September 24-25 2008
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 Temperatures ranged 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 map showing 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 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
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
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
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
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
"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
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.
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