January 22-23, 2009
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Thursday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 76
Honolulu, Oahu – 78
Kaneohe, Oahu – 76
Kahului, Maui – 78
Hilo, Hawaii – 77
Kailua-kona – 82
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level, and on the highest mountains…at 4 p.m. Thursday afternoon:
Kailua-kona – 79F
Lihue, Kauai – 72
Haleakala Crater – 48 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 30 (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:
0.26 Mount Waialaele, Kauai
0.31 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.02 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.28 Puu Kukui, Maui
0.53 Honokaa, Big Island
Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a 1026 millibar high pressure system sitting to the north-northeast of the Hawaiian Islands. This high pressure cell will keep moderately strong trade winds blowing across our area through Saturday…locally strong 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 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…on the north shore of Oahu
Photo Credit: flickr.com
The winter trade wind weather pattern will hold on another day or two. Looking at the latest weather map, we see a moderately strong trade wind producing high pressure system, located more or less to the north of Kauai. This high pressure system will keep moderately strong trade winds across all of the Hawaiian Islands into Saturday…at times gusty. This weekend will find a change in our wind directions, turning southeast to southwest…ahead of a cold front in the Monday-Tuesday time frame. As the frontal cloud band moves through, we’ll experience a brief period of cool northerly winds…followed by the trade winds through the remainder of next week.
The Hawaiian islands will find most of the incoming showers falling along the windward sides, leaving the leeward sides in good shape. These windward showers won’t amount to much, as the overlying atmosphere is quite dry and stable. The leeward sides will be sunny to partly cloudy, remaining generally warm during the days. This pleasant winter reality, with those windward biased showers, will remain in place through the upcoming weekend. As we push into early next week, a shower bearing cold front will arrive, bringing briefly heavy precipitation to the state…before our weather turns cooler and drier by mid-week.
It’s Thursday evening here in the islands, after a good day…with lots of sunshine. A period of moderately strong trade winds will remain in place through the next day or two…before slacking off this weekend. Daytime high temperatures will climb into the middle to upper 70F’s at sea level, with a couple of the warmer leeward areas edging up into the lower 80’s. As noted above, these nice weather conditions will remain in place through the weekend. As we move into early next week, a quick paced cold front, preceded by a brief period of warm Kona winds, will bring a short period of showers…some of which may be quite generous. Then, we’ll see cool north breezes bring a tropical chill to the state in the wake of the frontal passage…briefly. The trade winds will return through the remainder of next week, with good weather prospects on tap. ~~~ Well, I made it through my first day back to work, after being gone a week and a half on the mainland. I found the same stimulation that I had before leaving, which I enjoy very much. I was barely able to leave my office here in Kihei in the rush of work, escaping briefly during my lunch break, to wolf down a bean and rice tostada. ~~~ I’m about ready to leave Kihei, for the drive back upcountry to Kula. I’m very much looking forward to changing clothes quickly when I get there, putting on my tennis shoes, and taking my second walk of the day. I have a nice dinner waiting for me, one that my neighbor so kindly brought over last evening, knowing that I had little in the way of food around, after being on the mainland. I plan on doing a bit of reading before falling asleep tonight, as I’m still a bit behind in that regard, both in reading and sleeping! Tomorrow is already Friday, another work day, after which I’ll go see a new film. I’ll have more about that early Friday morning, when I’ll be back online with your next new weather narrative. I hope you enjoy the interesting news stories that I found today, below. Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting: Up to one billion frogs are taken from the wild for human consumption each year, according to a new study. Researchers arrived at this conclusion by analyzing UN trade data, although they acknowledge there is a lot of uncertainty in the figure. France and the US are the two biggest importers, with significant consumption in several East Asian nations. About one-third of all amphibians are listed as threatened species, with habitat loss the biggest factor. But hunting is acknowledged as another important driver for some species, along with climate change, pollution and disease – notably the fungal condition chytridiomycosis which has brought rapid extinctions to some amphibians.
The new research, to be published in a forthcoming edition of the journal Conservation Biology, suggests that the global trade in wild frogs has been underestimated in the past. "Frogs legs are on the menu at school cafeterias in Europe, market stalls and dinner tables across Asia to high end restaurants throughout the world," said Corey Bradshaw from Adelaide University in Australia. "Amphibians are already the most threatened animal group yet assessed because of disease, habitat loss and climate change – man’s massive appetite for their legs is not helping." Amphibians are farmed for food in some countries but these animals are not included in the new analysis. Indonesia emerged from Professor Bradshaw’s analysis as both the largest exporter of frogs – 5,000 tons per year – and a major consumer.
Interesting2: Antarctica, the only place that had oddly seemed immune from climate change, is warming after all, according to a new study. For years, Antarctica was an enigma to scientists who track the effects of global warming. Temperatures on much of the continent at the bottom of the world were staying the same or slightly cooling, previous research indicated. The new study went back further than earlier work and filled in a massive gap in data with satellite information to find that Antarctica too is getting warmer, like the Earth’s other six continents. The findings were published in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature. "Contrarians have sometime grabbed on to this idea that the entire continent of Antarctica is cooling, so how could we be talking about global warming?," said study co-author Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University. "Now we can say: no, it’s not true … It is not bucking the trend." The study does not point to man-made climate change as the cause of the Antarctic warming – doing so is a highly intricate scientific process – but a different and smaller study out late last year did make that connection. "We can’t pin it down, but it certainly is consistent with the influence of greenhouse gases," said NASA scientist Drew Shindell, another study co-author.
Some of the effects also could be natural variability, he said. The study showed that Antarctica – about one-and-a-half times bigger than the United States – remains a complicated weather picture, especially with only a handful of monitoring stations in its vast interior. The researchers used satellite data and mathematical formulas to fill in missing information. That made outside scientists queasy about making large conclusions with such sparse information. "This looks like a pretty good analysis, but I have to say I remain somewhat skeptical," Kevin Trenberth, climate analysis chief at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said in an e-mail. "It is hard to make data where none exist." Shindell said it was more comprehensive than past studies and jibed with computer models. The research found that since 1957, the annual temperature for the entire continent of Antarctica has warmed by about 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.55 degrees Celsius) but still is 50 degrees below zero (-46 Celsius). West Antarctica, which is about 20 degrees (11 degrees Celsius) warmer than the east, has warmed nearly twice as fast, said study lead author Eric Steig of the University of Washington. East Antarctica, which scientists had long thought to be cooling, is warming slightly when yearly averages are looked at over the past 50 years, said Steig. However, autumn temperatures in east Antarctica are cooling over the long term. And east Antarctica from the late 1970s through the 1990s, cooled slightly, Steig said.
Interesting3: At Beijing’s East Train Station, some travelers are literally carrying their lives on their back. "I don’t know if I’m going to come back," said one migrant worker on his way to his home province. "I might just end up working on the farm." He was weighed down by a giant pack filled with everything he could call his own. Millions of migrant workers are leaving the cities, returning to their homes in the vast Chinese countryside, for the Chinese New Year holidays. But not all will be celebrating. Many do not have jobs to come back to. They flocked to the urban areas during boom times to earn a better living. Some have not seen their families for years — the trip home is too expensive. But they have sent money home faithfully every month. When they finally can go home, the journey is long. "I will be standing on the train for 24 hours," said one man on his way to Zhejiang province on the country’s eastern seaboard. Some will travel much farther. The migrant workers are among 188 million people heading home for the holidays, also known in China as Spring Festival.
The actual numbers might be much higher. Travel is already up significantly compared to last year, when brutal snowstorms stranded passengers for days This year, more people seem to be going home than usual because of the global economic crisis. There are so many passengers trying to get from one place to another that tickets are hard to come by. Planes, trains and buses are fully loaded to destinations across the country. The train is the most popular option, cheaper than a plane and faster than a bus. But tickets are selling out fast. Some people have waited in line for hours, even days to get a ticket. "I started standing in line three days ago," said one man. "There’s no way to buy the ticket." Others stood at the entrance to Beijing’s East Station with signs. "Need two tickets to Weihan" or "Want to go to Inner Mongolia." Some blame the ticket shortage on scalpers who are hoarding tickets, then re-selling them for a profit. One man said he wanted 100 yuan or $15 more per fare and indicated he had tickets to multiple destinations.
Interesting4: For Tenzin Dorje, the road home keeps getting longer. Each year the Tibetan shepherd must walk farther to find streams where his sheep can drink. “I am an old man,” he says, clutching the neck of his cane. Sometimes he trudges six hours a day, twice his old route. He has contemplated learning to ride a motorbike like his grandson, but fears it might be too discomfiting for an 80-year-old man. The problem is that streams in the province of western China where he lives are drying up, receding into the mountains. As recent years have brought higher temperatures and altered how snowmelt trickles down from glaciers on the Tibetan-Qinghai plateau, water is becoming scarce. Mr. Tenzin lives in a small village nestled amid dramatic mountains peaks. Strings of Tibetan prayer flags flap against a still-brilliant blue sky. Yet this apparent purity and timelessness masks another reality: He is living on the frontier of climate change. Tenzin’s village is on the slopes of the rugged Qilian Mountains in western Gansu province. Glaciers on the mountains are the primary source of water for humans, farms, and industry in his village of Baijiaowan and for others north and south of the range.
The streams distinguish the landscape, including a string of oasis towns along the Old Silk Road, from the abutting Gobi Desert. Today, the desert is expanding. “The climate is changing,” says Zhang Mingquan, a professor of earth and environmental sciences at Lanzhou University, in the provincial capital. “Snow is the source of the stream water, and now the stream water is less than before.” Recent years have seen higher temperatures and less precipitation. As a result, mountaintop ice is receding. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences estimates that the glacial area on the Tibetan-Qinghai plateau, the world’s largest ice sheets outside the poles, is shrinking about 7 percent each year. It might seem that melting glaciers would bring more water in the short term. But that isn’t necessarily the case, says Michael MacCracken of the Climate Institute in Washington.
Interesting5: The office of the San Francisco Mayor issued the following news release: San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is launching the nation’s first Green Rental Car program that rewards customers for renting "green" alternative-fueled vehicles and rental car companies for increasing rentals of high mileage and alternative-fuel vehicles. The innovative incentive program is expected to eliminate more than 4,000 tons of CO2 emissions each year. "San Francisco is a leader in developing creative, sustainable programs that benefit the environment," said Mayor Gavin Newsom. "The Green Rental Car program is an innovative, market-based incentive program that will produce very tangible results in a short period of time. The benefits of this program extend far and wide – travelers, rental car agencies and the environment all gain through this program."
Customers who rent hybrid cars that achieve an EPA rating of 18 or higher will receive a $15 discount at the counter. Cars in this category include the Honda Civic Hybrid, Nissan Altima Hybrid or Toyota Prius. Likewise, airport rental car companies will qualify for a 20 percent reduction of their airport rent fees if they achieve a goal of increasing the percentage of their overall transactions to 15 percent for rentals of hybrid cars or high mileage vehicles – those with an EPA rating of 17 or higher. Cars in this category include the Toyota Camry, Honda Accord and Ford Focus, as well as the hybrid cars. By offering these incentives to customers and rental car companies, SFO hopes to increase the total number of high mileage and hybrid cars in the rental fleet to more than 15 percent. "The Green Rental Car program is the first of several green initiatives the airport is rolling out in 2009," said John L. Martin, Director of San Francisco International Airport. "We’re committed to making SFO the sustainable airport of choice for California travelers."
Interesting6: According to Professor Demain, the petroleum-based economy in the US is getting close to the end of its lifecycle. Global oil reserves and new petroleum discoveries will not be enough to meet the annual demand worldwide. It is therefore essential to anticipate and avoid any shortfall in future supply and to provide access to new bioenergy alternatives for the marketplace. In the context of a strong global political and economical debate on the gradual substitution of petroleum by renewable alternatives such as biofuels, Demain reviews how microbes can help solve the energy problem, and focuses on the organisms that ferment lignocellulosic biomass to produce bioethanol, biobutanol, biodiesel and biohydrocarbons in particular. His review also highlights how the use of these biofuels would help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The plants that produce the biomass remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as part of their growth and normal metabolism. Demain also highlights a number of important commercial developments, including the establishment of biotechnology companies in the biofuel sector since 2006, either alone or with companies of the petroleum and chemical industries. In addition, there have been a number of U.S. Government initiatives pushing for and backing the development of biofuels. Demain concludes that: "What remains is a major effort and challenge to biochemical engineering at the many new plants being built for biofuel production. The new processes have to be scaled up and carried out in a cost-effective way. The future of biofuels looks very bright” the best is yet to come."
Interest7: Wood fires are largely to blame for the brown haze that hangs over southern Asia and the Indian Ocean during the winter months. Two thirds of the soot particles in brown haze originate from biomass burning, and only one third from fossil fuel sources, a new study shows. Örjan Gustafsson, from Stockholm University in Sweden, and colleagues measured the proportion of an isotope called carbon-14, or radiocarbon, in soot particles collected from a mountaintop site at Sinhagad, India, and from the Maldives in the Indian Ocean. Radiocarbon decays with a half-life of around 5700 years. In fossil fuels there is very little of the isotope because it has had millions of years to decay, whereas the relatively youthful nature of biomass (plants and animals) means the radiocarbon signature is high.
Gustafsson and his colleagues found that around two thirds of the soot had a high radiocarbon content, indicating that its source was biomass burning. The remaining third of the soot contained no radiocarbon, and was most likely formed during combustion of fossil fuels. In India, many people burn wood and animal dung to heat their homes and cook their food. The new findings indicate that this small-scale burning is a major contributor to the brown haze. Gustafsson believes that encouraging people to switch from wood burning to solar-powered stoves, or gas, would significantly diminish the brown haze. "The effect would be large and quick – improving air quality and reducing global warming," he says. A change to cleaner technology could save many lives too. The soot in brown haze is carcinogenic and linked to the deaths of millions of people in China and India from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.
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