Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs / August 27-28, 2008

August 27-28 2008

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

Lihue, Kauai – 87
Honolulu, Oahu – 88
Kaneohe, Oahu – 83
Kahului, Maui – 86
Hilo, Hawaii – 87
Kailua-kona – 86

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level, and on the taller mountains…at 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon:

Port Allen, Kauai – 88F  
Kaneohe, Oahu – 80

Haleakala Crater- 54 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 41 (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:

1.21 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.48 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.06 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.25 West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.14 Kahua Ranch, Big Island

Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a 1027 millibar high pressure system located to the northeast of Hawaii…with an associated ridge extending west to the north of our islands. This pressure configuration will keep our trade winds blowing generally in the light to moderately strong range through 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

Wailea, Maui 
Photo Credit: flickr.com

 

The trade winds will continue blowing across the tropical latitudes of the north central Pacific, although gradually becoming lighter. This long lasting spell of moderately strong trade winds here in the islands, will finally begin to ease up a bit, as they shift from the current moderately strong realms, down into the light to moderately strong range by the weekend. The computer models suggest that as we move into next week, they will rebound again, bringing back their cooling relief from what may become rather sultry conditions around the weekend time frame. 

The atmosphere has been quite stable lately, although a trough of pressure may make our air mass a bit more shower prone for the next several days. The precipitation pattern this past week has been one with occasional passing showers along the windward sides…and then returning to clear skies with no rain. As an upper level trough moves close through the rest of the week, we may see more generous showers at times. The leeward sides have been quite dry in general, although as the winds get lighter soon, that we may see an increase in upcountry afternoon showers developing. As the trade winds ramp-up again early next week, the bias for showers will return to the windward sides. 

Tropical storm Gustav is a storm that the computer hurricane models bring into the Gulf of Mexico as a strong category 3 hurricane. This hurricane will likely do some shifting around in its path over the very warm waters of the Gulf, although as this track map from the National Hurricane Center in Miami shows…at the moment it’s heading directly towards the New Orleans area! This tropical cyclone will become big news, and I’m sure we will be hearing lots more about it, much of it won’t make for a pretty picture I’m afraid. Fortunately, the Hawaiian Islands, here in the north central Pacific remains free of any tropical storm activity!

It’s early Wednesday evening here in Kihei, Maui, as I begin writing this last paragraph of today’s tropical weather narrative from Hawaii. You know, each day is so different here in the islands, especially in terms of the day to day changes in weather. Today turned out to be more cloudy than normal in many areas, certainly that was the case here on Maui. There was yet another brush fire that broke out in south Maui, up above Kihei Wednesday afternoon. This is the 4th wild brush fire in the last five days! The brush and dead grass this summer is tender and dry, and fires can start so easily. I know that at least one of these fires was caused by people, and more than likely more than that. We need to all be very careful, as sooner or later, one of these blazes will get way out of hand, and people are going to be hurt, along with dwellings going up in smoke as well. I’ll be back very early Thursday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Wednesday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn. 

Interesting:

More ominous signs Wednesday have scientists saying that a global warming "tipping point" in the Arctic is happening before their eyes: Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has melted to its second lowest level since satellite observations began. The National Snow and IceDataCenter in Boulder, Colo., reported that the extent of sea ice in the Arctic is down to 2.03 million square miles. The lowest point since 1979 is 1.65 million square miles set last September. With about three weeks left in the Arctic summer, this year could wind up breaking the previous record, scientists said. Arctic ice always melts in summer and refreezes in winter. But over the years, more of the ice is lost to the sea and with less of it recovered in winter. While ice reflects the sun’s heat, the open ocean absorbs more heat and the melting accelerates warming in other parts of the world. Sea ice also serves as primary habitat for threatened polar bears. "We could very well be in that quick slide downward in terms of passing a tipping point," said center senior scientist Mark Serreze.

"It’s tipping now. We’re seeing it happen now." Within a few years — "five to less than 10 years" — the Arctic could be free of sea ice in the summer, said NASA ice scientist Jay Zwally. "It also means that climate warming is also coming larger and faster than the models are predicting and nobody’s really taken into account that change yet," he said. Other scientists, including James Hansen, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies in New York, agreed. Hansen in a Wednesday e-mail said the sea ice "is the best current example of a tipping point." Last year was an unusual year when wind currents and other weather conditions coincided with global warming to worsen sea ice melt, Serreze said. Scientists wondered if last year’s melt was an unusual event or the start of a new and disturbing trend. This year’s results suggest the latter because the ice had recovered a bit more than usual thanks to a somewhat cooler winter, Serreze said. Then this month, when the melting rate usually slows, it sped up, he said.

Interesting2:

Scientists have cautioned that a warming planet could melt Greenland‘s vast ice sheet, a potentially catastrophic event that would raise sea levels and inundate coastal communities around the globe. Yet while they puzzle over when and whether this might happen, they’re also mystified over how the giant island formed so much ice in the first place. Greenland’s ice sheet is the second largest in the world, behind only Antarctica. Strangely, other parts of the globe at similar latitudes, including northern Canada and Siberia, don’t have year-round patches of ice anywhere near as extensive or thick. A new study finds that a mysterious drop in greenhouse gases around 3 million years ago allowed Greenland‘s ice to proliferate. The research could help with forecasts about the fate of the ice and the potential for rising seas.

If all of Greenland‘s ice were to melt, perhaps as quickly as in a few centuries, seas would rise 21 feet (6.5 meters) all around the planet, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. And already, an alarming melt is under way there, other studies find. In 2007, the ice melted at a rate of 150 percent of the average going back to 1988. Recent studies have found that as the ice melts more rapidly, water pours through fissures and gets under glaciers, acting like a lubricant to allow the ice to race ever-faster toward the sea. In addition, when snow melts at high altitudes and then refreezes, it can absorb up to four times more sunlight, creating even more melting the next year.

Interesting3:

To keep coral reefs from being eaten away by increasingly acidic oceans, humans need to limit the amount of climate-warming greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, a panel of marine scientists said on Wednesday. "The most logical and critical action to address the impacts of ocean acidification on coral reefs is to stabilize atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration," the scientists said in a document called the Honolulu Declaration, for release at a U.S. conference on coral reefs in Hawaii. Ocean acidification is another threat to corals caused by global warming, along with rising sea levels, higher sea surface temperatures and coral bleaching, the scientists said. Coral reefs are a "sentinel ecosystem," a sign that the environment is changing, said one of the experts, Billy Causey of the U.S. National Marine Sanctuary Program.

"Although ocean acidification is affecting the health of our oceans, the same thing — increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere — is going to in fact be affecting terrestrial environments also," Causey said by telephone from Hawaii. Coral reefs offer economic and environmental benefits to millions of people, including coastal protection from waves and storms and as sources of food, pharmaceuticals, jobs and revenue, the declaration said. But corals are increasingly threatened by warming sea surface temperatures as well as ocean acidification. Oceans are getting more acidic because they have been absorbing some 525 billion tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide over the last two centuries, about one-third of all human-generated carbon dioxide for that period.

 

Interesting4:

We’ve all been stunned by images showing the dramatic retreat of mountain glaciers. Yet few of us have given much thought to what happens next. Now the first study to look at how life invades soil immediately after mountain glaciers melt has an answer. Primitive bacteria step in to colonize the area, enrich the soil with nutrients, and even cement the ground, preventing landslides, say researchers who have studied the process in the Peruvian Andes. A few studies have looked at the types of plants that colonize mountain valleys that were previously covered in ice. But before plants move in there is usually a period, which at high latitudes and altitudes can last several years, during which the newly uncovered soil appears totally barren.

To investigate what is happening during this period, Steve Schmidt of the University of Colorado and colleagues examined the soil at the retreating edge of the Puca glacier in the Peruvian Andes. Between 2000 and 2005, they sampled the top 10 centimeters of ground that was revealed as the glacier moved uphill at a rate of 20 metres per year. They analyzed the chemical structure of the samples and screened for bacteria. They found that over the years, the "oldest" soil“ the dirt taken from the point that was revealed at the glacier edge in 2000“ changed rapidly. The first organisms to appear in the soil were cyanobacteria. These primitive bacteria are found in many marine ecosystems and some land-based ecosystems. It is these bacteria we have to thank for pumping oxygen into Earth’s atmosphere 3.4 billion years ago, allowing land life to evolve.

Interesting5:

A pilot program that began last year in Vermont in Brattleboro and BellowsFalls to allows consumers to use food stamps at farmers’ markets is now spreading across the state, and the rest of the country. In 2007, the experimental service was set up at the two WindhamCounty markets. While there were a few glitches with the wireless technology, six other markets are also trying the service out this season across the state. And at other markets from Maine to Hawaii, farmers are introducing the electronic debit systems that allow low income families to use their federal food assistance dollars to purchase local fruits and vegetables. The number of farmers’ markets across the country accepting electronic benefit transfer, or EBT, transactions increased from 532 in 2007 to 605 as of June 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. USDA Undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Nancy Montanez Johner, said both food stamp recipients and farmers have benefited from the success of the program. "Farmers’ markets give food stamp recipients opportunities to improve their nutrition by increasing their consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables," Montanez Johner said. "The Food Stamp Program also benefits local farmers by bringing additional customers to their markets to purchase their products."

Interesting 6:

A turtle that toddled alongside the dinosaurs died just days before laying a clutch of eggs. Now, about 75 million years later, paleontologists are announcing their find of the fossilized mother-to-be and the eggs tucked inside her body. Scientists from the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Canada discovered the turtle in 1999 in a mud-filled channel in the badlands of southeastern Alberta. Then, in 2005, University of Calgary scientists found a nest of 26 eggs laid by another female of the same species in the same region. Both specimens, described this week in the journal Biology Letters, belong to an extinct turtle in the Adocus genus, a large river turtle that resembles today’s slider and cooter turtles. The pregnant turtle represents the first fossil turtle to be unearthed with eggs still inside the body cavity, the scientists say. "Although it is relatively rare to find the eggs and babies of extinct animals, it is even rarer to find them inside the body of the mother," said researcher Darla Zelenitsky, a geoscientist at the University of Calgary in Alberta, who was also involved in the first discovery of a dinosaur with eggs inside its body.

Interesting7:

The Zephyr solar plane has sailed to what may be a record for sun-powered unmanned flight. The 66-pound craft was aloft for 83 hours and 7 minutes. The plane makes use of ultra-lightweight carbon-fiber to save on weight. It flies on solar power generated by paper-thin silicon solar arrays on its wings. The Zephyr solar-powered plane is able to fly autonomously, using GPS to keep on track. Launched by hand, Zephyr charges its batteries during the day for night flying. Initially, the plane was flown remotely to an altitude of 60,000 feet; the plane was able to fly by itself for the remaining time. [The flight is unlikely to be an official record, however, because the company did not meet criteria laid down by the world’s air sports federation.] Other solar-powered surveillance planes are under development, like the Helios craft that has already flown a number of successful test flights. The Zephyr is considered a possible predecessor to the planned DARPA Vulture Five Year Flying Wing. The "five years" part refers to the length of proposed continuous flight time.