Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha Paragraphs / January 25-26, 2009

January 25-26, 2009 


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

Lihue, Kauai – 75
Honolulu, Oahu – 78
Kaneohe, Oahu – 76
Kahului, Maui – 79
Hilo, Hawaii – 74
Kailua-kona – 82

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level, and on the highest mountains…at 5 p.m. Sunday evening:

Kailua-kona – 77F
Lihue, Kauai – 72

Haleakala Crater    – 48  (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 34  (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:

1.14 Mount Waialaele, Kauai
0.33 Poamoho 2, Oahu
0.01 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.26 West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.27 Mountain View, Big Island

Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a 1035 millibar high pressure system located far to the northeast of the Hawaiian Islands. This high pressure cell has its ridge moving over the islands, which has turned our winds to the southeast and south…to the southwest near Kauai.

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

Increasing clouds…leading to showers
Photo Credit: flickr.com

An approaching Pacific cold front has turned our winds to the southeast, south…and eventually southwest Monday. A high pressure system far to the northeast, has its associated ridge of high pressure moving down into the Hawaiian Island chain Sunday evening. The southeast aspect of these breezes, is carrying volcanic haze up over the state. In the wake of the frontal cloud band, we’ll experience a brief period of cool northerly winds, followed by the return of trade winds through the second half of the upcoming week. 

The Hawaiian Islands became quite cloudy Sunday, as high cirrus clouds moved over the state.  As we move into the new week ahead, a shower bearing cold front will arrive, bringing briefly heavy precipitation to the state…along with chance of a random thunderstorm over the area from Oahu to Maui later Monday into early Tuesday. Our local weather conditions will improve after Wednesday, with a fairly normal trade wind weather pattern taking over through the rest of the week.

Sunday was a rather dry day in general, and pleasant…that is if you didn’t mind the sun filtering high cirrus clouds. The aforementioned cold front will move down across Kauai and Oahu, bringing showers starting later Monday into the night. The frontal cloud band is expected to slow down as it moves over Maui County into Tuesday. This stalling motion may give the front more time to rain on Maui, where perhaps the largest precipitation amounts will end up. The Big Island will see some showers, but the front’s heavy rain producing dynamics will be mostly finished by the time it arrives there…unless it skids to a stop over Maui.

It’s Sunday evening here in Kula, Maui, with an partly cloudy overcast before sunset.  The bulk of this cloudiness consists of a thick area of high cirrus clouds…being carried overhead by the upper level winds aloft. Speaking of those high clouds, this satellite image shows more of that icy cloudiness moving in our direction. If you had the time to read through the paragraphs above, you know that we have a wet weather cold front approaching from the northwest. The satellite image just above, shows the rather disorganized frontal cloud band, sort of hiding under the high clouds moving out ahead of it. This will be the source of our rainfall, when it arrives later Monday into Tuesday. As the winds turn north and northeast on Wednesday, and then ENE trades Thursday, some of the leftover moisture from the front will be carried back over the windward sides of the islands. The leeward sides will snap back to generally sunny and dry conditions then.

~~~ This afternoon I got in the kitchen and made up a big batch of vegetable soup. I put two vegetable bullion cubes in some filtered water, and got that boiling. I chopped-up organic broccoli, potatoes, green beans, two dried hot peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, and garlic, and threw those in…and then added a can of navy beans. I’ll have a nice bowl of this tasty soup, along with chips, cheese and avocado, for dinner during the upcoming work week.

~~~ Looking out of my weather tower before sunset Sunday, I see that the southeast winds have brought rather thick volcanic haze over Maui County. It’s partly cloudy out there, although there are some thin spots in the high clouds, which are taking on a orange color just before the sun sinks into the Pacific to our west.

~~~ Oh yeah, I almost forgot, one of our readers sent me some information on the important coming up. "The Lunar New Year, which begins Monday, January 26, 2009, is observed in much of the East Asian world.  Monday marks the beginning of the Year of the Ox. People born in this sign are dependable, patient and methodical. They do not back down in the face of obstacles. President Obama is an Ox."

~~~ Ok, that’s it for today, the hazy sun is just now going down, and with it, I’m going out to watch it. I hope you will have a great Sunday night, and that you will join me here again Monday, when I’ll be back very early with your next new weather narrative from paradise! Aloha for now…Glenn

Interesting:



Obama-mania is sweeping the nation and concern for the environment, seeping into our collective conscience, is increasingly less likely to be perceived as the hobbyhorse of the liberal elite. As this surge of enthusiasm converges with recession it presents an opportunity for savvy marketing. The reusable packaging industry, as represented by the Reusable Packaging Association (RPA), is doing just that. RPA Board Chairman Bob Klimko claims, “The time is ripe for businesses to embrace the concept of reuse and to realize its potential to help them reach their sustainability objectives while strengthening their own companies through cost savings and improved efficiencies.” We introduced you to the RPA when they hosted an educational forum on the corporate benefits of reusable packaging. The RPA is primarily focused on packaging that “moves product from manufacturer to retailer.”

Recently the New York Times recognized that, “While there are environmental and financial arguments for both types of container, few studies conclusively compare the relative merits of plastic bins and cardboard boxes made from recycled material. But there is a widespread view among environmentalists that it is always better to reuse a product rather than manufacture a new one.” The RPA does not endorse one material of packing over another. We spoke to Welcome and asked him to comment on the most environmental packaging available. He insisted that the RPA does not favor any single material and that each type of packaging has its advantages and disadvantages. As a trade organization, the stated goal of the RPA is to increase demand for the membership’s products. While endorsing the most efficient packaging would likely elicit a reaction within the varied membership, it does seem appropriate for an organization trumpeting sustainability.

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  but still is 50 degrees below zero. West Antarctica, which is about 20 degrees 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:



Only five of the 50 whales that beached on an Australian island are likely to survive, the TasmanianParks and Wildlife Service said Friday. The whales came ashore on PerkinsIsland, near Smithton, on Thursday and have defied frantic efforts to coax them back out into the Tasman Sea. Parks spokeswoman Liz Wren said sandbars around PerkinsIsland were hampering the rescue efforts.  More than 250 whales have died in three separate strandings in Tasmania‘s north-west in the past two months. Opinions differ on why strandings happen. The thousands of hours put in by nature lovers trying to refloat whales often end in disappointment when they get too weak to be saved or return to the beach after being pushed out to sea.

Interesting4:



The Obama family could be facing its first controversy of the presidency, and it’s all to do with dolls. The new first family has been fiercely protective of its adorable daughters, Sasha, 7, and Malia, 10, but the message apparently was never received by toy maker, Ty Inc. The maker of the once insanely- popular Beanie Baby toys is aiming to spark another craze with its newest stuffed toys – a pair of pig-tailed African-American dolls named Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia. Ty Inc launched the series earlier this month at a few retailers and is set to roll them out nationwide in the coming weeks. But the plan has met with consternation at the White House, where a spokeswoman for Michelle Obama told the Chicago Sun-Times "we believe it is inappropriate to use young private citizens for marketing purposes."Though the company officially insists that the dolls were not modeled on the first daughters, the paper quoted a company spokesperson as saying that the presidential kids were too cute to ignore. "How can we resist?" Ty Inc spokeswoman Tania Lundeen was quoted as saying. The 30-centimeter dolls are priced at 9.99 dollars but were already selling on the internet Friday for 29.99 dollars. But there probably won’t be many buyers from the White House.

Interesting5:



Some of the nation’s largest farms plan to cut back on planting this spring over concerns that federal water supplies will dry up as officials deal with the drought plaguing California. Farmers in the Central Valley said Thursday they would forego planting thousands of acres of water-thirsty canning tomatoes and already have started slashing acreage for lettuce and melons. As growers in Fresno and KingsCounties prepared to sow their dry fields with tomato seeds this week, the giant water district that supplies the irrigation for their sprinklers warned them to think again. Computer models of the state’s parched reservoirs and this year’s patchy snowfall showed shortages so extreme that federal officials could slash supplies down to zero, managers at the Westlands Water District told their members in an emergency conference call.

"We thought it was important to talk to our growers so they can make important planting decisions," said Sarah Woolf, a spokeswoman for Westlands, the coalition of giant agribusinesses in the state’s fertile interior. Officials with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the state Department of Water Resources plan to announce next month how much water they’ll speed to farms and cities. But farmers say that’s too late, since they need to decide what to plant now, as they negotiate with banks for crop loans. Growers who are struggling to revive shriveled vines and dying trees say they’re panicked at the thought of having to solely rely on well water of dubious quality











.

Interesting6: 



Skeletons of livestock are piling up in the scorching sun of the Southern Hemisphere’s summer as the worst drought in a generation turns much of Argentina‘s breadbasket into a dust bowl. The nation’s farm sector stands to lose $5 billion this year alone — a huge blow to the economy of Argentina, a top world exporter of soy, corn, wheat and beef — as well as to the government of President Cristina Fernandez, which faces billions of dollars in debt payments this year. Wheat fields that once supplied flour for pasta-loving Argentines now resemble deserts, and spiny thistles are all that survive on cattle ranches in southern Buenos Aires province. Nothing edible grows, said Hilda Schneider, a 65-year-old rancher who has lost nearly 500 cows to starvation. "With the situation we’re in now, without any harvest, there’s nothing to do," said Schneider, one of 2,000 residents in Stroeder, a farming village suffering its worst drought since the 1930s. "We try to save the animals, which is the only thing we have left."

Nationally, there hasn’t been this little rain in Argentina since 1971, according to Liliana Nunez of the National Weather Service. She said ocean temperatures in the Southern Atlantic have fueled wind currents that have prevented colder, wetter Pacific fronts from moving in and forming rain clouds over much of Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and southwestern Brazil. Soy growing areas across the region are expecting crop losses. Uruguay has declared a farming emergency. But Argentina seems hardest-hit, with the Agriculture Secretariat projecting a 44% drop in the 2008-2009 wheat harvest, and a 27% drop in corn. Argentine harvests of more resilient soy are expected to increase by just 7% after rising an average of 10% per year since 2003. The farming sector could lose $5 billion this year, and the government could lose $4.3 billion in tax revenue from the agricultural sector, said Milagros Gismondi, an analyst with the economic consultancy Orlando Ferreres y Asociados in Buenos Aires.

How Fernandez responds to the drought could have a big impact on this year’s midterm elections. Her political clout already suffered last year when strikes by farmers and truckers forced her to reverse the tax hikes on grain exports that her government imposed when prices were soaring, in hopes of filling the government’s coffers. Now some Argentine provinces have declared agricultural emergencies — a move Fernandez has resisted nationally because it would mean canceling or suspending more taxes. But her government has reduced export taxes on wheat, corn, fruits and vegetables in recent weeks to compensate for slumping commodity prices, and temporarily suspended the minimum weight for slaughtering livestock so that ranchers can sell cattle before they starve. The government also released $66 million in subsidies to small agricultural producers, which translates to about $4,500 each for qualifying farmers in Stroeder. Many said that wouldn’t even cover diesel for their tractors. Elbio Madarieta’s once-fertile 12,000 acre ranch outside Stroeder is now an arid plain, scattered with the remains of the 900 cattle he lost last year — 25% of his herd. The wind kicks up of clouds of dust, and not a stalk of wheat can be seen, let alone anything green for grazing.

Interesting7: Several days of the coldest temperatures South Florida has seen in years are threatening to ruin orange groves, cucumber fields and tropical fish ponds across the state. "This is peak harvest season for many Florida crops, so damage at this time could have significant consequences stretching far outside Florida‘s borders," Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson said. Freezing temperatures hit South Florida on Wednesday night for the first time since January 2003, said Amy Godsey, deputy state meteorologist. Interior areas such as Lake Okeechobee saw temperatures as low as 23. Growers of Florida citrus and other fruits and vegetables said Friday that they will not know until next week how much damage there is to their crops from freezing temperatures that swept through the state this week. Temperatures were forecast to rise today and remain above freezing, Godsey said.

Much of the damage to Florida‘s $7 billion agriculture industry may have already been done, said Terence McElroy, spokesman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Florida supplies 70% of domestically grown fruits and vegetables during the winter months, and many of them are still in the field, including oranges, strawberries, blueberries and tomatoes, McElroy said. Meanwhile, residents awake before sunrise also spent the first few minutes outside chipping away a thin layer of ice from their car windshields. No deaths or injuries have been reported due to the cold, but utilities have been issuing warnings. "They want people to be aware that (the cold) can produce extreme demand for electrical heating, the system is under a lot of stress," Craig Fugate, director of Florida‘s Division of Emergency Management.Florida Gov.

Charlie Crist waived weight restrictions on produce trucks so citrus growers could get more frozen fruit to juicers before it spoils. Tom Schuller, president of the Brevard County Farm Bureau, said 90% of the oranges and grapefruits on his 122-acre orchard were damaged. The cold also may cause a die-off in Florida‘s tropical fish industry, 80% of which lies within 50 miles of TampaInternationalAirport, said David Boozer, executive director of the Florida Tropical Fish Farms Association. Boozer said water temperatures in some uncovered fish ponds dipped into the upper 40s. He said 52 degrees is the "critical level" for the South American and African cichlids, mollies, angelfish and tetras. Fugate cautioned that relief may not be near. "This isn’t the end of winter, so more cold snaps could cause more problems," he said.