Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs / July 28-29, 2008

Aloha Paragraphs



Exceptional Maui sunset
Photo Credit: flickr.com

This new work week has started off with moderate to fresh and gusty trade winds. As this weather map shows, we continue to see that same long lasting 1033 millibar high pressure center located far to the north of Hawaii. This high is filling up most of the Pacific Ocean from well west of the International Dateline to our west, all the way over to the west coast of north American, then southward to the Baja coast of Mexico to the east and southeast. The computer models suggest that this brand of trade winds will remain in place through Tuesday. The NWS office in Honolulu has issued a small craft wind advisory for almost all of Hawaii’s coastal and channel waters. The winds are strong enough, now, and extending up to near 20,000 feet in height, so that atop the Haleakala Crater, Maui… a wind advisory is active. Winds on the summit of Haleakala, are running 25-35 mph, with some higher gusts. The strongest winds near sea level, at least in gusts, were topping out at 44 mph at one anemometer on Kahoolawe. Our local trade winds will begin to taper off a little in strength starting Wednesday.

Most of the showers that fall in Hawaii will end up along the windward coasts and slopes through the next several days. At least some part of these active shower bands, are from the remnant moisture brought our way by former eastern Pacific tropical cyclone Fausto. An area of high cirrus clouds have arched northward from the deeper tropics at higher altitudes of the atmosphere, which are sending some strands of those high level clouds through our area Monday. Here’s a looping satellite image showing that most of it is staying south of our main Hawaiian Islands. In addition to the high clouds, you can see lower level bands of clouds, more or less paralleling the windward sides, moving in our direction on the stiff trade wind flow…bringing numerous showers to the windward sides. Given that the trade winds are so thick, some of the showers will stray over into the leeward sides on the smaller islands at times. Meanwhile, there remains the chance that late this coming weekend, another retired tropical system (Genevieve), will bring an increase in tropical showers…as it gets carried our way on the trades.




 
It’s early Monday evening here in Kihei, Maui, as I start writing this last section of today’s narrative. The winds were stronger than normal today, and there were more than the usual showers falling along the windward sides as well. There’s been a fairly steady stream of incoming showers along the windward sides. This looping radar image shows these showers riding in on the gusty trade winds. By the way, the arched shaped area on the southeast side of the Big Island, and the smaller version of it on Kauai, isn’t rainfall, but rather sea spray that the low level radar beam is picking up. This more generous than normal shower activity will continue overnight, and into Tuesday. The leeward sides are finding less of this, and actually have remained dry, at least on the Big Island and Maui, while some showers are sneaking over into the leeward sides on the smaller islands. The gusty trades will remain in place through Tuesday or Wednesday, and then back off some, along with the windward showers then too. I’ll be back very early Tuesday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Monday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn

Volcanic haze, better known as vog, has become quite an issue here in the islands lately. A friend in Kula, Maui, Jim McCall, sent me this good link showing current webcam shots of the vents, and also readings for vog on many of the islands.

Interesting:

Olympic host city Beijing was shrouded in haze on Monday 11 days before the Games begin, raising anxieties about whether it can deliver the clean skies promised for the world’s top athletes. Beijing has ordered many of its 3.3 million cars off roads and halted much construction and factory production in an effort to cut pollution before the Games open on August 8.  But a sultry haze persisted on Monday, and state media said Beijing might be forced to restrict more cars and shut more factories if the pollution persists.  City officials had earlier said the haze was due to humid weather, not pollution. But state media on Monday suggested Games organizers were also worried and considering more pollution cuts.  "More vehicles could go off the roads and all construction sites and some more factories in Beijing and its neighboring areas could be closed temporarily if the capital’s air quality deteriorates during the Olympic Games," the China Daily said. 

Xinhua said air quality in Beijing on Monday was Grade II, making it officially a "blue sky day" despite the grey haze, with the main pollutant being particulate matter. Many athletes have delayed arriving in Beijing until the last minute to avoid bad air and the International Olympic Committee said it may reschedule endurance events to prevent health risks to athletes if pollution is bad.  Marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie has already pulled out of the marathon over fears of damaging his health.  On Monday, the Australian Olympic Committee said its athletes would be allowed to withdraw if pollution poses a threat. "For us the athlete’s attitude to the event is paramount," AOC vice president Peter Montgomery told reporters.  For four days up to Monday, Beijing had not experienced a "blue sky day", when the pollution index meets the national standard for "good air quality." Hong Kong, host of the equestrian events, was also badly polluted on Monday after a week of clear, blustery weather.

Interesting2:

Stricken boat off the coast of Bali underscores the threats from unregulated fishing.

This discovery highlights that efforts to prevent illicit fishing activities from occurring have been unsuccessful, activities that make it all but impossible to manage fish stocks and ensure that fishing boats are sound and secure from oil leaks. The region, site of many key WWF projects, is widely recognised as the most important area of marine biodiversity on the planet, and is often referred to as the nursery of the seas. Insufficient monitoring has left it susceptible to activities that could destabilise its unique marine biodiversity, a system that directly sustains the lives of nearly 130 million people across six countries of south-east Asia. 

"The health of the Coral Triangle is critical to the livelihoods of millions of people and it is crucial that adequate management systems are in place to prevent the kinds of scenes we have seen in Bali over the last week, and to reduce the threat of oil spills and overfishing," said the leader of WWF’s Coral Triangle Program, Lida Pet Soede.  The sustainable management of these locations is especially important, and particularly difficult, as over-exploitation of marine resources is exacerbated by a combination of extreme dependence of coastal economies, population growth and poverty. WWF is calling for increased protection of sensitive areas, monitoring of fishing activities, and more accountability for owners of vessels, especially considering this week’s discovery. This news comes amid the recent announcement that up to half of all remaining coral reefs could disappear within the next twenty years. "It is crucial that we properly manage the Coral Triangle’s unique marine wilderness for the benefit of the whole planet," Ms Soede said.

Interesting3:

Birds, like moths, are attracted to light at night and if they become disoriented, will fly in circles around the lights in a tall building, often hitting the building, or dropping exhausted to the ground.  The phenomenon is not understood by scientists, but a researcher at the BellMuseum in Minneapolis, along with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, is spearheading a program to turn off the lights to protect migrating birds. Participants in the programs, including the owners, tenants, and management companies from 32 buildings Minneapolis, St. Paul, Bloomington, and Rochester, will dim their building lights during the spring and fall bird migration seasons. Similar programs are in place in Toronto, New York, and Chicago. Adding the Minnesota cities is important, said BellMuseum ornithologist Bob Zink, because they are located along the Mississippi River flyway, a major thoroughfare for migrating birds. In addition to lowering the light in the night migration routes, researchers are also trying to determine why birds fly into some buildings at a much higher rate than others. In Minneapolis, 67 percent of the bird kills were caused by just two of the city’s skyscrapers.