Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs / July 31 – August 1, 2008

Aloha Paragraphs



  The big city of Honolulu on the island of Oahu
Photo Credit: flickr.com

The trade winds will continue here in the islands, although become lighter Friday into the weekend…increasing again early next week. As an upper level trough of low pressure moves closer to Hawaii soon, and as our long lasting high pressure system to the north, moves westward…our wind speeds will become noticeably lighter over the next couple of days. The trade winds may become soft enough, in those less exposed coastal areas, that some places will begin to feel rather sultry over the weekend.







As we move into the early part of next week, the models suggest that our local winds will increase in strength again, taking the edge off the temporary muggy conditions. 

Whatever few showers that are around now, will continue to end up along the windward sides, leaving the leeward sides with nice weather. These showers won’t amount to much, as there isn’t very much cloudiness upstream from the islands. As the trade winds weaken this weekend, we may begin to see some form of afternoon convective activity increasing, with localized upcountry showers. The leftover showery clouds from former eastern Pacific tropical cyclone Genevieve, will bring some additional increase in showers later this weekend as well. As the trade winds return early next week, we’ll find a normal distribution of passing showers along the windward sides exclusively.

It’s early Thursday evening here in Kihei, Maui, as I start updating this last section of today’s narrative. Our fairly normal trade wind weather pattern, that we’ve seen all this week, will start to break down some soon. The trade winds won’t stop blowing altogether, but they will falter enough that we’ll see some changes in our local Hawaiian Island weather picture. The lighter winds will prompt somewhat uncomfortably warm and muggy conditions to develop, especially along the coasts, that have the least exposure to the cooling and refreshing trade winds. The daytime heating, along with afternoon sea breezes, will cause cumulus clouds to stack-up over and around the mountains. 

~~~ As Sunday rolls around, we should see at least some tropical moisture arrive, thanks to what was hurricane Genevieve in the eastern Pacific. This retired tropical system now has no wind involved, but has held together just enough, in terms of its clouds and showers…to hopefully bring some showers to Maui and the Big Island. As we move into the early part of next week, the upper trough will depart, high pressure will become established again to our north, and the moisture from old Genevieve will have pushed off to the west. This will bring us around full circle, with just a typical early August trade wind weather pattern carrying us through most of the rest of next week. I’ll be back very early Friday morning with your next new weather narrative. I hope you have a great Thursday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting:

Scientists have long searched for traces of ancient life on Earth in order to understand the history of life on our planet. Fossilized bones have helped us understand the age of the dinosaurs. Insects trapped in drops of amber have inspired Hollywood films and researchers alike. These remnants of ancient life on Earth provide important clues about our planet’s past. Now, a team of researchers working in New Mexico has found traces of life inside salty halite crystals. The discovery is "an invaluable resource for understanding the evolutionary record [of Earth] over a geological time frame," according to Jack Griffith of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and his colleagues, who recently published their work in the journal Astrobiology.

The finding may even help scientists search for signs of life on other planets.  Halite is more commonly known as "rock salt" and can be found all over the planet in the form of salty crystals. These crystals may not seem all that interesting at first glance. However, inside of them are tiny pockets of water that can be very valuable for scientists. Halite crystals form in liquid as evaporation occurs. The crystals naturally trap small amounts of liquid during this process. These water pockets and all that they contain can be protected inside halite crystals for extremely long periods of time. The crystals in the recent study had drops of water that were 250 million years old.

Interesting2:

The ocean is a noisy place. Although we don’t hear much when we stick our heads underwater, the right instruments can reveal a symphony of sound. The noisemakers range from the low-frequency bass tones of a fish mating ritual to the roar of a motorboat. The study of how underwater animals hear is a growing topic in marine science, especially with regards to naval sonar and whales. This summer at the MBL, zoologist T. Aran Mooney will be the first scientist to look at cephalopod hearing, using the squid, Loligo pealeii, as a model. To learn how sensitive the translucent animals are to noise, he is monitoring squid brain waves as they respond to various sounds, specifically the echolocation clicks of its main predators: the sperm whale, beaked whale, and dolphin. In addition to the brain wave experiments, he also plans to condition squid to avoid certain sounds.

“Sound is one of the most important cues for marine animals. Light doesn’t travel well through the ocean. Sound does much better," says Mooney, who is a Grass Fellow at the MBL and beginning postdoctoral research at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution this fall. He predicts that squid probably hear very low-frequency sounds, which means they pick up on fish tones and boat traffic. A better understanding of what these animals hear could reveal how human-induced noise affects cephalopods and how their auditory system evolved separately from that of fish.