Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs / September 18-19, 2008

September 18-19 2008

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

Lihue, Kauai – 84
Honolulu, Oahu – 89
Kaneohe, Oahu – 85
Kahului, Maui – 86
Hilo, Hawaii – 84
Kailua-kona – 85

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

Port Allen, Kauai – 88F  
Hilo, Hawaii – 78

Haleakala Crater- 59 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 46 (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:

0.01 Hanapepe, Kauai
0.18 Maunawili, Oahu
0.01 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.20 Kahoolawe
0.44 Puu Kukui, Maui
0.17 Kapapala Ranch, Big Island

Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing two fairly weak high pressure systems located to the north, and far to the east-northeast of Hawaii. This pressure configuration will keep trade winds on the light side light side Friday and Saturday.

Satellite and Radar Images: To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with the Infrared Satellite Image of the islands to see all the clouds around the state during the day and night. This next image is one that gives close images of the islands only during the daytime hours, and is referred to as a Close-up visible image. This next image shows a larger view of the Pacific…giving perspective to the wider ranging cloud patterns in the Pacific Ocean. To help you keep track of where any showers may be around the islands, here’s the latest animated radar image. 

Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of near 14,000 foot Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. The tallest peak on the island of Maui is the Haleakala Crater, which is near 10,000 feet in elevation. These two webcams are available during the daylight hours here in the islands…and when there’s a big moon rising just after sunset for an hour or two! Plus, during the nights and early mornings you will be able to see stars, and the sunrise too…depending upon weather conditions.

Aloha Paragraphs

  Sunset from Kihei, Maui
Photo Credit: flickr.com

The trade winds will slip down into the light category now through Saturday…then pick up again starting Sunday for several days. These trade winds won’t go away completely, but will be lighter in general. The computer models show them increasing in strength again Sunday for a couple of days, then get lighter Tuesday and Wednesday…only to finish off next week in the moderate to strong realms. In other words, the trade winds will stick around through the next 7-10 days, with variations in speed on a daily basis.

As the trade winds slow down now, we’ll still see a few showers falling along the windward sides…in addition to more showers over the leeward slopes during the afternoons soon. The night and early morning hours will be the favored time of day for the windward biased showers. The light winds, along with the daytime heating of the islands, will cause clouds to congregate over and around the leeward slopes during the afternoons…with a few showers. We may see an increase in showers, which could be locally heavy later this weekend into early next week.

It’s early Thursday evening here in Kihei, Maui, as I begin writing this last paragraph of today’s tropical weather narrative from Hawaii.  The computer models continue showing an upper level low pressure system moving over the islands Sunday into early next week. The cold air aloft in association with this upper air feature, could enhance our windward biased showers, and cause showers to increase over the leeward slopes then too. ~~~ Fortunately, the trade winds will stick around, and our high pressure ridge will remain north of Kauai. This will keep us with at least some light breezes, and also keep the volcanic haze from moving up from the Big Island over the other islands. We’re seeing repeated efforts by early season cold fronts lately, which are trying to move down towards the tropics. None of them have made it down into our latitudes, but as they press further south, that’s what’s causing our trade winds to falter more and more often these days. It’s just a matter of time before one of these is able to force its way down to our islands…although that may be awhile yet. ~~~ Thursday was another nice day here in the islands, with a pleasant combination of light to moderately strong trade winds, along with sunny to partly cloudy skies in general. As we move through the next three days, there may be some additional cloudiness in the afternoon hours, which may lead to some increase in showers…especially in the Saturday through Monday time frame. ~~~ I’ll be back well before daybreak Friday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Thursday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting:

Australian scientists have discovered hundreds of new coral and marine species on the Great Barrier Reef and Ningaloo Reef which they say will improve monitoring reef biodiversity and the impact of climate change. Three expeditions to the reefs over four years to collect the first inventory of soft corals found 300, of which 130 were new species. Dozens of new marine species were found, such as shrimp-like animals with claws longer than their bodies, along with already known animals like a tongue-eating isopod parasite that eats a fish’s tongue and then resides in its mouth. "We were all surprised and excited to find such a large variety of marine life never before described, most notably soft coral, isopods, tanaid (small, bottom-dwelling) crustaceans and worms, and in waters that divers access easily and regularly," said Julian Caley, research scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS). The marine inventory, being carried out globally as part of a 2010 census of reefs, will allow better understanding of reef biodiversity and climate change, said the AIMS report.

"Corals face threats ranging from ocean acidification, pollution, and warming to overfishing and starfish outbreaks," AIMS chief executive Ian Poiner said in a statement. "Only by establishing a baseline of biodiversity and following through with later censuses can people know the impact of those threats and find clues to mitigate them," said Poiner. The scientists said other major finds included about 100 new isopods, often called "vultures of the sea" because some feed on dead fish. Some two thirds of the species found on LizardIsland on the Great Barrier Reef may be new, along with many polychaetes or "bristle worms", a relative of leeches and earthworms. "The new Australian expeditions reveal how far we are from knowing how many species live in coral reefs around the globe. Estimates span the huge range from 1 to 9 million," marine scientist Nancy Knowlton from the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, said in a statement.





Interesting2:

China‘s capital started pumping "emergency" water from its long-parched neighboring province on Thursday, with officials speaking of a "grim" shortfall weeks after the Olympics when they said the city had enough water. Hebei, which surrounds Beijing, will pump 300 million cubic meters of water to the capital from three dams which usually supply nearby farms, towns and cities. Officials said the capital faced a serious shortfall but made no secret of the strains the transfer places on Hebei, which faces its own chronic water scarcity. "Owing to continuous drought in recent years, the water situation in the capital Beijing is grim and water sources are quite strained," said a statement on the website, adding that the two governments had reached an agreement on the supplies.

"This water is being transferred in circumstances when our province’s water resources are extremely scarce and is an emergency transfer."  The water will flow through a 309-km (192-mile) canal quickly built for the Beijing Olympics that will later form part of the larger South-to-North Water Transfer Project. During the Games in August, city officials said they did not need the "emergency" supplies that Hebei and nearby provinces set aside in case the "green" Games host city faced shortages.  "I believe the Olympic Games will not pose a big challenge to water supplies in the city," Water Ministry official Hu Siyi told reporters in mid-August. But as north China approaches the dry winter season, officials said Beijing now needs the supplies. Hebei will pump the extra supplies for 174 days until March 2009, the provincial water office said.

Interesting3:

Field researchers have sighted the hairy-nosed otter, the world’s rarest, in a national park in southern Vietnam, a conservation group announced Thursday. Nguyen Van Nhuan, a research officer at Vietnam‘s Carnivore and Pangolin Conservation Programme, said he came face-to-face with two of the endangered animals in March while doing night observations in U Minh Ha National Park in the Mekong Delta.  The species was believed extinct in the 1990s, but has recently been seen in several south-east Asian countries. Nhuan’s was the first sighting in Vietnam since 2000.  "We could not believe our eyes," Nhuan said. "Suddenly two hairy-nosed otters! I have never had a special feeling like that." An official of the Carnivore and Pangolin Conservation Programme said the group had hesitated to release news of the sighting for fear of revealing the otter’s presence to hunters, but had decided to publicize it now because of threats to the animal’s habitat.  

Nhuan said the otters’ habitat was being fragmented by development in and around the 8,000-hectare U Minh Ha park. A state-owned forestry company engages in intensive planning and harvesting of melaleuca trees, and locals have admitted hunting the otters for fur, for use in traditional Chinese medicine, and to keep as pets. The water quality in the park has been degraded by motorboats lured by new ecotourism projects, according to Nhuan.  "Due to ecotourism development, there’s a lot of rubbish," Nhuan said. "The ecotourism project is using a lot of land to build its headquarters, hotel rooms and a recreation area." Scientists know relatively little about hairy-nosed otters, which are notoriously shy and mostly nocturnal. They eat fish, frogs, reptiles, snakes, and insects.

Interesting4:

When you have a headache, you take a couple aspirin, but when plants get stressed out, they just make their own. Scientists had known that plants in laboratories produce a chemical called methyl salicylate — a form of the painkiller aspirin — when stressed out, but they had never detected it in plants out in nature.  A team of scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo., discovered by accident plants in the wild emitting methyl salicylate. They set up instruments last year in a walnut grove near Davis, Calif., to monitor plant emissions of certain volatile organic compounds (or VOCs). VOCs emitted by plants can actually combine with industrial emissions and contribute to smog.  To their surprise, the NCAR scientists found that the emissions of VOCs their instruments recorded in the atmosphere included methyl salicylate.

They noticed that the methyl salicylate emissions increased dramatically when the plants, already stressed by a local drought, experienced unseasonably cool nighttime temperatures followed by large temperature increases during the day. Scientists think that the methyl salicylate has two functions: stimulating a process similar to the immune response in animals that helps plants resist and recover from disease, and acting as a form of chemical communication to warn neighbors of threats. "These findings show tangible proof that plant-to-plant communication occurs on the ecosystem level," said study team member Alex Guenther. "It appears that plants have the ability to communicate through the atmosphere."