in 1964. You have to go back to 1896 — 27,000 deaths in Japan — to find one that even approached the 150,000-plus scale of the Asian disaster on Dec. 26, 2004.

Interesting4: Damaged aircraft could repair themselves automatically, even during flight, by mimicking healing processes found in nature, a researcher said this week. One method could be as simple as a resin that oozes into cracks on demand. Not only might such a breakthrough lead to safer planes, but it could also lead to lighter craft that would save fuel, drop costs and reduce global warming gas emissions as well. "At oil approaching $130 a barrel, if you can strip weight off, you could save money," said researcher Ian Bond, a materials scientist at the University of Bristol in England. Aircraft routinely suffer damage from day-to-day use. A great deal of aerospace research goes into materials that can resist damage. "You would be surprised how often trucks drive into aircraft when parked at airports, and then you have tools dropped on planes at maintenance hangers, or hailstones when flying through storms. Very subtle damage, little dings and cracks and bangs that, if left undetected…could grow into something serious. At aircraft hangers, a lot of time is spent trying to find these defects." Aircraft designs that nowadays help cope with damage end up adding weight.