August 13-15 2008

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

Lihue, Kauai – 86
Honolulu, Oahu – 88
Kaneohe, Oahu – 83
Kahului, Maui – 89
Hilo, Hawaii – 85
Kailua-kona – 86

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level, and on the taller mountains…at 3 p.m. Wednesday afternoon:

Lihue, Kauai – 85F  
Hilo, Hawaii – 77 

Haleakala Crater- missing (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 45 (near 14,000 feet on the Big Island)

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

0.65 Mount Waialaele, Kauai
0.18 Ahuimanu Loop, Oahu
0.03 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.17 Hana airport, Maui
0.10 Honokaa, Big Island

Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing high pressure systems located to the northwest through northeast of Hawaii. A deep low pressure system, in the Gulf of Alaska, with its associated cold front, will cause somewhat lighter trade winds across our area into Friday.

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. 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 weather conditions.

Aloha Paragraphs


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2405/2303938030_550a71ee08.jpg?v=0
  Fabulous Hawaiian Orchid
   Photo Credit: flickr.com

 

Our local trade winds will be getting a bit lighter through Thursday, then rebound later Friday into the weekend. These winds will ease up in strength through the next several days, blowing in the light to moderately strong realms…due to the presence of a winter-like storm far north of Hawaii. This weather map shows this early season storm moving into the Gulf of Alaska, with its associated cold front. The atmosphere is going to be feeling sultry for the next few days. As we move into later Friday and the weekend, the trades will bounce back into the moderately strong category, with stronger gusts in those typically windier locations. The computer models show the trade winds continuing into next week, with no end in sight to our trade winds from this vantage point.

The trade winds, despite their easing up a bit, will continue to bring us passing windward biased showers at times. As the trade winds are lighter now, we’ll find some increase in our afternoon convective cumulus cloudiness, with a good chance of showers breaking out locally along the leeward coasts and slopes through Thursday. An area of tropical moisture associated with a former tropical disturbance to the east-southeast of the Big Island, is bringing an increase in showers to that island, Maui and the other islands eventually too…into Thursday. There’s a chance too, that former eastern Pacific tropical cyclone Hernan, will bring a second dose of tropical moisture into the state late this weekend or on Monday.
 
A fairly major storm far north of the islands, at least for the summer season, has weakened our trade wind producing high pressure systems to the north and northeast…with our local trade winds faltering some for the next day or two. They won’t fade away completely, but will get a notch lighter temporarily. At the same time, we’re seeing the arrival of an area of tropical moisture moving through the state. This is causing an increase in showers along the windward sides of the islands. This moisture will cause the afternoon clouds around the mountains, and along the leeward sides, to be more shower prone too. Conditions will dry out Friday into the weekend, just as the trade winds make a re-entry into the Hawaiian Island weather picture. This will occur before the next batch of tropical showers arrives later in the day later Sunday or on Monday. All of these summer showers are helping to push back our drought conditions…which is a very good thing! Please be sure to read the Note paragraph below. Aloha for now…Glenn.

Note: I’m flying to Honolulu late Wednesday afternoon, to attend a Climate Conference at the East West Center, on the campus of the University of Hawaii, Thursday and Friday. Friends on Oahu, who live on the windward side in Kailua, have invited me to spend some time with them Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. I will fly back to Maui late Sunday afternoon. This means that I will not be doing my tv weather show on Thursday, and then again not on Friday…which is a local state holiday. I will not be updating this website as  regularly as usual, although I will have a laptop computer with me, and I will do my best to come back online as often as I can. The daily forecasts, in the upper left hand column on this, and all the other pages, will continue to have the latest Hawaiian weather information available. Glenn

Interesting: The first scientific mission with Sentry, a newly developed robot capable of diving as deep as 5,000 meters (3.1 miles) into the ocean, has been successfully completed by scientists and engineers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the University of Washington (UW). The vehicle surveyed and helped pinpoint several proposed deep-water sites for seafloor instruments that will be deployed in the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s planned Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI). Sentry is a state-of-the-art, free-swimming underwater robot that can operate independently, without tethers or other connections to a research ship. The autonomous underwater vehicle, or AUV, is pre-programmed with guidance for deep-water surveying, but it can also make its own decisions about navigation on the terrain of the seafloor. "This investment into emerging technologies is paying off in delivering state-of-the-art science support," said Julie Morris, director of NSF’s Division of Ocean Sciences. "In the near future, Sentry will conduct high-resolution oceanographic surveys that would be otherwise impossible.

Interesting2: Park benches of the future could be made from computers of the past. Scientists in China have developed a new recycling method that makes a strong construction material out of printed circuit boards (PCBs), which had been thought to be worthless. As more electrical and electronic equipment has become obsolete, the issue of electronic-waste removal has intensified, say Zhenming Xu at ShanghaiJiaoTongUniversity and colleagues. PCBs account for about 3 percent by weight of all electronic waste, Xu says.  Although metals from the circuit boards, such as copper and aluminum, are recycled, landfill disposal has been the primary method for treating their nonmetallic materials, which have been difficult to recycle, the paper says. The new process pulverizes the non-metallic parts of the circuit boards, adds a little resin, then hot presses them into useable plates. Being almost as strong as reinforced concrete, the recycled material makes a good substitute for wood the researchers write in the July 15 issue of Environmental Science & Technology. It could be used to make sewer grates, fences and park benches. "There is no doubt that the technique has potential in the industry for recycling nonmetallic materials of PCBs," Xu said.

Interesting3:



The US Navy has agreed to further limit use of low-frequency active sonar to prevent possible harm to whales and other creatures, reports said Wednesday. The new limits were included in a federal court-approved settlement with environmental groups and would ban the use of the low-frequency active sonar in areas in the Pacific Ocean that are known to be whale breeding grounds and key habitat, such as the Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary off Hawaii. The Navy must also limit testing seasonally and in coastal areas. The settlement brings to an end a protracted battle between the sides over the risk to whales and other marine life posed by underwater noise from sonar exercises. Navy officials insist that the sonar exercises are essential for sailors to train to detect ultra-quiet submarines being developed by nations such as Iran and North Korea. Scientists say sonar damages the hearing organs of sea mammals, disrupts their lives and has caused many whale species to beach themselves on shores. Environmentalists urged the Navy to conduct the training in areas spots where whales are not common.