Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs

  The end of another near perfect day in Hawaii
Photo Credit: flickr.com

The trade winds will continue blowing here in the islands…just like they’re suppose to do this time of year.  A moderately strong 1032 millibar high pressure system to the northeast of the islands, is the source of our trade wind flow Monday night. Our winds are expected to ease up a little soon, thus the NWS forecast office in Honolulu has dropped the small craft wind advisory over those windier areas around Maui and the Big Island. These cooling and refreshing trade winds will remain active through the rest of the week….blowing in the light to moderately strong range in most areas.

Besides the usual few showers along the windward sides of the islands, our weather will remain quite dry. There may also be a few afternoon and evening showers falling along the Kona slopes as well. Meanwhile, there are still some high cirrus clouds moving up from the southeast, as shown on this looping satellite image. This area of high level moisture seems to be edging eastward, which should help clear these sun dimming clouds from most of the state Monday night…pushing past the Big Island last.

~~~ It’s early Monday evening here in Kihei, Maui, as I begin writing this last paragraph of today’s narrative. The trade winds blew all day, with some of those windier areas finding blustery gusts. As usual, the Maalaea Bay here on Maui had some of the strongest winds, which were still blowing 38 mph at 4pm. Showers were few and far between Monday, with most rain gauges staying completely dry. The last of the high clouds are mostly over the Big Island, although there are a few wisps left over Maui County too. As the sun sets, there may be some nice colors where those departing feathers of icy moisture still exist. I’ll be leaving for the drive upcountry soon, up to Kula, to find my cherished cool air temperatures. Sunshine will be abundant on Tuesday, looking a lot like summer, during these last few days of late spring. I’ll be back very early Tuesday morning with your next new weather narrative. I hope you have a great Monday night wherever you happen to be reading from! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting: The world needs to invest $45 trillion in energy in coming decades, build some 1,400 nuclear power plants and vastly expand wind power in order to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, according to an energy study released recently. The report by the Paris-based International Energy Agency envisions a "energy revolution” that would greatly reduce the world’s dependence on fossil fuels while maintaining steady economic growth. "Meeting this target of 50 percent cut in emissions represents a formidable challenge, and we would require immediate policy action and technological transition on an unprecedented scale,” IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka said. A U.N.-network of scientists concluded last year that emissions have to be cut by at least half by 2050 to avoid an increase in world temperatures of between 3.6 and 4.2 degrees above pre-18th century levels. Scientists say temperature increases beyond that could trigger devastating effects, such as widespread loss of species, famines and droughts, and swamping of heavily populated coastal areas by rising oceans. Environment ministers from the Group of Eight industrialized countries and Russia backed the 50 percent target in a meeting in Japan last month and called for it to be officially endorsed at the G-8 summit in July.

Interesting2: Chemicals produced by humans have been found in deep-sea squid and other creatures, further evidence that contaminants make their way deep into the marine food web, scientists said Monday. Researchers found a variety of chemical contaminants in nine species of cephalopods, which include octopods, squids, cuttlefishes and nautiluses. These species are food for dolphins, narwhals, killer whales and other toothed whales. The researchers collected nine species of cephalopods up to a mile down and deeper in the western North Atlantic Ocean by trawling. "It was surprising to find measurable and sometimes high amounts of toxic pollutants in such a deep and remote environment," said Michael Vecchione, a researcher with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Interesting3: Researchers predict a "dead zone" of oxygen-depleted waters off the Louisiana and Texas coasts could grow this summer to 10,084 square miles, making it the largest such expanse in at least 23 years. If the preliminary forecast holds, the researchers say, the size of the so-called "dead zone" would be 17-21% larger than at anytime since the mapping began in 1985 — and about as large as the state of Massachusetts. Another forecast is planned next month. The report Monday from scientists at LouisianaStateUniversity and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium is based on May nitrate loads on the Mississippi River at Baton Rouge. Excess nutrients can spur the growth of algae, and when the algae die, their decay consumes oxygen faster than it can be brought down from the surface. As a result, fish, shrimp and crabs can suffocate, threatening the region’s commercial fishing industry. R. Eugene Turner, who led the recent modeling effort, said in a statement that intensive farming — including working land for crops used to make biofuels — has contributed to the high rate of nitrogen loading. Researchers say the largest dead zone measured was 8,894 square miles in 2002. It was about 7,900 square miles last year.