Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs

Magnificent dolphin jumps here in Hawaii
Photo Credit: flickr.com

The trade winds will become fairly blustery over the next couple of days. Wind speeds ramped-up into the moderately strong category Friday, and then even more so as we move into the weekend. Wind speeds will become strong enough by Saturday, that we’ll likely see small craft wind advisory flags being raised in the windiest places around Maui and the Big Island. The computer forecast models show no end to these late spring trade winds from this vantage point.

Despite the solid trade wind flow, there won’t be many showers falling here in the islands. The windward sides would be where those few showers would fall generally. The leeward sides will find dry weather, although on the Kona slopes, the usual afternoon cloudiness will develop, where there may be a few light showers. There is a hope that we will see some increase in showers right after the weekend, as a retired cold front gets carried onto the windward sides by Monday into Tuesday…and then again later in the week.

~~~  As is often the case, there’s one weather feature that captures our attention over most of the others. Here in the Hawaiian Islands, I’m afraid that that feature may turn out to be dry weather conditions this summer. We generally count on having springtime showers, especially along the windward sides, which bring enough water to aquifers and upcountry reservoirs…to carry us through our summer dry period. The month of April in particular, is usually a good one in regards to receiving lots of incoming trade wind showers. April was not a good rain producer however, and May hasn’t been very impressive either. This leaves us lacking in the precipitation department!

~~~ Looking ahead, our next best chance for showers may be coming up right after the weekend. As I mentioned in one of the paragraphs above, there’s an old cold front hanging out to the north of the islands, and has been most of this week. It has been blocked from progressing southward so far. The computer forecast models however continue showing that the fronts moisture may eventually get carried our way on the trade winds after the weekend. This could bring us some much needed showers, although by themselves, won’t be nearly enough to bring us back up to a normal amount of rainfall for this time of year. I should add however, that at this point any moisture would be helpful! Let’s hope that we might see some showers during the new week ahead, although working against us…is the fact that June is the driest month of the year in most places in Hawaii!

~~~ I just finished work here in Kihei, Maui, and am ready to start my weekend. I just looked out the window, and found a near cloud free sky! It’s really very clear out there, with tons of sunshine beaming down over the south coast. The winds look pretty frisky, with the palm trees bending over nicely under their influence. Looking at the wind reports around the state at the 5pm hour, the two strongest gusts that I see are both here on Maui. The Kahului airport was showing 31 mph, with Maalaea Bay topping out at 36 mph. Just for comparison’s sake, the lightest wind speed at the same time, were being reported at  the Kona airport…at just 6 mph.

~~~ Nothing’s really catching my eye at the movies this evening, so I’ll have to turn my attention to something else. I may just head to the shopping center, as I need to pick up something, and then from there, it’s anyones guess. I have a thought to go into Wailuku town, maybe have a glass of wine. Then again, there’s always a putting green waiting at one of the local Country Clubs as well. I honestly don’t know exactly what I’ll end up doing. I have a strong idea to get over to the Lahaina side early Saturday morning for a surfing session, which sounds very enticing at the moment. At any rate, I’ll be back here early to very early Saturday morning with your next new weather narrative from paradise. I hope you have a great Friday night whatever you’re doing! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting: All but one of the top 10 U.S. metropolitan areas that release the most greenhouse gases on a per capita basis lie east of the Mississippi River, a study released on Thursday showed. "A north-south divide is also apparent," as seven of the highest emitters of greenhouse gases are located in the south, including two from each of three states, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky, according to the report by the Regional Plan Association, a New York-based think tank. Honolulu was the greenest U.S. metro area, with a carbon footprint of only 1.356 metric tons per resident in 2005. he analysis only counted greenhouse gases from buildings and transportation, excluding utilities, for example. The second greenest on the list of the top 100 metropolitan areas was Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, followed by Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, Oregon–Washington. Coming in fourth was New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, New York-New Jersey–Pennsylvania. Fifth-ranked was Boise City-Nampa, Idaho. The worst polluter was the metropolitan area of Lexington-Fayette, Kentucky, which ranked last at 100. Indianapolis, Indiana, was 99th, Cincinnati-Middletown, Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana was 98th, and Toledo, Ohio was 97th. Louisville, Kentucky-Indiana came in 96th, with Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro, Tennessee ranking 95th. The West was the only part of the nation that cut its carbon footprint from 2000 to 2005, according to the report.

Interesting2: A new way to make greener asphalt for U.S. highways and byways isn’t new at all. They’ve been doing it for decades in Africa and India. Asphalt is the sticky byproduct left after fuel and lubricating oil are extracted from crude petroleum. It’s too thick to be laid on roads as is, so in the United States it’s heated to as much as 300 degrees Fahrenheit to make it easy to pump and apply. A new national research program called the Asphalt Research Consortium (ARC) aims to make asphalt cheaper and more environmentally friendly to produce. That means it might, for example, last longer, or use recycled material, or be manufactured using less energy. There’s good reason for the effort: America has more than 4 million miles of roads. The only place you can be 22 miles away from a road in the contiguous states is a spot in the southeast corner of YellowstoneNational Park in Wyoming. In other countries, so-called cold-mix asphalts save up to seven times the energy of the hot-mix counterparts, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison civil engineering professor Hussain Bahia.

Interesting3: Mankind is causing 50 billion euros ($78 billion) of damage to the planet’s land areas every year, making it imperative governments act to save plants and animals, a Deutsche Bank official told a U.N. conference. A study, presented to delegates from 191 countries in the U.N.’s Convention on Biological Diversity on Thursday, said recent pressure on commodity and food prices highlighted the effects of the loss of biodiversity to society. "Urgent remedial action is essential because species loss and ecosystem degradation are inextricably linked to human well-being," said Pavan Sukhdev, a banker at Deutsche Bank and the main author of the report. On top of the current 50 billion euros annual loss from land-based ecosystems caused by factors including pollution and deforestation, the cumulative loss could amount to at least 7 percent of annual consumption by 2050, said the report. Deforestation, if continued at current levels, would cost some 6 percent of world gross domestic product by 2050, he said. The idea of the report is to spur action to safeguard wildlife in the way Britain‘s Stern report sparked action to fight climate change after the economic costs were outlined, German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said. European Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said the study proved biodiversity was not just about saving pandas and tigers but underscored the need to preserve natural wealth. "The report shows we are eating away at our natural capital and making ourselves vulnerable to climate change," he said.