Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs / September 3-4, 2008

September 3-4 2008

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

Lihue, Kauai – 85
Honolulu, Oahu – 89
Kaneohe, Oahu – 84
Kahului, Maui – 86
Hilo, Hawaii – 86
Kailua-kona – 83

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

Port Allen, Kauai – 88F  
Kahului, Maui – 81

Haleakala Crater- 55 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 48 (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:

0.76 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.13 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.00 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.11 Oheo Gulch, Maui
0.08 Hilo airport, Big Island

Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a 1032 millibar high pressure system located far to the northeast of Hawaii. At the same time we find a low pressure system, with its associated cold front, pushing the high pressure cell’s ridge down closer to our islands. This pressure configuration will prompt our local trade winds to be lighter for the time being.

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

A great Hawaiian sunset
Photo Credit: flickr.com

The trade winds will prevail, getting softer over the next few days…only to rebound again during the weekend. As this weather map shows, we have a 1031 millibar high pressure system far northeast of our islands Wednesday evening…the source of our local winds. In general, lighter trade winds will prevail, with those typically windier places having somewhat higher gusts. As the trades get lighter into Friday, our atmosphere may begin to feel a bit sultry along the beaches…with the cooling and refreshing relief from the muggy weather on tap for the weekend and beyond.

There will be occasional showery periods along the windward sides, although nothing out of the ordinary. Satellite imagery shows clouds moving by to the north, in the trade wind flow…which may bring a spattering of showers overnight perhaps to Kauai. The lighter trade winds through Friday will prompt some increase in afternoon upcountry showers falling locally. The showers will re-focus their efforts along the windward sides again this weekend…as the trade winds pick up in strength.

In terms of tropical cyclones, all the action remains over in the Caribbean Sea, and the Atlantic Ocean.  At last count we have three tropical storms: Josephine, Ike, and Hanna, along with now retired Gustav, which is still bringing heavy rains to the south. Here’s a graphical map, showing this impressive array of storms that continue to march westward. The next in line to impact the United States, will be hurricane Hanna, taking aim on the south Carolina coast or thereabouts…here’s a tracking map. Then Ike, which will become a hurricane very soon, will wander into the Caribbean Islands, although it’s still too early to know exactly where it will end up, or whether it will impact the United States. Here’s what the hurricane models are showing for Ike, which looks like it will become a potentially very dangerous storm. 

It’s early Wednesday evening here in Kihei, Maui, as I begin writing this last paragraph of today’s tropical weather narrative from Hawaii. The area of showers being carried along in the trade wind flow, that we thought might bring an increase in showers tonight…now will slide by to the north. The southern edge of these showers may clip the northern half of Kauai, but not much further south than that. As the trade winds slow down now, there will be an increase in the amount of shower activity we see in the upcountry leeward sides, especially over Maui and the Big Island…like we saw on Maui Wednesday afternoon. Other than that, the big news will occur along our leeward beaches, where rising high surf will begin pounding those south and west facing shores. Folks visiting these shorelines over the next 3-4 days should exercise caution when going in the ocean, as the breakers will be large and potentially dangerous to inexperienced people. A high surf advisory has been issued by the NWS forecast office in Honolulu, beginning on Thursday. 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:

A huge 19 square mile (55 square km) ice shelf in Canada’s northern Arctic broke away last month and the remaining shelves have shrunk at a "massive and disturbing" rate, the latest sign of accelerating climate change in the remote region, scientists said on Tuesday. They said the Markham Ice Shelf, one of just five remaining ice shelves in the Canadian Arctic, split away from Ellesmere Island in early August. They also said two large chunks totaling 47 square miles had broken off the nearby Serson Ice Shelf, reducing it in size by 60 percent.  "The changes … were massive and disturbing," said Warwick Vincent, director of the Centre for Northern Studies at Laval University in Quebec. Temperatures in large parts of the Arctic have risen far faster than the global average in recent decades, a development that experts say is linked to global warming. "These substantial calving events underscore the rapidity of changes taking place in the Arctic," said Derek Mueller, an Arctic ice shelf specialist at TrentUniversity in Ontario.

"These changes are irreversible under the present climate and indicate that the environmental conditions that have kept these ice shelves in balance for thousands of years are no longer present," he said in an e-mailed statement from the research team sent late on Tuesday. Mueller said the total amount of ice lost from the shelves along Ellesmere Island this summer totaled 83 square miles — more than three times the area of Manhattan island. The figure is more than 10 times the amount of ice shelf cover that scientists estimated on July 30 would vanish from around the island this summer.  "Reduced sea ice conditions and unusually high air temperatures have facilitated the ice shelf losses," said Luke Copland of the University of Ottawa.

Interesting2:

Energy can be saved in surprising places, but let’s meander a bit first.  If you own a new car, built in the last decade or so, take look around the wheel wells or perhaps the door sills. You might see pieces of clear plastic film adhered to the bodywork. If you have them they’re put there by the manufacturer to protect the paint in that area from scuff marks or stone chips. The plastic film is a lot tougher than paint is. That plastic film might make you wonder. If a stone resistant film can be applied to a few small areas why not the same film to protect a whole car? And why only in clear plastic? Why not in colors?  According Soliant, of Lancaster, South Carolina, the film could be applied to whole cars and in an infinite number of color options, including two-tones, metallics, pearlescents, special effects and finishes including chrome and brushed chrome. Soliant says it can match any color car makers throw at them.

Cars wouldn’t have to be painted, just a snazzy film applied, including graphics. Why don’t the big car companies do this? Stubbornness. Slow to change. Huge investments in assembly-line paint shops that they don’t want to scrap. But that’s just big car companies. Little ones, especially startups, might be more open minded and willing to “paintfilm” a car rather than paint it conventionally. (Paintfilm is the name Soliant gives its product.) As it turns out, one startup, Carbon Motors Corporation, which is developing and will manufacture the world’s first purpose-built law enforcement patrol vehicle, the E7 will give paintfilm a go. In building its production facility for the diesel engined, plastic and aluminum patrol car the company will skip building a paint shop, saving as much as 40 percent of the cost of the new production plant.  And the savings won’t end there. Year after year there will be continued energy savings.

Interesting3:

The survival chances of the albatross, now officially the most threatened seabird family in the world, have been improved following a new report released by WWF-South Africa. At least 28 species of albatross and petrel have been caught by South African fisheries, of which 13 are threatened with extinction. The birds are caught trying to retrieve bait from longline fishing hooks, or are injured or killed during trawling operations. A deterioration of their breeding habitats and targeted hunting operations are other factors. Samantha Petersen, manager of the WWF-South Africa Responsible Fisheries Programme, said that the report – “Understanding and Mitigating Vulnerable Bycatch in Southern African Trawl and Longline Fisheries” – improved substantially the understanding of the circumstances under which seabirds were killed.

“The findings help accurately identify management measures to reduce the wasteful killing of these magnificent birds while not unnecessarily disrupting fishing activities or impacting other vulnerable marine life like turtles and sharks,” said Dr Petersen. The report, which follows WWF’s release of the results of four years of groundbreaking longline marine turtle bycatch data in Latin America, reinforces the need for fishermen to implement the mandatory and readily available measures that help prevent birds from becoming entangled in fishing gear. “While this information is valuable, it’s crucial that it translates into compliance with mitigation measures on the part of fishing operations,” added Dr Petersen. The report says that bird-scaring lines have proved to be simple yet effective way of preventing seabirds from being snagged during longline fishing, and similar measures have helped limit the impact of other fishing techniques.

Interesting4:

The next U.S. president must show greater leadership than previous administrations in tackling climate change, according to the head of the United Nations. "All the countries in the international community are looking for more and greater leadership from the United States," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said after a celebration to mark the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Ban praised the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush for playing an "important role" in discussing how countries can minimize greenhouse gas emissions, thought to be the main reason for global warming.

But the United States has not done enough to turn talk into action, considering it is one of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, he said. Emerging powers such as China and India point to the U.S. rejection of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, when arguing against making commitments on climate change. Ban told journalists in Geneva that all developed countries need to take part if emissions are to be cut by at least half by 2050. In a report published last year, the IPCC said such a reduction would be necessary to stop global temperatures rising more than 3.6 degrees above preindustrial levels. Failure to do so will lead to severe droughts and cause massive hunger and poverty, it said. "I think that, whoever may be elected as the president of the United States, may be in a better position to lead this process," Ban said.

Interesting5:

Reports of unusually fiery orange sunsets on Earth and ruby red rings around the planet Venus have popped up on the Internet in the last week. Some skywatchers suspect that these views are being colored by the dust and gases injected into the atmosphere by the Aug. 7 eruption of Alaska‘s Kasatochi volcano. The skywatchers are probably right. Kasatochi, part of the Aleutian Island chain, sent an ash plume more than 35,000 feet (10,600 meters) into the atmosphere when it erupted last month. "This is a big ash-producing eruption," said Peter Cervelli, a research geophysicist with the United States Geological Survey at the Alaska Volcano Observatory. During a survey of the area after the eruption, Cervelli and his colleagues found ashfall deposits more than 6 inches (15 centimeters) deep at a spot 15.5 miles (25 kilometers) away from the volcano.

The fine ash injected by a volcanic eruption into the stratosphere can be carried by winds all over the world. Sulfur dioxide spewed from volcanoes can react in the atmosphere to form sulfate aerosols (aerosols are tiny particles suspended in the air). Both ash and aerosols can scatter the sun’s rays, giving a sunset its apparent color. Particles in the air normally scatter incoming sunlight — this is why the sky is blue. Sunsets (and sunrises) appear reddish because the sun’s rays have more of the atmosphere to travel through, and only the longer waves at the red end of the spectrum can make it. Sulfate aerosols in particular can intensify this effect by adding more obstacles for the light to get through.