Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Tuesday afternoon: Lihue, Kauai – 85
Honolulu, Oahu – 88 Kaneohe, Oahu – 82 Kahului, Maui – missing Hilo, Hawaii – 78 Kailua-kona – 86 Air Temperaturesranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level, and on the highest mountains…at 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon:
Barking Sands Kauai – 85F Hilo, Hawaii– 76
Haleakala Crater – 54 (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 Tuesday afternoon:
1.37 Mount Waialeale Kauai
1.34 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.42 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe 1.48 West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.81 Honokaa, Big Island Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather mapshowing a 1022 millibar high pressure system to the north-northwest of the islands. The placement and strength of this high pressure cell will keep light to moderately strong northeast trade winds coming our way…locally a bit stronger.
Satellite and Radar Images: To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with theInfrared 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 animatedradar image.
Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of near 14,000 footMauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. The tallest peak on the island of Maui is theHaleakala 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
Spouting Horn blow hole on Kauai Photo Credit: flickr.com
Our local winds will be shifting from northeast, back towards the more customary easterly trade winds soon.Wind speeds will pick up some Wednesday through the rest of the week. As usual, the winds will strongest during the heat of the days, calming back down after dark. The computer forecast models suggest that these early autumn trade winds will continue blowing right on into next week.
The quickly dissipating cold front has moved through the entire state…and continues on its way south and southeast away from the state. The remnant cloudiness remains hung up along the windward sides of both Maui and the Big Island Tuesday enening. These leftover frontal clouds will drop a few showers, leaving clearing skies and mostly dry conditions in the leeward areas. Now that the trade winds are back with us, we’ll see the usual off and on passing showers.
It’s early Tuesday evening here in Kihei, Maui, as I begin writing this last section of today’s tropical weather narrative from Hawaii. Tuesday was an interesting day, which started off on the cloudy side, cleared up in many places, and then got cloudy again during the afternoon hours locally. Looking at the latest satellite image,we can see the sagging frontal cloud band becoming more and more ragged and disorganized. Nonetheless, it still has the characteristic cloud band, stretched-out U shape. There are more clouds heading our way, although the air streaming into the state now is relatively dry and stable. This will limit the amount of showers arriving, although there will still be some around at times…most generous of which will fall along the windward sides during the night and early morning hours. ~~~ I’m about ready to leave Kihei, for the 35-40 minute drive home to Kula, in what’s called the upcountry area. Kula, at least where I live on the western slope of the Haleakala Crater, is 3,100 feet in elevation. The first thing I’ll do when I arrive home, as I do most days, is put on a long sleeve turtle neck, as its definitely cooler up there compared to down here at sea level. ~~~ I’ll be back very early Wednesday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Tuesday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting:
In 1991 Norway became one of the first countries in the world to impose a stiff tax on harmful greenhouse gas emissions. Since then, the country’s emissions should have dropped. Instead, they have risen by 15%. Although the tax forced Norway‘s oil and gas sector to become among the greenest in the world, soaring energy prices led to a boom in offshore production, which in turn boosted overall emissions. So did drivers. Norwegians, who already pay nearly $10 a gallon, took the tax in stride, buying more cars and driving them more. And numerous industries won exemptions from the tax, carrying on unchanged. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. By making it more expensive to pollute, carbon taxes should spur companies and individuals to clean up. Norway’s sobering experience shows how difficult it is to cut emissions in the real world, where elegant theoretical solutions are complicated by economic changes, entrenched behaviors and political realities.
Europe struggled with a similar dilemma as it set up its "cap-and-trade" system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by utilities and heavy industry. Regulators cushioned industry in the early years of the system, giving them little incentive to improve. As a result, emissions have crept up 1% a year since 2005. In the U.S., the Senate voted down cap-and-trade legislation in July, won over by arguments that the system would hurt industry and boost consumer prices. But the measure could be revived, since both presidential candidates support it. A few countries have cut emissions without injuring their economies. Sweden and Denmark, both of which introduced a carbon tax, have reduced their greenhouse gas emissions by 14% and 8% respectively since 1990 while maintaining growth. Their emission reductions can’t be attributed to the tax alone, economists say. Additional moves to encourage energy efficiency and renewable energy, which are government-subsidized, played a part.
Interesting2:
The Chinese government, which has done quite a lot for the Yangtze River’s endangered freshwater dolphins, last week decided it needed to do more. The key initiative of the new Yangtze Dolphin Network is to connect existing reserves established for the Baiji dolphin, the world’s most endangered member of the whale family, and the finless porpoise. The network was initiated by the aquatic and wildlife protection office of the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and is funded by donors including WWF-China. “WWF started working on Yangtze dolphin conservation as early as 2002 and I am very happy to join the Yangtze Dolphin Network today,” said Dr. Wang Limin, WWF-China’s deputy director of conservation operations. “It is of big significance to dolphin protection efforts in China and around the world.” Human activities such as illegal fishing, pollution and shipping have hit the Baiji dolphin and finless porpoise hard, causing their numbers to dramatically decline over the last few years.
During a Yangtze Freshwater dolphin expedition in 2006 no Baiji dolphins were found, while the population of the finless porpoise has dropped to an estimated 1,800, half the number found in the 1990s. “It is necessary to integrate each nature reserve to effectively protect the Baiji dolphin and finless porpoise,” said Fan Xiangguo, director of aquatic wildlife protection at the Ministry of Agriculture. Over the past few decades the Chinese government has made considerable efforts to protect the freshwater dolphin by setting up nature reserves. The Yangtze Dolphin Network includes six nature reserves and two monitoring sites. “Dolphins are the indicator species of river health,” said Li Lifeng, Freshwater Programme Director, WWF International. “If they are gone, the river will not be able to support human development. The Yangtze Dolphin Network is a great step towards protecting the river for both species and people.”
Interesting3:
Westport, Conn., this month became the latest of a handful of communities to ban some plastic bags. The bags, which have only a brief, useful life, can survive forever in landfills and are of enormous concern to not only environmentalists but local officials who are running out of places to put their trash. Westport’s ordinance will take effect in six months and applies to bags dispensed at checkout counters. Others, like dry cleaning bags, will be exempted. The aim is to reduce litter and encourage customers to tote their groceries in reusable cloth bags. The town’s stand is laudable but will have only a limited effect on what is, after all, a statewide problem.
The Connecticut Legislature rebuffed a proposed statewide ban last year. Massachusetts and Maine considered similar bans and also backed down. Americans use and dispose of at least 100 billion bags every year. Although the plastics industry points out that plastic grocery bags are made more from natural gas than petroleum, natural gas is not a renewable resource and contributes to global warming. And about only 5 percent of all plastic bags are recycled nationwide. The rest end up in the trash, hanging in trees or floating in water where they menace marine life.
Interesting4:
Reconstructing the climate of the past is an important tool for scientists to better understand and predict future climate changes that are the result of the present-day global warming. Although there is still little known about the Earth’s tropical and subtropical regions, these regions are thought to play an important role in both the evolution of prehistoric man and global climate changes. New North African climate reconstructions reveal three ‘green Sahara’ episodes during which the present-day SaharaDesert was almost completely covered with extensive grasslands, lakes and ponds over the course of the last 120.000 years. The findings of Dr. Rik Tjallingii, Prof. Dr. Martin Claussen and their colleagues will be published in the October issue of Nature Geoscience.
Scientists of the MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Research in Bremen (Germany) and the Alfred-Wegener-Institute in Bremerhaven (Germany) studied a marine sediment core off the coast of Northwest Africa to find out how the vegetation cover and hydrological cycle of the Sahara and Sahel region changed. The scientists were able to reconstruct the vegetation cover of the last 120.000 years by studying changes in the ratio of wind and river-transported particles found in the core. “We found three distinct periods with almost only river-transported particles and hardly any wind dust particles, which is remarkable because today the SaharaDesert is the world’s largest dust-bowl,” says Rik Tjallingii.
Interesting5:
It’s snowing on Mars, or to be more precise, in the clouds above Mars. NASA on Monday reported that its Phoenix Mars Lander had detected snow falling from Martian clouds. The Phoenix Mars Lander is equipped with a laser instrument that measures how the Martian atmosphere and surface interact. The device detected snow at an altitude of 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) above the Phoenix‘s landing site, according to NASA. Future Mars visitors won’t have to worry about bringing skis, however: Data shows that the snow turns to vapor before reaching the planet’s surface. NASA spokesperson Guy Webster said that NASA scientists and others working on the news briefing were excited about the observations. "They were also excited about sharing the information with the public, fully appreciating that snow is something most people have stronger feelings about than effects of liquid water on minerals," he said in an e-mail. Jim Whiteway, an associate professor at YorkUniversity in Toronto and the lead scientist for the Canadian-supplied Meteorological Station on Phoenix, said in a statement,
"Nothing like this view has ever been seen on Mars. We’ll be looking for signs that the snow may even reach the ground." Since its landing on May 25, Phoenix has determined that ice is present in subsurface soil on Mars. NASA scientists are currently trying to determine whether water exists in liquid form on Mars, which would make the Martian environment far more conducive to life. Phoenix‘s mission is to study the history of water in the Martian arctic, to search for evidence of a habitable area, and to determine whether the ice-soil boundary area has the potential to support life. The mission was originally planned to last three months. It is currently in its fifth month. The declining availability of solar energy in the months ahead is expected to put an end to the lander’s exploration before the year’s end. "For nearly three months after landing, the sun never went below the horizon at our landing site," said Barry Goldstein, JPL Phoenix project manager, in a statement. "Now it is gone for more than four hours each night, and the output from our solar panels is dropping each week. Before the end of October, there won’t be enough energy to keep using the robotic arm."
Interesting6:
How much is $700,000,000,000 dollars? The short answer: a lot. The long answer: depends on how you look at it. Whatever your viewpoint, here’s how $700 billion — the figure inked in the initial dead-in-the-water government bailout bill for Wall Street — compares to other vast sums. NASA in fiscal year 2009 will launch several missions into space and pay for hundreds of people to operate a host of space telescopes and even remote robots on Mars and run a PR and media department that puts most large corporations to shame. The agency’s budget: $17.6 billion, or 2.5 percent of the bailout sum. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has an annual budget of $6.06 billion to support research and education on astronomy, chemistry, materials science, computing, engineering, earth sciences, nanoscience and physics (among others) at more than 1,900 universities and institutions across the United States. You have to turn to much bigger initiatives, like war and defense, to get beyond this chump change and approach the bailout figure. From 2003 through the end of fiscal year 2009, Congress has appropriated $606 billion for military operations and other activities associated with the war in Iraq, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The entire military budget for fiscal 2008 is $481.4 billion.
Social Security is a $608 billion annual program. Many analysts fear the bailout because the cost must ultimately be borne by taxpayers. Based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s estimate of the current population of about 305 million people, each person would have to pay $2,300 to fund the $700,000,000,000. If each American (including children) paid a dollar a day, it would take more than six years to pay the money in full. One might argue, however, that this $700 billion would be a modest splash in the bucket of national debt, which already stands at well over $9 trillion (which means you already owe $31,642 each). Even the New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez would lose sleep over all those zeroes. Currently the top paid major league baseball player, Rodriguez takes home $28 million a year, meaning it would take 25,000 A-Rod salaries to carry the $700 billion. Nobody is rich enough to pay back this $700 billion by himself. In fact, the Forbes 400 richest list recently came out. It would take most of what these 400 people collectively have — a combined net worth of $1.57 trillion — to dig out of this mess.
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Monday afternoon: Lihue, Kauai – 85
Honolulu, Oahu – 85 Kaneohe, Oahu – 84 Kahului, Maui – 86 Hilo, Hawaii – 83 Kailua-kona – 85 Air Temperaturesranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level, and on the highest mountains…at 4 p.m. Monday afternoon:
Port Allen, Kauai – 88F Barking Sands, Kauai– 79
Haleakala Crater – 57 (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 Monday afternoon:
0.08 Kalaheo, Kauai
0.06 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.00 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe 0.21 Kaupo Gap, Maui
0.13 Kealakekua, Big Island Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather mapshowing a dissipating cold front pushing through the state Tuesday. At the same time we find a new high pressure system following the front, which will bring northeast winds our way…gradually turning to classic trade winds into Wednesday.
Satellite and Radar Images: To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with theInfrared 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 animatedradar image.
Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of near 14,000 footMauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. The tallest peak on the island of Maui is theHaleakala 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
Great sunset colors from the Kona coast Photo Credit: flickr.com
Light northerly breezes will remain in place Monday night, under the influence of an early season cold front passing down through the state slowly. A brief period of cool (tropically speaking) north to northeast breezes will fill-in with this weak frontal cloud band into Tuesday.Winds will pick up some later Tuesday into Wednesday from the NE, increasing some from the more traditional ENE to easterly trade wind direction Thursday through the end of the week.
The leading edge of the cold front passed over Kauai Monday afternoon…and is in the process of moving over Oahu in the early evening hours. The band of clouds will work its way southward to Maui Monday night, then on to the Big Island early Tuesday. Here’s a looping radar image of the showers embedded in the front. Showers will remain in place along the windward sides, as the north to northeast winds keep clouds banked-up against those areas.
This is not a strong front, although it is bringing a period of light showers with it. The windward sides of the islands will find the most generous rainfall from this front, although a few showers should find their way over into the leeward sides in places. The windward sides will remain quite cloudy, with leftover showers falling there for a day or two. The leeward sides will clear out rather quickly during the day Tuesday.
It’s Early Monday evening here in Kihei, Maui, as I begin writing this last section of today’s tropical weather narrative from Hawaii. The slightly cool north breezes blew through the islands Monday, keeping modestly cooler air temperatures than normal, which should remain the case for the next day or two. Looking at the latest satellite image, we can see this cold front migrating down through the island chain. As the clouds associated with the frontal boundary move over each individual island, clouds will increase, with showers falling. This is exceptionally early in the autumn season for such a cold front to arrive. It would be more typical to see a front like this coming our way during the later part of October or November. ~~~ Looking out the window here in Kihei, I can see the first sign of the frontal cloud band, or at least the prefrontal clouds, showing up over the ocean to our north. I’ll have a better view of these clouds, once I get home to Kula. Tuesday should be a tad cooler than it was Monday, with the cooler air, from more northern latitudes, following in the wake of the cold frontal passage. I’ll be back very early Tuesday morning with your next new weather narrative, with updates about the front, and where it is located then. I hope you have a great Monday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting:In South Korea, wind power would be a likely resource to help the world’s tenth largest energy consumer meet government goals to lower fossil fuel dependency through greater investment in renewable energy. Yet efforts to build wind turbines in South Korea have met fierce opposition, even among environmentalists, due to the lack of open land in the densely populated country. Only about 100 megawatts (MW) of wind power are installed nationwide despite plentiful wind resources and government price controls that keep renewable power competitive with traditional energy sources. The solution might be found off the Korean peninsula’s shores, and South Korea is not alone.
As more countries seek to increase their renewable energy ratios, many consider off-shore wind a potential solution to provide clean energy without affecting local landscapes and communities. Off-shore wind has so far taken a back seat to on-shore wind farms during the current boom in wind energy development. Off-shore turbines are more difficult to maintain, and they cost $.08-$0.12 per kilowatt-hour, compared to $.05-$.08 for on-shore wind. But off-shore wind farms offer several benefits over their land-based counterparts. Strong ocean winds allow one off-shore turbine to generate substantially more power than one on-shore turbine. Also, if an off-shore wind farm is located near a coastal city, clean energy would be available without dedicating land to new transmission lines.
Interesting2:Following a record-breaking season of arctic sea ice decline in 2007, NASA scientists have kept a close watch on the 2008 melt season. Although the melt season did not break the record for ice loss, NASA data are showing that for a four-week period in August 2008, sea ice melted faster during that period than ever before. Each year at the end of summer, sea ice in the Arctic melts to reach its annual minimum. Ice that remains, or "perennial ice," has survived from year to year and contains old, thick ice. The area of arctic sea ice, including perennial and seasonal ice, has taken a hit in past years as melt has accelerated. Researchers believe that if the rate of decline continues, all arctic sea ice could be gone within the century.
"I was not expecting that ice cover at the end of summer this year would be as bad as 2007 because winter ice cover was almost normal," said Joey Comiso of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "We saw a lot of cooling in the Arctic that we believe was associated with La Niña. Sea ice in Canada had recovered and even expanded in the Bering Sea and Baffin Bay. Overall, sea ice recovered to almost average levels. That was a good sign that this year might not be as bad as last year." The 2008 sea ice minimum was second to 2007 for the record-lowest extent of sea ice, according to a joint announcement Sept. 16 by NASA and the University of Colorado’s National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colo. As of Sept. 12, 2008, the ice extent was 1.74 million square miles. That’s 0.86 million square miles below the average minimum extent recorded from 1979 to 2000, according to NSIDC.
Interesting3: Flushed with the success of Olympic traffic controls and struck by the painful return to congested normality, Beijing on Saturday unveiled plans for smaller-scale but permanent controls on its drivers. Cars will be banned from the roads one out of five weekdays, in a system based on the number of their license plate, and 30 percent of government cars will be taken off the road entirely, the official Xinhua agency reported. The new rules will kick in for a six-month trial on October 11. Department stores will open and close an hour later and the government will encourage companies to allow flexible working hours or change their shifts to ease the rush hour traffic that brings parts of the city to a near standstill. It is also considering raising downtown parking fees. After the clearer skies and smooth roads of the Olympics the city has been buzzing with discussions of whether the traffic controls that grounded cars on alternate days for two months could be extended. Under the new system all cars will be free to circulate at weekends. On Mondays cars with license plates ending with 1 or 6 will be banned, on Tuesdays those ending with 2 or 7, on Wednesdays 3 and 8, on Thursdays 4 or 9 and on Friday 5 or 0.
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Sunday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 85
Honolulu, Oahu – 85 Kaneohe, Oahu – 84 Kahului, Maui – 85 Hilo, Hawaii – 85
Kailua-kona – 85 Air Temperaturesranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level, and on the highest mountains…at 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon:
Kapalua, Maui – 86F Lihue, Kauai– 81
Haleakala Crater – 54 (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 Sunday afternoon:
0.11 Kapahi, Kauai 0.15 Hakipuu Mauka, Oahu
0.00 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe 0.07 Puu Kukui, Maui
0.05 Kealakekua, Big Island Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather mapshowing a weak 1017 millibar high pressure system far to the east-northeast of Hawaii. A slowly approaching cold front has pushed this high’s ridge down to the east of the islands. This pressure configuration will keep light northerly breezes in place Monday, increasing some in strength Tuesday.
Satellite and Radar Images: To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with theInfrared 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 animatedradar image.
Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of near 14,000 footMauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. The tallest peak on the island of Maui is theHaleakala 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
View of Molokai from Maui Photo Credit: flickr.com
Light winds will remain in place through Monday, under the influence of anapproaching early season cold front…which continues pushing in our direction from the north. A brief period of cool (tropically speaking) north to northeast breezes will fill in ahead of and with this weak frontal cloud band later Monday into Wednesday.Winds will pick up some later Wednesday from the NE to ENE trade wind direction, lasting into the weekend.
Showers have been few and far between Sunday, with little change expected through most of Monday. As the leading edge of the cold front arrives over Kauai Monday evening, then Oahu during the night, those islands will find increasing clouds and generally light showers. The band of clouds will work its way southward to Maui Tuesday, and then finally to the Big Island later in the day. Showers will remain in place along the windward sides as the trade winds keep clouds banked up against the windward slopes.
This rather meager cold front will push down into the state later Monday into Tuesday. This is not going to be a strong front, although it will bring a period of light showers with it. Relatively cool north to NE breezes will ride in with the frontal boundary. This will bring our first slight touch of autumn weather, as high temperatures drop a few degrees lower than what they would otherwise Monday through Wednesday.
It’s Early Sunday evening here in Kula, Maui, as I begin writing this last section of today’s tropical weather narrative from Hawaii. Looking at the latest satellite image, we can see the well advertised cold front to the north of the islands. This first cold front of the autumn season won’t be a big deal…with little resemblence to what we would expect during the wilder winter months. Nonetheless, it is unusual to find a cold front arriving during the month of September! We’ll move right back into a fairly normal summer-like trade wind weather pattern after the frontal passage, called a fropa in the weather business. The trade winds will fill back into the Hawaiian Islands weather picture during the second half of the ucoming week. ~~~ I made a great dish this afternoon, starting off by heating up a whole onion in extra virgin olive oil. I then added fresh mushrooms, aspargus spears, okra, corn off the cob…along with fresh red tomatoes and a whole hot (small one of course) pepper from the garden…I’ll put grating cheese on that when plated. Oh yeah, I amost forgot, I added four slices of organic, hickory smoked Sunday (I don’t why its called that…does anyone?) bacon in for added flavor and protein. I made enough to have this delicous dish for dinner each night of the upcoming week, at least through Thursday. Friday nights I most often just have a bag of unbuttered popcorn for dinner, as I go to the movies after work. ~~~ I’ll be back very early Monday morning with your next new weather narrative. I hope you have a great Sunday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn. Interesting:
Rather than building stronger ocean-based structures to withstand tsunamis, it might be easier to simply make the structures disappear. A collaboration of physicists from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Aix-Marseille Universite in France and the University of Liverpool in England have conducted laboratory experiments showing that it’s possible to make type of dike that acts as an invisibility cloak that hides off-shore platforms from water waves. The principle is analogous to the optical invisibility cloaks that are currently a hot area of physics research. Tsunami invisibility cloaks wouldn’t make structures disappear from sight, but they could manipulate ocean waves in ways that makes off-shore platforms, and possibly even coastlines and small islands, effectively invisible to tsunamis. If the scheme works as well in the real world as the lab-scale experiments suggest, a tsunami should be able to pass right by with little or no effect on anything hidden behind the cloak.
Interesting2: Barack Obama and John McCain are promising voters a Tomorrowland of electric cars and high-speed trains and solar panels, a vision of American life without a drop of imported oil. But their plans to get there look more like Fantasyland. A host of energy policy experts agree that true "energy independence"—a key catch phrase of this presidential campaign—would be far more expensive and disruptive than either candidate is telling you. Our oil addiction hamstrings America‘s foreign policy and military, contributes to global warming and has robbed the nation of trillions of dollars. One of the country’s leading energy modelers estimates that foreign-oil dependence cost our economy $750 billion this year, a little more than the daunting price tag of the proposed Wall Street bailout. The main culprit sits in your driveway: Due largely to massive increases in highway fuel consumption, our oil imports doubled in the last 30 years.
But petroleum is everywhere—in asphalt, ink pens, burger wrappers. Replacing it won’t be nearly as easy as it sounds on the campaign trail. In speech after speech, McCain and Obama extol energy independence and rip the federal government’s failure to achieve it. McCain promises to secure "strategic independence" from foreign sources by 2025, with a plan that includes a $300 million prize for a super-efficient electric car battery. Obama pledges to effectively replace oil imports from the Middle East within a decade, largely by investing $150 billion in alternative fuels. Experts suggest the candidates are wildly understating the cost and time that true independence would require. The transition to a national life without imported oil appears so expensive that none of more than a dozen scientists and scholars interviewed by the Tribune could calculate a price tag. Only one even ventured a ballpark guess: $1 trillion to $2 trillion.
Interesting3:The discovery of rocks as old as 4.28 billion years pushes back age of most ancient remnant of Earth’s crust by 300 million years.McGillUniversity researchers have discovered the oldest rocks on Earth – a discovery which sheds more light on our planet’s mysterious beginnings. These rocks, known as "faux-amphibolites", may be remnants of a portion of Earth’s primordial crust – the first crust that formed at the surface of our planet. The ancient rocks were found in Northern Quebec, along the Hudson‘s Bay coast, 40 km south of Inukjuak in an area known as the Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt. The discovery was made by Jonathan O’Neil, a Ph.D. candidate at McGill’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Richard W. Carlson, a researcher at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., Don Francis, a McGill professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and Ross K. Stevenson, a professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM).
O’Neil and colleagues estimated the age of the rocks using isotopic dating, which analyzes the decay of the radioactive element neodymium-142 contained within them. This technique can only be used to date rocks roughly 4.1 billion years old or older; this is the first time it has ever been used to date terrestrial rocks, because nothing this old has ever been discovered before. "There have been older dates from Western Australia for isolated resistant mineral grains called zircons," says Carlson, "but these are the oldest whole rocks found so far." The oldest zircon dates are 4.36 billion years. Before this study, the oldest dated rocks were from a body of rock known as the Acasta Gneiss in the Northwest Territories, which are 4.03 billion years old. The Earth is 4.6 billion years old, and remnants of its early crust are extremely rare—most of it has been mashed and recycled into Earth’s interior several times over by plate tectonics since the Earth formed.
Interesting4: An area of the Pacific Ocean once thought to be cold and barren is warmer than scientists thought, a new study finds. The seafloor there might be teeming with life. A group of researchers dropped probes down to a flat region of the Pacific Ocean floor off the coast of Costa Rica and about the size of Connecticut to gauge the water temperature and flow there. To their surprise, the water spewing out of the typically cold ocean floor was warmer and faster than expected in this area. "It’s like finding Old Faithful in Illinois," said study team member Carol Stein of the University of Illinois at Chicago. "When we went out to try to get a feel for how much heat was coming from the ocean floor and how much sea water might be moving through it, we found that there was much more heat than we expected." The sea floor in this region, which lies some 2 miles below the ocean surface, is marked by 10 widely separated outcrops or mounts that rise from sediment covering the ocean crust made of volcanic rock about 20 to 25 million years old.
Large amounts of water gush through cracks and crevices in the ocean crust like geysers and pick up heat as they move through the insulated volcanic rock. While not as hot as water that runs through mid-ocean ridges formed by rising lava, the water is still much warmer than expected. This warmth opens up the possibility that the area could support life, such as bacteria, clams and tubeworm species recently found to be living near hot water discharges along mid-ocean ridges. "It’s relatively warm and may have some of the nutrients needed to support some of the life forms we see on the sea floor," Stein said. The researchers hope to follow up this study, detailed in the September 2008 issue of Nature Geoscience, by examining other areas of the ocean floor to see if they can find any similar to the one off the coast of Costa Rica.
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Saturday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 85
Honolulu, Oahu – 87 Kaneohe, Oahu – 83 Kahului, Maui – 90 Hilo, Hawaii – 84
Kailua-kona – 84 Air Temperaturesranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level, and on the highest mountains…at 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon:
Honolulu, Oahu – 86F Hilo, Hawaii– 79
Haleakala Crater – 55 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 43 (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 Saturday afternoon: 0.97 Wailua, Kauai
0.57 Manoa Valley, Oahu
0.10 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.01 Kahoolawe 0.06 Oheo Gulch, Maui
0.07 Waiakea Uka, Big Island Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather mapshowing high pressure systems located to the northeast and northwest of Hawaii. A slowly approaching cold front will push our high pressure ridge close to the islands, causing our local winds to become lighter this weekend…with a tendency to be from the southeast.
Satellite and Radar Images: To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with theInfrared 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 animatedradar image.
Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of near 14,000 footMauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. The tallest peak on the island of Maui is theHaleakala 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
The beauty of Kauai…like a postcard! Photo Credit: flickr.com
The trade winds have calmed down now, with light winds taking over through Monday. An approaching early season cold front pushing in our direction, is why these lighter winds have settled in our the state. Our local atmosphere will likely become somewhat hazy under this light wind influence…some of which could be of the volcanic variety. Cool (tropically speaking) north to northeast breezes will fill in behind an early season cold front Monday night intoTuesday.Winds will pick up some Wednesday from the NE to ENE direction, lasting for at least several days going forward.
As the lighter breezes are in place now, the bias for showers will be over the interior sections during the afternoon hours…especially on the Kauai end of the island chain. This convective weather pattern will provide generally nice weather during the morning hours, with quite a bit of sunshine in most areas. As the daytime heating of the islands takes place, clouds will form over and around the mountains during the late morning through the afternoon hours…leading to a few localized showers.
An early season cold front will push down into the state late Monday into Tuesday. This is not going to be a strong frontal cloud band, although it will bring light to moderate showers with it. It will bring showers to Kauai and Oahu Monday night, and then drop down to Maui or the Big Island Tuesday…where it will dissipate in place. Relatively cool north to NE breezes will ride in with the frontal boundary. This will bring our first slight touch of autumn weather, as high temperatures drop a few degrees lower than what they would otherwise be. Moisture brought in by the cold front will bank up against the north and NE coasts and slopes…keeping passing shower activity going for several days thereafter.
It’s late Saturday afternoon here in Kula, Maui, as I begin writing this last section of today’s tropical weather narrative from Hawaii. Looking down towards the beaches, it still looks clear and sunny. In contrast, the mountains were the gathering place for afternoon cumulus clouds. This cloudiness dropped a few showers, although I didn’t have any here in Kula. If you look close, you’ll see the weak outline of the cold front, to the upper left of the islands…which will migrate down through the state Monday night into early Tuesday. I’m finding it interesting that this weak cloud band, with its origins in the middle latitudes of the north Pacific, will slip down over us. Perhaps even more interesting, will be the ever so slightly cooler winds that arrive…whose source is over colder waters, in the higher latitudes of the north central Pacific. I know it may be somewhat of a stretch, for most of you, to get all worked up over autumn’s first cold front, but that’s how it gets to me. I love any weather changes, and for some reason, especially those that are associated with cold fronts, and its cooler air coming down into the tropics. I’ll be back early, although not very early Sunday morning, with your next new weather narrative. I hope you have a fun Saturday night, and that you will meet me here again on the final day of rest before Monday arrives. Aloha for now…Glenn.
~~~ Friday evening after work I went to see the new film called Eagle Eye (2008), starring Shia LaBeouf, Billy Bob Thorrnton, and Michelle Monaghan, among others. This action adventure film is a race against time, with two strangers thrown together by a mysterious phone call from a woman they have never met. Threatening their lives and family, she pushes these strangers into a series of increasingly dangerous situations – using the technology of everyday life to track and control their every move. As the situation escalates, these two ordinary people become the country’s most wanted fugitives, who must work together to discover what is really happening – and more importantly, why. This was a fast paced film, which picked you up from the first scene, and never let you go until the last moment…some two hours later! It was the kind of film that I enjoy very much, which was exceptionally entertaining…to the point you lose yourself in the suspense. If you have any interest, here’s a trailer. Interesting:
Rather than building stronger ocean-based structures to withstand tsunamis, it might be easier to simply make the structures disappear. A collaboration of physicists from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Aix-Marseille Universite in France and the University of Liverpool in England have conducted laboratory experiments showing that it’s possible to make type of dike that acts as an invisibility cloak that hides off-shore platforms from water waves. The principle is analogous to the optical invisibility cloaks that are currently a hot area of physics research. Tsunami invisibility cloaks wouldn’t make structures disappear from sight, but they could manipulate ocean waves in ways that makes off-shore platforms, and possibly even coastlines and small islands, effectively invisible to tsunamis. If the scheme works as well in the real world as the lab-scale experiments suggest, a tsunami should be able to pass right by with little or no effect on anything hidden behind the cloak.
Interesting2: Barack Obama and John McCain are promising voters a Tomorrowland of electric cars and high-speed trains and solar panels, a vision of American life without a drop of imported oil. But their plans to get there look more like Fantasyland. A host of energy policy experts agree that true "energy independence"—a key catch phrase of this presidential campaign—would be far more expensive and disruptive than either candidate is telling you. Our oil addiction hamstrings America‘s foreign policy and military, contributes to global warming and has robbed the nation of trillions of dollars. One of the country’s leading energy modelers estimates that foreign-oil dependence cost our economy $750 billion this year, a little more than the daunting price tag of the proposed Wall Street bailout. The main culprit sits in your driveway: Due largely to massive increases in highway fuel consumption, our oil imports doubled in the last 30 years.
But petroleum is everywhere—in asphalt, ink pens, burger wrappers. Replacing it won’t be nearly as easy as it sounds on the campaign trail. In speech after speech, McCain and Obama extol energy independence and rip the federal government’s failure to achieve it. McCain promises to secure "strategic independence" from foreign sources by 2025, with a plan that includes a $300 million prize for a super-efficient electric car battery. Obama pledges to effectively replace oil imports from the Middle East within a decade, largely by investing $150 billion in alternative fuels. Experts suggest the candidates are wildly understating the cost and time that true independence would require. The transition to a national life without imported oil appears so expensive that none of more than a dozen scientists and scholars interviewed by the Tribune could calculate a price tag. Only one even ventured a ballpark guess: $1 trillion to $2 trillion.
Interesting3:The discovery of rocks as old as 4.28 billion years pushes back age of most ancient remnant of Earth’s crust by 300 million years.McGillUniversity researchers have discovered the oldest rocks on Earth – a discovery which sheds more light on our planet’s mysterious beginnings. These rocks, known as "faux-amphibolites", may be remnants of a portion of Earth’s primordial crust – the first crust that formed at the surface of our planet. The ancient rocks were found in Northern Quebec, along the Hudson‘s Bay coast, 40 km south of Inukjuak in an area known as the Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt. The discovery was made by Jonathan O’Neil, a Ph.D. candidate at McGill’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Richard W. Carlson, a researcher at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., Don Francis, a McGill professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and Ross K. Stevenson, a professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM).
O’Neil and colleagues estimated the age of the rocks using isotopic dating, which analyzes the decay of the radioactive element neodymium-142 contained within them. This technique can only be used to date rocks roughly 4.1 billion years old or older; this is the first time it has ever been used to date terrestrial rocks, because nothing this old has ever been discovered before. "There have been older dates from Western Australia for isolated resistant mineral grains called zircons," says Carlson, "but these are the oldest whole rocks found so far." The oldest zircon dates are 4.36 billion years. Before this study, the oldest dated rocks were from a body of rock known as the Acasta Gneiss in the Northwest Territories, which are 4.03 billion years old. The Earth is 4.6 billion years old, and remnants of its early crust are extremely rare—most of it has been mashed and recycled into Earth’s interior several times over by plate tectonics since the Earth formed.
Interesting4: An area of the Pacific Ocean once thought to be cold and barren is warmer than scientists thought, a new study finds. The seafloor there might be teeming with life. A group of researchers dropped probes down to a flat region of the Pacific Ocean floor off the coast of Costa Rica and about the size of Connecticut to gauge the water temperature and flow there. To their surprise, the water spewing out of the typically cold ocean floor was warmer and faster than expected in this area. "It’s like finding Old Faithful in Illinois," said study team member Carol Stein of the University of Illinois at Chicago. "When we went out to try to get a feel for how much heat was coming from the ocean floor and how much sea water might be moving through it, we found that there was much more heat than we expected." The sea floor in this region, which lies some 2 miles below the ocean surface, is marked by 10 widely separated outcrops or mounts that rise from sediment covering the ocean crust made of volcanic rock about 20 to 25 million years old.
Large amounts of water gush through cracks and crevices in the ocean crust like geysers and pick up heat as they move through the insulated volcanic rock. While not as hot as water that runs through mid-ocean ridges formed by rising lava, the water is still much warmer than expected. This warmth opens up the possibility that the area could support life, such as bacteria, clams and tubeworm species recently found to be living near hot water discharges along mid-ocean ridges. "It’s relatively warm and may have some of the nutrients needed to support some of the life forms we see on the sea floor," Stein said. The researchers hope to follow up this study, detailed in the September 2008 issue of Nature Geoscience, by examining other areas of the ocean floor to see if they can find any similar to the one off the coast of Costa Rica.
Comments Off on Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs / September 26-27, 2008
September 26-27 2008
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Friday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 85
Honolulu, Oahu – 85 Kaneohe, Oahu – 83 Kahului, Maui – 90 Hilo, Hawaii – 83
Kailua-kona – 85 Air Temperaturesranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level, and on the highest mountains…at 4 p.m. Friday afternoon:
Kahului, Maui – 87F Kaneohe, Oahu– 79
Haleakala Crater – 57 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 43 (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 Friday afternoon: 0.87 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.45 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.10 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.01 Kahoolawe 0.34 West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.42 Pahoa, Big Island Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather mapshowing high pressure systems located to the northeast and northwest of Hawaii. A slowly approaching cold front will weaken the high pressure ridge to our north, causing our local winds to become lighter this weekend…with a tendency to be from the southeast.
Satellite and Radar Images: To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with theInfrared 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 animatedradar image.
Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of near 14,000 footMauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. The tallest peak on the island of Maui is theHaleakala 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
The Kohala coast on the Big Island of Hawaii Photo Credit: flickr.com
The trade winds will finally give way to light and variable winds this weekend. These long lasting trade winds were already winding down in speed Friday. As we move into the weekend time frame, an approaching early season cold front will help weaken our trade wind producing ridge, with our local winds going light and variable in direction as a result. If the light air flow takes on a southeast orientation, we could see hazy conditions in some parts of the island chain…some of which would have volcanic origins. Cool (tropically speaking) north to northeast breezes will fill in behind an early season cold front Tuesday.
As light and variable breezes develop this weekend, the emphasis for showers will be over the interior sections during the afternoon hours. This convective weather pattern will provide decent weather during the morning hours, with quite a bit of sunshine in most areas. As the daytime heating of the islands takes place, clouds will form over and around the mountains during the late morning through the afternoon hours…leading to localized showers.
The computer models show an early season cold front pushing down into the state late Monday into Tuesday. This is not going to be a strong frontal cloud band, although it will bring some showers with it. The expectations are that it will bring showers to Kauai Monday night, and then drop down across Oahu and Maui during the day Tuesday…perhaps not quite reaching the Big Island. Relatively cool north to NE breezes riding in with the frontal boundary. This will bring our first touch of autumn weather, as high temperatures drop a few degrees lower than what they would otherwise be.
Satellite imagery continues to show a dissipating tropical disturbance to the south-southwest of the islands. During the last 24 hours it has lost some of its well defined organization however. Here’s a satellite image of that area of thunderstorms. The threat of its developing into a tropical cyclone has diminished. Nonetheless, the tops of the associated thunderstorms, in the form of high cirrus clouds, are being carried up over the southern part of the island chain. This area of disturbed weather will keep moving westward…and away from us.
We continue to set our sights on what will be a weekend of light and variable winds…with its afternoon cloudiness and localized upcountry showers, along with potentially hazy weather. Then, and this is where it gets more interesting, we’re expecting an early autumn cold front to arrive early in the new week ahead! It’s certainly not rare to have a weak cold front during the last few days of September, but then again, it’s not common either. Perhaps as noteworthy as the showers will be the cool air (in the tropical sense of the word) that will sweep into the state with its arrival. This may be a mark of the end of our summer season, even more so than than the calender oriented summer solstice, which we went through several days ago.
It’s early Friday evening here in Kihei, Maui, as I begin writing this last section of today’s tropical weather narrative from Hawaii. I’m about ready to leave Kihei, for the short drive over to Kahului. I’ll be taking in a new film called Eagle Eye (2008), starring Shia LaBeouf, Billy Bob Thorrnton, and Michelle Monaghan, among others. This action adventure film is a race against time, with two strangers thrown together by a mysterious phone call from a woman they have never met. Threatening their lives and family, she pushes these strangers into a series of increasingly dangerous situations – using the technology of everyday life to track and control their every move. As the situation escalates, these two ordinary people become the country’s most wanted fugitives, who must work together to discover what is really happening – and more importantly, why. I’ll of course let you know early Saturday morning what I thought about this just released film, but until then, here’s a trailer to give you a sneak peek. I hope you have a great Friday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn. Interesting:
Rather than building stronger ocean-based structures to withstand tsunamis, it might be easier to simply make the structures disappear. A collaboration of physicists from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Aix-Marseille Universite in France and the University of Liverpool in England have conducted laboratory experiments showing that it’s possible to make type of dike that acts as an invisibility cloak that hides off-shore platforms from water waves. The principle is analogous to the optical invisibility cloaks that are currently a hot area of physics research. Tsunami invisibility cloaks wouldn’t make structures disappear from sight, but they could manipulate ocean waves in ways that makes off-shore platforms, and possibly even coastlines and small islands, effectively invisible to tsunamis. If the scheme works as well in the real world as the lab-scale experiments suggest, a tsunami should be able to pass right by with little or no effect on anything hidden behind the cloak.
Interesting2: Barack Obama and John McCain are promising voters a Tomorrowland of electric cars and high-speed trains and solar panels, a vision of American life without a drop of imported oil. But their plans to get there look more like Fantasyland. A host of energy policy experts agree that true "energy independence"—a key catch phrase of this presidential campaign—would be far more expensive and disruptive than either candidate is telling you. Our oil addiction hamstrings America‘s foreign policy and military, contributes to global warming and has robbed the nation of trillions of dollars. One of the country’s leading energy modelers estimates that foreign-oil dependence cost our economy $750 billion this year, a little more than the daunting price tag of the proposed Wall Street bailout. The main culprit sits in your driveway: Due largely to massive increases in highway fuel consumption, our oil imports doubled in the last 30 years.
But petroleum is everywhere—in asphalt, ink pens, burger wrappers. Replacing it won’t be nearly as easy as it sounds on the campaign trail. In speech after speech, McCain and Obama extol energy independence and rip the federal government’s failure to achieve it. McCain promises to secure "strategic independence" from foreign sources by 2025, with a plan that includes a $300 million prize for a super-efficient electric car battery. Obama pledges to effectively replace oil imports from the Middle East within a decade, largely by investing $150 billion in alternative fuels. Experts suggest the candidates are wildly understating the cost and time that true independence would require. The transition to a national life without imported oil appears so expensive that none of more than a dozen scientists and scholars interviewed by the Tribune could calculate a price tag. Only one even ventured a ballpark guess: $1 trillion to $2 trillion.
Interesting3:The discovery of rocks as old as 4.28 billion years pushes back age of most ancient remnant of Earth’s crust by 300 million years.McGillUniversity researchers have discovered the oldest rocks on Earth – a discovery which sheds more light on our planet’s mysterious beginnings. These rocks, known as "faux-amphibolites", may be remnants of a portion of Earth’s primordial crust – the first crust that formed at the surface of our planet. The ancient rocks were found in Northern Quebec, along the Hudson‘s Bay coast, 40 km south of Inukjuak in an area known as the Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt. The discovery was made by Jonathan O’Neil, a Ph.D. candidate at McGill’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Richard W. Carlson, a researcher at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., Don Francis, a McGill professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and Ross K. Stevenson, a professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM).
O’Neil and colleagues estimated the age of the rocks using isotopic dating, which analyzes the decay of the radioactive element neodymium-142 contained within them. This technique can only be used to date rocks roughly 4.1 billion years old or older; this is the first time it has ever been used to date terrestrial rocks, because nothing this old has ever been discovered before. "There have been older dates from Western Australia for isolated resistant mineral grains called zircons," says Carlson, "but these are the oldest whole rocks found so far." The oldest zircon dates are 4.36 billion years. Before this study, the oldest dated rocks were from a body of rock known as the Acasta Gneiss in the Northwest Territories, which are 4.03 billion years old. The Earth is 4.6 billion years old, and remnants of its early crust are extremely rare—most of it has been mashed and recycled into Earth’s interior several times over by plate tectonics since the Earth formed.
Interesting4: An area of the Pacific Ocean once thought to be cold and barren is warmer than scientists thought, a new study finds. The seafloor there might be teeming with life. A group of researchers dropped probes down to a flat region of the Pacific Ocean floor off the coast of Costa Rica and about the size of Connecticut to gauge the water temperature and flow there. To their surprise, the water spewing out of the typically cold ocean floor was warmer and faster than expected in this area. "It’s like finding Old Faithful in Illinois," said study team member Carol Stein of the University of Illinois at Chicago. "When we went out to try to get a feel for how much heat was coming from the ocean floor and how much sea water might be moving through it, we found that there was much more heat than we expected." The sea floor in this region, which lies some 2 miles below the ocean surface, is marked by 10 widely separated outcrops or mounts that rise from sediment covering the ocean crust made of volcanic rock about 20 to 25 million years old.
Large amounts of water gush through cracks and crevices in the ocean crust like geysers and pick up heat as they move through the insulated volcanic rock. While not as hot as water that runs through mid-ocean ridges formed by rising lava, the water is still much warmer than expected. This warmth opens up the possibility that the area could support life, such as bacteria, clams and tubeworm species recently found to be living near hot water discharges along mid-ocean ridges. "It’s relatively warm and may have some of the nutrients needed to support some of the life forms we see on the sea floor," Stein said. The researchers hope to follow up this study, detailed in the September 2008 issue of Nature Geoscience, by examining other areas of the ocean floor to see if they can find any similar to the one off the coast of Costa Rica.
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Thursday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 84 Honolulu, Oahu – 87 Kaneohe, Oahu – 82 Kahului, Maui – 87 Hilo, Hawaii – 82
Kailua-kona – 86 Air Temperaturesranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level, and on the highest mountains…at 4 p.m. Thursday afternoon:
Barking Sands, Kauai – 84F Port Allen, Kauai– 77
Haleakala Crater – 52 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 39 (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 Thursday afternoon: 2.40 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.67 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.02 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe 0.60 Oheo Gulch, Maui
0.15 Pahoa, Big Island Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather mapshowing high pressure systems located to the northeast and northwest of Hawaii. This pressure configuration will keep trade winds blowing in the light to moderately strong category Friday. Saturday will find lighter trade winds.
Satellite and Radar Images: To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with theInfrared 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 animatedradar image.
Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of near 14,000 footMauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. The tallest peak on the island of Maui is theHaleakala 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
Dolphins in Hawaiian waters Photo Credit: flickr.com
The ever present trade winds will continue through Friday. These long lasting, early autumn trade winds will blow in the light to moderately strong range, although somewhat stronger in those typically windier areas around the state. As we move into the weekend time frame, an approaching early season cold front will help push our trade wind producing ridge down closer to the state, perhaps turning our local winds around to the southeast. If this happens, we would see lighter winds, and the chance of hazy weather overlapping some parts of the state.
An upper level trough of low pressure is still just to the north of Kauai Thursday evening. This will help to destabilize our atmosphere to some degree, making our local clouds more shower prone, especially on the Kauai end of the island chain. As clouds, carried by the trade winds, come under the influence of the trough, we’ll see some enhancement of the showers along the windward sides…with a few heavier showers falling here and there. The daytime heating could cause upcountry afternoon showers on the leeward sides in places too. There were reports of random thunderstorms over the waters between Molokai and Maui at mid-day Thursday, so we could see one or two more roaming around here and there.
Satellite imagery continues to show a well defined tropical disturbance to the south of the islands. If it were to develop, as some of the models suggest, we could see a tropical depression forming, moving in a general west direction. The models don’t show this tropical cyclone, if it were to form…moving towards Hawaii. It does however warrant watching, in case it decides to wander off in an unexpected direction. Perhaps the main influence we’ll notice from it will be the at times, thick high clouds streaming off the tops of thunderstorms in the tropics to our south and southwest.
It’s early Thursday evening here in Kihei, Maui, as I begin writing this last paragraph of today’s tropical weather narrative from Hawaii. As you were reading in the paragraph above, there’s something that continues to try and take shape to the south of the Hawaiian Islands now. This satellite image shows this rather impressive tropical disturbance to the south of Hawaii…along with the thick high cirrus clouds that are streaming over the southern islands now too. ~~~ Meanwhile, the models go on to show an early season cold front pushing down towards the Hawaiian Islands early next week. The latest model runs show it moving right down into the islands early next week, bringing early autumn showers with it. ~~~ Thursday got quite cloudy in many areas, totally cloudy at times. There was an unusual multi-layered canopy of clouds, which kept the day from being anything near mostly sunny! As mentioned in one of the paragraphs above, there were even a couple of thunderstorms that popped-up over the ocean between Maui and Molokai! Looking at this looping radar image, we see that most of the precipitation remains centered over and around Maui County, and western side of the Big Island. It appears that we may see somewhat unusual weather circumstances continuing through the next week, as we edge gradually deeper into the early autumn season. ~~~ 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:
The oldest ice ever found in North America shows that ancient permafrost withstood periods of warming, a new study says. Scientists fear that modern permafrost—soil that remains frozen in the polar regions—may melt and release potentially huge reservoirs of carbon that would speed global warming, scientists say. But the new study suggests that such a thaw could take much longer than previously believed, according to study leader Duane Froese, a geology professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. Estimated to be at least 740,000 years old, the wedges of Canadian ice illustrate the longevity and resiliency of deeper permafrost during warmer climates of the past, they say. The findings counter previously held theories that permafrost in Alaska and in Canada’s central Yukon Territory thawed about 120,000 years ago, during a period warmer than today. The study appears tomorrow in the journal Science.
Ice wedges are formed in frigid dry areas when temperatures get so cold that the ground cracks open. Water runoff from spring thaws fills the vertical cracks in the earth and then freezes, creating a vein of ice that builds outward with each passing year. The ancient ice wedge studied by Froese and his team was found buried under layers of volcanic ash and sediment in a mining area in Canada‘s central Yukon Territory. When gold miners exposed the ancient ice vein, they also uncovered a layer of volcanic ash immediately covering the ice wedge, the researcher explained. "What was unique about this situation is we had volcanic ash we could date," Froese said. Volcanic ash can help scientists determine the age of ice that is older than the range of radiocarbon dating, which spans about 50,000 years, Froese explained. It’s a strategy often used in volcanic regions, such as New Zealand, Alaska, and Iceland, he added.
Interesting2:
Scientists studying the Martian landscape said yes, a river ran through it — and not just one. The ancient red planet also seems to have experienced rain, they say. The rivers may have cut the deep valleys in the Martian highlands near the equator, and also left calling cards elsewhere. Three Mars spacecraft spotted signs of fan-shaped river deltas inside ancient craters which some valleys clearly flow into. "We can see layered sediments where these valleys open into impact craters," said Ernst Hauber, a geologist at the DLR (German space agency) Institute of Planetary Research in Berlin-Adlershof.
"The shape of certain sediments is typical for deltas formed in standing water." Rivers carry sediment downstream until the currents become too weak and let the material fall to the river bottom. The flow almost drops to zero at places where rivers empty into a larger body of water, such as a lake-filled crater. Hauber and other researchers focused on possible ancient river valleys crisscrossing the Xanthe Terra highland region. They examined crater images taken by the European Mars Express, NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor, and NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Interesting3:
Federal wildlife officials have asked a judge to put gray wolves in the Northern Rockies back on the endangered species list — a sharp reversal from the government’s prior contention that the animals were thriving. Attorneys for the Fish and Wildlife Service asked U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula to vacate the agency’s February finding that more than 1,400 wolves in the region no longer needed federal protection. The government’s request Monday follows a July injunction in which Molloy had blocked plans for public wolf hunts this fall in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho pending resolution of a lawsuit by environmentalists. "What we want to do is look at this more thoroughly," Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Sharon Rose said.
"We definitely have a lot of wolves out there, but we need to address some of (Molloy’s) concerns in a way that people feel comfortable with." At issue is whether a decade-long wolf restoration program has reversed the near-extermination of wolves, or if — as environmentalists claim — their long-term survival remains in doubt due to proposed hunting. "This hit everybody really cold," said John Bloomquist, an attorney for the Montana Stockgrowers Association. "All of a sudden the federal defendants are going in the other direction." The government’s request to remand, or reconsider, the issue was filed in response to an April lawsuit from a dozen environmental and animal rights groups.
Interesting4:
An analysis of the gut contents from an exceptionally well-preserved juvenile dinosaur fossil suggests that the hadrosaur’s last meal included plenty of well-chewed leaves digested into tiny bits. The fossil, Brachylophosaurus canadensis aka "Leonardo," is the second well-substantiated case in which the gut contents of a plant-eating dinosaur have been revealed, said Justin S. Tweet, who was a graduate student at the University of Colorado at Boulder when he studied the fossil with colleagues there including paleontologist Karen Chin. The dino, found in what geologists call the Judith River Formation, in Montana, will go on display to the public Friday at the Houston Museum of Natural Science’s "Dinosaur Mummy CSA: Cretaceous Science Investigation" exhibition.
"Our interpretation suggests that the subadult Judith River Formation brachylophosaur had a leaf-dominated diet shortly before its death," the authors write in the September issue of PALAIOS, the journal of the Society for Sedimentary Geology. Leonardo is a 77-million-year-old duckbilled dinosaur whose remains are covered with patterned fossilized skin. The specimen has given scientists a rare peek inside a dinosaur. Digital technology and X-ray scans, some of which were conducted at NASAJohnsonSpaceCenter‘s Ellington Field facility in Texas, has helped paleontologists reconstruct what Leonardo looked like in life, what it ate, its muscle mass and its limb movements. An analysis of pollen found in the specimen’s gut region revealed a variety of plants, including ferns, conifers and flowering plants. Although the pollen could have been ingested when the dinosaur drank water, the tiny leaf bits, under 5 millimeters (a quarter-inch) in length, indicate that Leonardo was a big browser of plants, Chin said.
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Wednesday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 83 Honolulu, Oahu – 88 Kaneohe, Oahu – 82 Kahului, Maui – 86 Hilo, Hawaii – 82
Kailua-kona – 85 Air Temperaturesranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level, and on the highest mountains…at 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon:
Honolulu, Oahu – 86F Hilo, Hawaii– 80
Haleakala Crater – 57 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 43 (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:
0.86 Mount Waialeale, Kauai 1.40 Poamoho 2, Oahu
0.20 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe 0.92 West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.72 Kealakekua, Big Island Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather mapshowing high pressure systems located to the northeast and northwest of Hawaii. This pressure configuration will keep trade winds blowing in the light to moderately strong category Thursday and Friday…locally stronger and gusty.
Satellite and Radar Images: To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with theInfrared 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 animatedradar image.
Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of near 14,000 footMauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. The tallest peak on the island of Maui is theHaleakala 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
Nene Goose…the Hawaii state bird Photo Credit: flickr.com
The trade winds remain active here in the Hawaiian Islands Wednesday night into Thursday. These long lasting, early autumn trade winds will blow in the light to moderately strong range, although somewhat stronger in those typically windier areas around the state. The computer forecast models show no end in sight for these trade winds…although they will likely become somewhat lighter Friday into the weekend. As this weather map shows, the source the trade wind flow is a high pressure systems to the northeast and northwest of the islands.
An upper level trough of low pressure is still overhead here in the Aloha state. This will help to destabilize our atmosphere to some degree, making our local clouds more shower prone, especially on the Kauai end of the island chain. As clouds, carried by the trade winds, come under the influence of the trough, we’ll see some enhancement of the showers along the windward sides…making their more generous in their intensity. The daytime heating could cause upcountry afternoon showers on the leeward sides in places too.
The latest GFS (Global Forecast System) computer model continues to show an area of low pressure developing to the south of the Hawaiian Islands over the next several days. This model suggests that this area of low pressure, with its deep tropical moisture, could move into the area west of the state later this weekend into early next week. If it were to manifest as the model suggests, we could see some increased shower activity arriving then. The NWS forecast office in Honolulu says this about the area to our south: "A disturbance 900 miles south southwest of the Big Island of Hawaii is small and weak and is unlikely to develop. Computer models suggest some development may occur farther east over the next few days, but so far there is nothing organized in that area." The NWS has toned down their expectations obviously, so this may be the end of the slight threat. However, The GFS model has been very consistent with its putting wet weather over the state later this weekend into early next week, so I’m going to stick with this for another day to see what the model run looks like Thursday morning.
Note: Here’s what the other computer forecast models are doing with this area, referred to as Invest 96C…which keeps whatever this area develops into, generally to the west of our islands – shown in the upper right hand corner of this map. On the other hand, if this area had any spin to it, which is still possible at this point, this would put our islands on the east side of the system, which could conceivably carry moisture our way!
It’s early Wednesday evening here in Kihei, Maui, as I begin writing this last paragraph of today’s tropical weather narrative from Hawaii. As you were reading in the paragraph above, there’s something that’s trying to take shape to the south of the Hawaiian Islands now. This satellite image shows the area of investigation directly to the south of Hawaii. It will be interesting to see over the next couple of days, if the thunderstorms become more organized in that general area, and then migrate northwest over the ocean to the west of us this weekend. The very latest GFS model run shows this area of rich tropical moisture moving northward towards the state. So, we’ll have to just keep an eye on this unfolding situation. ~~~ Meanwhile, we still have a trough of low pressure over the state, centered over Kauai for the most part. This cold air aloft will keep the chance of showers in the forecast, with an occasional heavier shower on that Kauai end of the Island chain. Otherwise, it appears that our weather will remain just fine through much of the rest of this week…although there may continue to be more clouds showers around than usual for the time being. ~~~ 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:
Fewer people curse the ever-present breeze that sweeps the treeless West Texas landscape these days, where the flat horizon has been overtaken by hundreds of wind turbines that produce electricity for distant city dwellers and new income for rural residents. "Now we love the wind," said Max Watt as she signed her name on the side of a 98-foot-long turbine blade to commemorate the opening of wind farm about 200 miles west of Fort Worth. "We say, ‘blow, blow, blow.’" Wind farms like this one, owned by a subsidiary of German-based E.ON AG, are transforming the rural area’s economy as well as its otherwise featureless horizon. Watt and her husband own land in Nolan County where three E.ON turbines are now spinning, sending electricity to nearby cities and a steady stream of cash into their pockets. While permits to build new cleaner-burning coal plants languish before state utility commissions due to pollution concerns, demand for wind power is resurgent.
Electricity from windmills generates no heat-trapping greenhouse gases and is pumping cash into rural community economies. Generally landowners get a per-turbine lease payment for land – about $900 per turbine a month – plus a percentage of royalties from power production once the windmills are hooked into the grid. The U.S.renewable energy unit of E.ON has completed the first two phases of the Roscoe wind farm that can produce 335.5 megawatts of electricity, or enough to supply 100,000 average Texas homes at full output. When completed in mid-2009, the Roscoe will farm will include 627 turbines with total capacity of 781.5 megawatts, making it the world’s largest wind farm and surpassing the current leader, FPL Energy’s Horse Hollow wind farm in nearby Taylor County, Texas. E.ON Climate and Renewables plans to spend $10 billion in the next three years, mostly on wind projects. About $1.5 billion will be invested in the Roscoe project, one of five E.ON operates in Texas, said Declan Flanagan, E.ON Climate’s North American chief executive.
Interesting2:
Most consumers want companies to do more to protect the environment and reckon that firms should play a leading role in fighting global warming, a worldwide survey showed Tuesday. The poll, of 28,000 Internet users in 51 nations by The Nielsen Company, showed that corporate commitment to green ethics is playing "an increasingly influential role in consumers’ purchasing behavior," Nielsen said. The survey showed that 51 percent of respondents considered it "very important" for firms to improve the environment and another 36 "somewhat important."
Nielsen said it was the first worldwide poll of company ethics and corporate responsibility. "A ‘global conscience’ is one of the biggest trends to have emerged in the last decade," said Amilcar Perez, a vice president of the Nielsen Company in Latin America. The survey was carried out in May, before current financial turmoil. It was unclear whether economic slowdown would undermine environmental concerns, Timmons Roberts, a professor of Sociology at the College of William and Mary in Virginia involved in the poll, told Reuters. "It’s hard to tell. For some consumers who buy fair trade coffee, for instance, it may now part of their budget," he said.
Interesting3:
As if the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy weren’t vexing enough, another baffling cosmic puzzle has been discovered. Patches of matter in the universe seem to be moving at very high speeds and in a uniform direction that can’t be explained by any of the known gravitational forces in the observable universe. Astronomers are calling the phenomenon "dark flow." The stuff that’s pulling this matter must be outside the observable universe, researchers conclude. When scientists talk about the observable universe, they don’t just mean as far out as the eye, or even the most powerful telescope, can see.
In fact there’s a fundamental limit to how much of the universe we could ever observe, no matter how advanced our visual instruments. The universe is thought to have formed about 13.7 billion years ago. So even if light started travelling toward us immediately after the Big Bang, the farthest it could ever get is 13.7 billion light-years in distance. There may be parts of the universe that are farther away (we can’t know how big the whole universe is), but we can’t see farther than light could travel over the entire age of the universe.
Interesting4:
Two terrestrial planets orbiting a mature sun-like star some 300 light-years from Earth recently suffered a violent collision, astronomers at UCLA, Tennessee State University and the California Institute of Technology will report in a December issue of the Astrophysical Journal. "It’s as if Earth and Venus collided with each other," said Benjamin Zuckerman, UCLA professor of physics and astronomy and a co-author on the paper. "Astronomers have never seen anything like this before. Apparently, major catastrophic collisions can take place in a fully mature planetary system." "If any life was present on either planet, the massive collision would have wiped out everything in a matter of minutes — the ultimate extinction event," said co-author Gregory Henry, an astronomer at Tennessee State University (TSU). "A massive disk of infrared-emitting dust circling the star provides silent testimony to this sad fate."
Interesting 5:
Even in the dinosaur world, the small and dainty existed, in the form of a mini-dino that likely didn’t terrorize any creatures other than termites. The newly described dinosaur, called Albertonykus borealis, was about the size of a chicken and is now considered the smallest dinosaur to have existed in North America. "These are bizarre animals. They have long and slender legs, stumpy arms with huge claws and tweezer-like jaws," said researcher Nick Longrich, a paleontologist at the University of Calgary in Canada. The dinosaur belongs to the Alvarezsauridae family, which includes Alvarezsaurus calvoi, a bird-like dinosaur that likely snagged insects for food, and Mononykus olecranus, another lightweight that was equipped with a pair of stubby claws whose function is not known for sure. Like its relatives, A. borealis had long slender hindlegs, which probably made the dinosaur an agile runner. Stout front legs and hands that each sported a massive claw would have easily torn into logs to snag termites.
"Proportionately, the forelimbs are shorter than in a Tyrannosaurus but they are powerfully built, so they seem to have served a purpose," Longrich said. "They are built for digging but too short to burrow, so we think they may have been used to rip open logs in search of insects." In fact, the researchers also found evidence for termite borings in fossilized wood discovered in the same area where the mini-dino fossils showed up, also supporting the idea that this dinosaur was a termite eater. The 70 million-year-old bones of A. borealis were discovered at DryIslandBuffaloJumpProvincialPark in Alberta in 2002 by a team led by Philip Currie of the University of Alberta. The bones were stored at the RoyalTyrrellMuseum in Alberta. It wasn’t until recently that Longrich came upon them.
Interesting6:
Stopping, starting and accelerating your car or SUV can burn unnecessary amounts of fuel while driving. To combat this known challenge, two new technologies have recently come out to provide a greener driving experience. Nissan’s Eco Pedal pushes back on a driver’s lead foot, while Audi’s Travolution tells a driver how fast to go to make the next green light. "They are definitely part of a growing trend and are also definitely a good idea — in the category of ‘every little bit helps,’" said Mike Millikin, editor of the Green Car Congress, a Web site covering sustainable transportation options. Several efforts, such as the consumer-based hypermiling movement and the Ford Motor Company’s EcoDriving Tips, aim to encourage more efficient driving behavior, such as accelerating smoothly and braking gradually." The next step is to put technology in the car to make it easier for consumers to eco-drive, Millikin told LiveScience. "Although the benefits of eco-driving, if realized, will by default happen through mass adoption by drivers of cars that don’t have the spiffy indicators," he said.
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Tuesday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 85 Honolulu, Oahu – 87 Kaneohe, Oahu – 83 Kahului, Maui – 84 Hilo, Hawaii – 81
Kailua-kona – 86 Air Temperaturesranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level, and on the highest mountains…at 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon:
Port Allen, Kauai – 86F Hilo, Hawaii– 81
Haleakala Crater – 52 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 43 (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 Tuesday afternoon:
1.00 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.60 South Fork Kaukonahua, Oahu
0.07 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe 1.31 Puu Kukui, Maui
0.20 Piihonua, Big Island Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather mapshowing a 1024 millibar high pressure system located far to the northeast of Hawaii, with a long ridge extending from it to our north. This pressure configuration will keep trade winds blowing in the light to moderately strong category Wednesday and Thursday…locally stronger and gusty.
Satellite and Radar Images: To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with theInfrared 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 animatedradar image.
Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of near 14,000 footMauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. The tallest peak on the island of Maui is theHaleakala 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
Young Hula dancers on the island of Lanai Photo Credit: flickr.com
Our early autumn trade winds will remain active across the tropical latitudes of the Hawaiian Islands. These trade winds will blow in the light to moderately strong range, although somewhat stronger in those typically windier areas around the state. The long range computer forecast models show no end in sight for these trade winds…although they will likely begin to become lighter Friday into the weekend.
An upper level trough of low pressure is still overhead here in the Aloha state. This will help to destabilize our atmosphere to some degree, making our local clouds more shower prone, especially on the Kauai end of the island chain. As clouds, carried by the trade winds, come under the influence of the trough, we’ll see some enhancement of the showers along the windward sides. The daytime heating could cause upcountry afternoon showers on the leeward sides too.
The latest GFS (Global Forecast System) computer model continues to show an area of low pressure developing to the south of the Hawaiian Islands over the next several days. This model wants this low pressure area, with its deep tropical moisture, to move northward over the state around next Monday. It’s still too early to lock this forecast down to securely, but it certainly warrants a close eye as we move through the rest of this week. If it were to manifest as the model suggests, we could see increased precipitation arriving then. The model goes on to show an early season cold front pushing southward towards the islands early next week as well. I think it would be wise this early in the game, to adopt a wait and see attitude about all of this for the time being. The NWS forecast office in Honolulu has now started talking about this area: "A weak low level circulation associated with a weak surface trough about 775 miles south of Kona was moving west near 15 miles an hour. Thunderstorms surrounding this system remain poorly organized. Any further development of this system is expected to be slow to occur."
It’s early Tuesday evening here in Kihei, Maui, as I begin writing this last paragraph of today’s tropical weather narrative from Hawaii. As you were reading in the paragraph above, there’s something that might begin to take shape to the south of the Hawaiian Islands over the next couple of days. This satellite image shows the area of investigation directly to the south of Hawaii. At the moment, what we see down there are the typical thunderstorms in the intra-tropical convergence zone…where the trade winds from the northern and southern hemisphere’s meet. It will be interesting to see over the next 2-3 days if the thunderstorms become more organized in that general area, and then migrate northward towards us over the weekend. At this point I’d go so far as to say it might happen…and then again it may not. ~~~ Tuesday turned out to be a nice day, as most days here in the Hawaiian Islands are, regardless of the season. Skies got cloudy locally, with some afternoon showers breaking out here and there, although few and far between. The island of Lanai was reporting heavy rain at 4pm, which is a little unusual. I see little in the way of change to our overall weather pattern Wednesday, continuing on into Friday, at least. ~~~ I’ll be back very early Wednesday morning with your next new weather narrative from paradise! I hope you have a great Tuesday night until then. Aloha for now…Glenn. Interesting:
The first evidence that millions of tons of a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide is being released into the atmosphere from beneath the Arctic seabed has been discovered by scientists.The Independent has been passed details of preliminary findings suggesting that massive deposits of sub-sea methane are bubbling to the surface as the Arctic region becomes warmer and its ice retreats. Underground stores of methane are important because scientists believe their sudden release has in the past been responsible for rapid increases in global temperatures, dramatic changes to the climate, and even the mass extinction of species. Scientists aboard a research ship that has sailed the entire length of Russia’s northern coast have discovered intense concentrations of methane — sometimes at up to 100 times background levels — over several areas covering thousands of square miles of the Siberian continental shelf.
In the past few days, the researchers have seen areas of sea foaming with gas bubbling up through "methane chimneys" rising from the sea floor. They believe that the sub-sea layer of permafrost, which has acted like a "lid" to prevent the gas from escaping, has melted away to allow methane to rise from underground deposits formed before the last ice age. They have warned that this is likely to be linked with the rapid warming that the region has experienced in recent years. Methane is about 20 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide and many scientists fear that its release could accelerate global warming in a giant positive feedback where more atmospheric methane causes higher temperatures, leading to further permafrost melting and the release of yet more methane. The amount of methane stored beneath the Arctic is calculated to be greater than the total amount of carbon locked up in global coal reserves so there is intense interest in the stability of these deposits as the region warms at a faster rate than other places on earth.
Interesting2:
This month algae as a fuel source made the news several times. Last week, Sapphire Energy announced it received $100 million to help reach its goal of making commercial amounts of algae fuel in three to five years. Investors included Bill Gates Investment company, Cascade Investment, LLC. In June Sapphire received $50 million from investors. At the beginning of the month, Arizona State University (ASU) announced its partnership with Heliae Development, LLC and Science Foundation Arizona (SFAz) to develop a kerosene-based jet fuel derived from algae. Last year ASU researched using algae as jet fuel, in conjunction with UOP, a Honeywell company. Seven days later Solazyme Inc. announced it produced the first algae-derived jet fuel.
To date, the company is the only one that has produced fuels that passed specification testing. In January Solazyme introduced the world’s first cars to run on algae biodiesel at the Sundance Film Festival during the premiere of the documentary Field’s of Fuel. Five years ago, we could not find a single venture capital firm that had ever heard of the concept of a biofuel,” Harrison Dillon, president and chief technology officer of Solazyme, told PBS’ NewsHour last spring. Times have changed, and now venture capitalists are banking on algae biodiesel as the next big fuel. The claims made by Green Chip Stocks (GCS) about algae are a good example. In a report, GCS claims that algae biodiesel could “supply all U.S. diesel power using a mere 0.2 percent of the nation’s land.”
Interesting3:
MIT researchers and colleagues are working to find out whether energy from trees can power a network of sensors to prevent spreading forest fires. What they learn also could raise the possibility of using trees as silent sentinels along the nation’s borders to detect potential threats such as smuggled radioactive materials. The U.S. Forest Service currently predicts and tracks fires with a variety of tools, including remote automated weather stations. But these stations are expensive and sparsely distributed. Additional sensors could save trees by providing better local climate data to be used in fire prediction models and earlier alerts. However, manually recharging or replacing batteries at often very hard-to-reach locations makes this impractical and costly.
The new sensor system seeks to avoid this problem by tapping into trees as a self-sustaining power supply. Each sensor is equipped with an off-the-shelf battery that can be slowly recharged using electricity generated by the tree. A single tree doesn’t generate a lot of power, but over time the "trickle charge" adds up, "just like a dripping faucet can fill a bucket over time," said Shuguang Zhang, one of the researchers on the project and the associate director of MIT’s Center for Biomedical Engineering (CBE). The system produces enough electricity to allow the temperature and humidity sensors to wirelessly transmit signals four times a day, or immediately if there’s a fire. Each signal hops from one sensor to another, until it reaches an existing weather station that beams the data by satellite to a forestry command center in Boise, Idaho.
Interesting4:
Veiled Venus just got a little less mysterious in a new 3-D view that showcases the planet’s powerful winds. The European Space Agency’s Venus Express spacecraft tracked cloud movements hidden within the murky depths of Venus’ southern hemisphere, and scoped out the huge hurricane-like vortexes spinning over the planet’s poles. "Tracking them for long periods of time gives us a precise idea of the speed of the winds that make the clouds move and of the variation in the winds," said Agustin Sanchez-Lavega, a planetary scientist at the Universidad del Pais Vasco in Bilbao, Spain. Sanchez-Lavega and the Venus Express team followed 625 clouds at a 41-mile altitude (66 km), 662 clouds at a roughly 38-mile altitude (61 km), and 932 clouds at altitudes of 28 to 29 miles (45 to 47 km).
An instrument called the Venus Express Visual and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS) peered at visible cloud motions at the upper altitudes during the day, and switched to the infrared range of light to see lower cloud movements at night. The team found that the wind speed could vary from almost 230 mph (370 km/h) at the 41-mile altitude to roughly 130 mph (210 km/h) at the 28 to 29 mile altitude range. On Earth, wind speeds can regularly top 100 mph above 18,000 feet, and occasionally hit 200 mph at 30,000 feet. Such results could help researchers begin to understand the complex weather system of Earth’s neighboring planet.
Interesting 5:
Saturn’s rings may be much older and more massive than previously thought, according to a new study. The study’s computer simulation showed how the planet’s rings could date back billions of years ago to the early ages of the solar system, rather than only 100 million years ago (during Earth’s Age of Dinosaurs), as previous observations suggested. The calculations are consistent with recent observations of the rings by the Cassini–Huygensspacecraft currently studying Saturn and its moons. Larry Esposito and Joshua Elliott, both at the University of Colorado, modeled how meteorites smash into the rings, shattering the ring particles and coating each one in a layer of ice and dust.
Before, scientists had assumed that this shattering led to the eventual dissipation of the rings, but a new simulation, created by Glen Stewart and Stuart Robbins of the University of Colorado, shows that after breaking up, the particles could again clump together in a perpetual recycling process. Previously, researchers had thought the rings were relatively young because they appeared bright and pristine, not covered with the detritus of billions of years of meteorites smashing into them. But the new calculations show that if the effect of this clumping and re-clumping is taken into account, the dust would also be recycled through the rings and wouldn’t appear as dark as might be expected.
Interested6:
Summer 2008 in Southern California goes down in the books as cooler than normal. The thermometer in downtown Los Angeles topped 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32.2 degrees Celsius) just once in July, August and the first two-thirds of September. But don’t expect this summer’s respite from the usual blistering heat to continue in the years to come, cautions a group of NASA and university scientists: The long-term forecast calls for increased numbers of scorching days and longer, more frequent heat waves.
One hundred years of daily temperature data in Los Angeles were analyzed by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; the University of California, Berkeley; and California State University, Los Angeles.
They found that the number of extreme heat days (above 90 degrees Fahrenheit or 32.2 degrees Celsius in downtown Los Angeles) has increased sharply over the past century. A century ago, the region averaged about two such days a year; today the average is more than 25. In addition, the duration of heat waves (two or more extreme heat days in a row) has also soared, from two-day events a century ago to one- to two-week events today. "We found an astonishing trend — a dramatic increase in the number of heat waves per year," says Arbi Tamrazian, lead author of the study, and a senior at the University of California, Berkeley.
Tamrazian and his colleagues analyzed data from PierceCollege in Woodland Hills, Calif., and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power in downtown Los Angeles. They tracked the number of extreme heat days and heat waves from 1906 to 2006. The team found that the average annual maximum daytime temperature in Los Angeles has risen by five degrees Fahrenheit (2.8 degrees Celsius) over the past century, and the minimum nighttime temperature has increased nearly as much. They also found that heat waves lasting six or more days have been occurring regularly since the 1970s. More recently, two-week heat waves have become more common.
The team forecasts that in coming decades, we can expect 10- to 14-day heat waves to become the norm. And because these will be hotter heat waves, they will be more threatening to public health. "The bottom line is that we’re definitely going to be living in a warmer Southern California," says study co-author Bill Patzert, a JPL climatologist and oceanographer. "Summers as we now know them are likely to begin in May and continue into the fall. What we call ‘scorcher’ days today will be normal tomorrow. Our snow pack will be less, our fire seasons will be longer, and unhealthy air alerts will be a summer staple. "We’ll still get the occasional cool year like this year," Patzert continued, "but the trend is still towards more extreme heat days and longer heat waves."
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Monday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 84
Honolulu, Oahu – 85 Kaneohe, Oahu – 82 Kahului, Maui – 89 Hilo, Hawaii – 84
Kailua-kona – 85 Air Temperaturesranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level, and on the highest mountains…at 4 p.m. Monday afternoon:
Kahului, Maui – 85F Barking Sands, Kauai– 79
Haleakala Crater- 48 (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 Monday afternoon:
0.41 Mount Waialeale, Kauai 0.66 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.24 Molokai
0.25 Lanai
0.02 Kahoolawe 0.53 Kaupo Gap, Maui
0.49 Waiakea Uka, Big Island Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather mapshowing a high pressure system located far to the northeast of Hawaii, with a second high to the west-northwest…connected by a long ridge. This pressure configuration will keep trade winds blowing in the light to moderately strong category Tuesday and Wednesday…locally stronger and gusty.
Satellite and Radar Images: To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with theInfrared 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 animatedradar image.
Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of near 14,000 footMauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. The tallest peak on the island of Maui is theHaleakala 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.
The long lasting trade winds will remain active over the Hawaiian Islands. The trade winds will blow in the light to moderately strong range, although somewhat stronger in those typically windier areas around the state. The long range computer forecast models show no end in sight for these trade winds…which will last through the rest of this week.
An upper level trough of low pressure is over Hawaii, which can be thought of as colder air aloft. This will help to destabilize our atmosphere to some degree, making our local clouds more shower prone. As clouds, carried by the trade winds, come under the influence of the trough, we’ll see some enhancement of the showers along the windward sides. This upper trough sticks around through much of this week, which keeps the chance of enhanced showers around…especially on the Kauai end of the island chain.
It may be a little too early to point this out, but the computer models are showing an area of moisture coming northward over the Hawaiian Islands next Monday.The models show a deep trough of low pressure digging southward towards the tropics. This trough has a surface reflection, in the form of a fairly vigorous early season cold front. The frontal boundary doesn’t make it all the way to Hawaii, but about that same time…a surge of tropical moisture moves northward towards our islands. If things go the way the GFS computer model suggests now, we could start off next week with increased showers. Again, the models could back off on this long range forecast, but I’ll keep an eye on this developing situation as we move forward into the week.
It’s early Monday evening here in Kihei, Maui, as I begin writing this last paragraph of today’s tropical weather narrative from Hawaii. The threat of heavy showers earlier Monday, really didn’t manifest as expected. The showery clouds rode in on the trade winds alright, but took a path north of the state…just missing us. Oh well, that’s the way it goes sometimes, we could have used the moisture though. At any rate, the upper trough of low pressure remains in place, which will keep the atmosphere at least a bit unstable this week. This in turn will enhance whatever showers that happen to fall, although looking at satellite imagery…there’s not a lot of clouds coming in our direction, at least nothing organized. Here’s a satellite image, showing the nature of the scattered clouds upstream, in relation to the trade wind flow. ~~~ Today was the first partial autumn day, as we gradually leave our summer season behind us. This certainly doesn’t mean we won’t be seeing lots more in the way of summery weather as we move forward! 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. Interesting:
It may be the biggest conservation victory for the US in decades. It ensures that massive amounts of greenhouse gases won’t be released to add to global warming. It ensures an abundance of birds for generations of Americans to enjoy. And you may not have heard anything about it. That’s because it just happened in Ontario, Canada. Over the summer, Ontario‘s premier, Dalton McGuinty, announced that at least 55 million acres — half of the province’s boreal forest — will be off limits to development. And he has promised no new mining or logging projects until local land-use plans have support from native communities. The scale of the decision is staggering, and it commits Ontario to setting aside lands more than twice the size of Pennsylvania as parks or wildlife refuges. Equally impressive was Premier McGuinty’s strong reliance on the recommendation by scientists, led by Nobel Prize-winning authors of the International Panel on Climate Change, to make that decision.
Scientists identify the Canadian boreal forest, larger than the remaining Brazilian Amazon, as one of the world’s largest and most intact forest ecosystems. It stores 186 billion tons of carbon – equivalent to 27 years of the world’s carbon dioxide fossil fuel emissions – and provides habitat for billions of breeding birds, plus many other wildlife species. There are herds of caribou, healthy populations of bears and wolves, and some of the world’s last wild undammed rivers and pristine lakes. Many of the birds either Millions of dark-eyed juncos, white-throated sparrows and Swainson’s thrushes are among the songbirds that raise their young in this now-protected region and that will soon be arriving in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Hunters have reason to be happy, too, since those forests also sustain huge numbers of waterfowl like American black ducks, common goldeneyes and buffleheads that grace US waters in the winte
Interesting2:
Climate has been implicated by a new study as a major driver of wildfires in the last 2,000 years. But human activities, such as land clearance and fire suppression during the industrial era (since 1750) have created large swings in burning, first increasing fires until the late 1800s, and then dramatically reducing burning in the 20th century. The study by a nine-member team from seven institutions — led by Jennifer R. Marlon, a doctoral student in geography at the University of Oregon — appeared online Sunday ahead of regular publication in the journal Nature Geoscience. The team analyzed 406 sedimentary charcoal records from lake beds on six continents.
A 100-year decline in wildfires worldwide — from 1870 to 1970 — was recorded despite increasing temperatures and population growth, researchers found. "Based on the charcoal record," Marlon said, "we believe the reduction in the amount of biomass burned during those 100 years can be attributed to a global expansion of agriculture and intensive grazing of livestock that reduced fuels plus general landscape fragmentation and fire-management efforts." Observations of increased burning associated with global warming and fuel build-up during the past 30 years, however, are not yet included in the sediment record.
Interesting3:
Theworst dust storm in 40 years was Monday dusting the snow with an orange powder in the alpine region of Australia‘s south-east corner and bringing what locals call mud rain. Winds of up to 100 kilometres per hour are lifting soil from the arid interior of New South Wales and dumping it nearer the coast. When combined with rain, it can fall with the consistency of watery mud. The ochre dust has swept across Mount Kosciusko, flat Australia‘s highest mountain, giving what resident Darren Nielsen told national broadcaster ABC was an "extremely bizarre" aspect. "Seeing the sky and just the whole village in darkness and the mountain orange is a really eerie sort of feeling," he said.
Interesting4:
To help figure out what’s happening inside the fastest-moving Greenland glacier, a U.S. rocket scientist sent 90 rubber ducks into the ice, hoping someone finds them if they emerge in Baffin Bay. The common yellow plastic bath toys are one part of a sophisticated experiment to determine why glaciers speed up in the summer in their march to the sea, said Alberto Behar of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. The Jakobshavn Glacier is very likely the source of the iceberg that sank the Titanic in 1912 and researchers focus on it because it discharges nearly 7 percent of all the ice coming off Greenland. As the planet warms, its melting ice sheet could make oceans rise this century. "It’s a beautiful place to visit. You can watch these icebergs continuously march across and fall into the ocean," Behar said. What you can’t see is how melting water moves through the ice.
"Right now it’s not understood what causes the glaciers themselves to surge in the summer," Behar said. One theory is that the summer sun melts ice on the top glacial surface, creating pools that flow into tubular holes in the glacier called moulins. The moulins can carry some water all the way to the underside of the glacier, where it acts as a lubricant to speed the movement of ice toward the coast. But because it cannot be seen, no one really knows what occurs. That’s where the rubber ducks come in, along with a probe about the size of a football loaded with a GPS transmitter and instruments that can tell much about the glacier’s innards. In August, Behar flew by helicopter to a place on the glacier where rivers of melted ice flow into moulins. Researchers lowered the probe into one moulin by rope and released it into the water flowing beneath the ice.
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Sunday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 85 Honolulu, Oahu – 89 Kaneohe, Oahu – 79 Kahului, Maui – 86 Hilo, Hawaii – 83
Kailua-kona – 86 Air Temperaturesranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level, and on the highest mountains…at 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon:
Kaneohe, Oahu – 86F Kailua-Kona– 79
Haleakala Crater- 50 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 39 (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 Sunday afternoon: 0.97 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.24 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.00 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe 0.35 Puu Kukui, Maui
0.39 Kealakekua, Big Island Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather mapshowing a 1029 millibar high pressure system located far to the northeast of Hawaii. This pressure configuration will keep trade winds blowing in the light to moderately strong category Monday and Tuesday…locally stronger and gusty.
Satellite and Radar Images: To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with theInfrared 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 animatedradar image.
Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of near 14,000 footMauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. The tallest peak on the island of Maui is theHaleakala 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
Great sunset…Napili, Maui Photo Credit: flickr.com
The trade winds will continue to blow in the light to moderately strong range. The trade winds will remain with us through the new week ahead. It appears that these winds may calm down some after mid-week, as a cold front approaches the state from the northwest direction…pushing a ridge of high pressure down closer to the Kauai end of the island chain.
Showers were rather limited Sunday in most areas, but then increase tonight into Monday.An upper level trough of low pressure is now over us, which can be thought of as colder air aloft. This will help to destabilize our atmosphere to some degree, making our local clouds more shower prone…as we saw along the Kona slopes Sunday afternoon. We see an area of showery looking clouds coming our way from the east, associated with a surface trough of low pressure. As these clouds come under the influence of the trough higher in the atmosphere, we should see increasing showers or rain begin Sunday night through Monday. The surface trough moves away by Tuesday, but the upper trough sticks around, keeping the chance of showers around through the next 3-4 days.
It’s early Sunday evening here in Kula, Maui, as I begin writing this last paragraph of today’s tropical weather narrative from Hawaii. We’re moving through the last few hours of summer 2008. The official beginning of autumn occurs at 5:44am Monday morning here in the islands. Summer will give way to the autumn season with increased showers later Sunday into the first day of fall. ~~~ The showers noted in the paragraph above haven’t reached our islands yet, and will take until Sunday evening or night, before we see definite signs of their presence. The exception to this was in the Kona area, where locally heavy rains developed. This satellite image shows this area of clouds to our east, which are riding in our direction, carried on the trade winds…which will keep us off and on wet into Monday. Sunday was a good day, with only the Kona area getting wet, where there was a flood advisory issued by the NWS office in Honolulu. The aforementioned showers will arrive over the Big Islands windward sides this evening, Maui’s windward sides tonight, and up the island chain to Oahu and Kauai Monday morning. ~~~ I’ll be back very early Monday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Sunday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting:
Kraft is the latest company to turn part of its waste stream into a bigger bottom line. Two cheese plants in New York will turn used whey into energy in a move that will supplant a third of the facilities’ natural gas purchases. The company also will avoid the expense of hauling the waste away. Digesters at the company’s Lowville plant, which makes Philadelphia cream cheese, and a string cheese plant in Campbell turn the whey into biogas. It’s part of the company’s broader efforts to green operations in the areas of agriculture, packaging, energy, water, waste and transportation. "Our facilities have previously used strategies such as concentrating the whey to reduce volume and finding outlets for it to be used as animal feed, or for fertilizer on environmentally approved farm fields," said Sustainability Vice President Steve Yucknut.
"Both methods required transporting the whey off-site. Now, we’re reducing the associated CO2 emissions that are part of transporting waste, discharging cleaner wastewater from our on-site treatment systems, and creating enough alternative energy to heat more than 2,600 homes in the Northeast." The company’s broader goals include reducing energy consumption and energy-related CO2 by 25 percent, and manufacturing plant waste by 15 percent. Rather than sending it to landfills, companies from across several sectors are increasingly viewing waste as a commodity. General Motors, for example, recently announced that half of its manufacturing plants worldwide would reach landfill-free status by 2010, with scrap metal sales topping $1 billion. McDonald’s successfully transformed waste into electricity earlier this year at several United Kingdom restaurants, while Chrysler is converting used paint solids from two St. Louis assembly plants into electricity. Heinz also is working on a program to transform used potato peels into energy.
Interesting2:
The Lake Tanganyika area, in southeast Africa, is home to nearly 130 million people living in four countries that bound the lake, the second deepest on Earth. Scientists have known that the region experiences dramatic wet and dry spells, and that rainfall profoundly affects the area’s people, who depend on it for agriculture, drinking water and hydroelectric power. Scientists thought they knew what caused those rains: a season-following belt of clouds along the equator known as the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). Specifically, they believed the ITCZ and rainfall and temperature patterns in the Lake Tanganyika area marched more or less in lockstep. When the ITCZ moved north of the equator during the northern summer, the heat (and moisture) would follow, depriving southeast Africa of moisture and rainfall. When the ITCZ moved south of the equator during the northern winter, the moisture followed, and southeast Africa got rain.
Now a Brown-led research team has discovered the ITCZ may not be the key to southeast Africa‘s climate after all. Examining data from core sediments taken from Lake Tanganyika covering the last 60,000 years, the researchers report in this week’s Science Express that the region’s climate instead appears to be linked with ocean and atmospheric patterns in the Northern Hemisphere. The finding underscores the interconnectedness of the Earth’s climate — how weather in one part of the planet can affect local conditions half a world away. The discovery also could help scientists understand how tropical Africa will respond to global warming, said Jessica Tierney, a graduate student in Brown’s Geological Sciences Department and the paper’s lead author.
Interesting3:
Abrupt climate change is a potential menace that hasn’t received much attention. That’s about to change. Through its Climate Change Prediction Program, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research (OBER) recently launched IMPACTS – Investigation of the Magnitudes and Probabilities of Abrupt Climate Transitions – a program led by William Collins of Berkeley Lab’s Earth Sciences Division (ESD) that brings together six national laboratories to attack the problem of abrupt climate change, or ACC. Sparked by the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize that was shared by Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the reality of global warming finally got through to the majority of the world’s population. Most people think of climate change as something that occurs only gradually, however, with average temperature changing two or three degrees Celsius over a century or more; this is the rate at which ‘forcing’ mechanisms operate, such as the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere due to the burning of fossil fuels or widespread changes in land use.
But climate change has occurred with frightening rapidity in the past and will almost certainly do so again. Perhaps the most famous example is the reverse hiccup in a warming trend that began 15,000 years ago and eventually ended the last ice age. Roughly 2,000 years after it started, the warming trend suddenly reversed, and temperatures fell back to near-glacial conditions; Earth stayed cold for over a thousand years, a period called the Younger Dryas (named for an alpine wildflower). Then warming resumed so abruptly, that global temperatures shot up 10 °C, in just 10 years. Because civilizations hadn’t yet emerged, complex human societies escaped this particular roller-coaster ride. Nevertheless, some form of abrupt climate change is highly likely in the future, with wide-ranging economic and social effects.
Interesting4:
The Caribbean and GulfCoast have seen a spate of devastating hurricanes in recent years that have cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives. As residents recover from the latest hits, they may wonder about the potential for future Ike’s and Katrina’s. Hurricanes, of course, are nothing new to the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, where tropical storms form between June and November each year. But many factors, both natural and man-made, can affect the number, strength, size and impact of the storms that form each season. For example, the recent surge in storms followed an almost two-decade lull that was part of a natural cycle in hurricane formation. During that lull, new coastal residents built homes in what they thought was a paradise. But now they’ve found out just how susceptible they are to nature’s wrath. And it looks like the situation might only get worse. In 2003, more than half the U.S. population (or about 153 million people) lived along the Gulf and Southeastern U.S. coastline — an increase of 33 million people from 1980 — and that number is just expected to keep rising.
The buildup of these communities in recent decades and the environmental damage that development has caused exacerbate the impact of hurricanes. "There’s been an explosion of population along our coast," said Amanda Staudt, a climate scientist with the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). "That’s just putting a lot more people in harm’s way." This is particularly true in Florida, Texas and North Carolina, where populations are increasing the fastest. Hurricanes are especially a threat for homes right on the beach or on barrier islands, such as Galveston, because they receive the full brunt of a hurricane’s storm surge. Coastal features such as barrier islands and wetlands act as natural protection against a hurricane’s storm surge, slowing it down and absorbing some of the impact. Studies have shown that every mile of wetlands reduces storm surge by about 3 to 9 inches and every acre reduces the cost of damages from a storm by $3,300, Staudt said. "Our wetlands and barrier islands … are our first line of defense," she said.
Email Glenn James: 
