February 23-24, 2009
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Monday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 73
Honolulu, Oahu – 79
Kaneohe, Oahu – 75
Kahului, Maui – 77
Hilo, Hawaii – 76
Kailua-kona – 80
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level, and on the highest mountains…at 5 p.m. Monday evening:
Kailua-kona – 77F
Lihue, Kauai – 68
Haleakala Crater – 48 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 32 (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 Monday afternoon:
0.15 Lihue, Kauai
0.10 Kahuku Training Area, Oahu
0.00 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.03 Puu Kukui, Maui
0.02 Glenwood, Big Island
Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a strong 1038 millibar high pressure system located far to the north-northwest of the islands. This high pressure system will keep moderately strong trade winds blowing Tuesday…strengthening into Wednesday.
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. Finally, here’s a looping IR satellite image, making viewable the clouds around the islands 24 hours a day. 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
Helicopter view…remote Kauai beaches
Photo Credit: flickr.com
Our local trade winds were on the light side Monday, although will be increasing in strength through the rest of this week, from the northeast direction. As we get into Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday, we’ll find a very strong high pressure system moving into the area north of Hawaii…causing blustery winds over the following days. These stronger winds will come in our direction from the northeast…which will keep somewhat cooler than normal weather in place for several days thereafter. Once these blustery northeast winds begin blowing, they will stick around into at least the early part of next week.
The overlying atmosphere remains dry and stable, which will limit precipitation…to light amounts along the windward sides of the islands. There is a big bunch of high and middle level clouds out to the southwest and west of the island chain Monday evening. These will be carried our way at times, which will filter and dim our sunshine to some degree. Here’s a looping satellite image of those brighter clouds. The atmosphere will become a bit more moist as we move into Tuesday onward, so that there will be an increase in windward showers at times.
It’s Monday evening here in Kihei, Maui, as I begin this last paragraph of today’s weather narrative. As you read above, we’ll find the trade winds a major part of our Hawaiian Island weather picture well into the future. These trade winds will shift back to the northeast direction by mid-week, and strengthen in the process. As you probably know, winds coming in from this more northerly point on the compass, often bring slightly cooler than normal air temperatures to the islands. This won’t be a full blown cold snap, but we will continue to feel somewhat cooler than normal through the rest of this week.
~~~ If you had a chance to click on that looping satellite image above, you will have seen all that high cirrus clouds, mixed with middle level altocumulus and altostratus clouds too. Looking out the window here in Kihei, before I make the drive upcountry to Kula, I see the thickening high clouds to our southwest, which appear to be taking aim on our area. These clouds, besides beautifying our local skies, will dim and filter our sunshine at times too. These clouds, if they continue to stream in our direction, may act like a blanket, at leat a little, and hold some of Monday’s daytime heat from escaping out to space tonight. Therefore, we might be a tad warmer tonight, than we have been the last several early mornings. It’s 8pm at the moment, Monday evening, and I’m up in my weather tower, getting ready to go to bed and read for a while. The temperature is already very chilly, reading 53.2 degrees. It’s going to go down well into the 40F’s tonight, so perhaps we can forget that call for a tad bit warmer tonight! It’s already 64 degrees at the same time down in Kahului, which will dive into the 50’s tonight as well. So, get out that extra blanket out, or keep the one you used last night on the bed!
~~~ The big news in our local weather will be the strengthening northeast winds. These won’t be just a couple of days worth of winds either, but more like a week’s worth at least. They won’t be the kind of winds, at least in most places around the state, that are too strong. They will however be strong enough, that we should see NWS issued small craft wind advisory flags going up pretty much throughout the entire state’s coastal and channel waters. The NE orientation of these winds will have them rushing through valley’s, especially here on Maui, where the central valley will be dusty…and have lots of fast paced winds shooting out through the Maalaea Bay down towards Kihei.
~~~ I’ll look forward to joining you here again early Tuesday morning, when I’ll have your next new narrative from paradise…waiting for you then. I’m heading home now, and will meet my neighbors for a nice evening walk around the neighborhood. I always look forward to changing clothes, and putting my walking shoes on as soon as I get home. I hope you have a great Monday night from wherever you happen to be reading from! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting: Canada’s inland waters, the countless lakes and reservoirs across the country, are important "sentinels" for climate change and Ottawa and the provinces are ignoring the warnings. That’s the message from University of Alberta biologist David Schindler and colleagues in a paper in the journal, Science. Schindler is a co-author of Sentinels of Change, which reviewed papers addressing the effects of climate change revealed in numerous long-term studies presented at a conference last September.
In his paper, Schindler highlighted studies that have shown that Canada and the United States will have to rethink plans to use the Laurentian Great Lakes as an emergency water supply if a dramatic shortage befalls North America in the future. Data collected by researchers indicate the water balance is the Laurentian Great Lakes is precarious because it is only renewing itself at the rate of less than one per cent a year. Schindler and his co-authors also analyze a study involving carbon emissions.
"Recent studies show that lakes release very high releases of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, in many cases higher than the surrounding forests in the same watersheds. This has been missed in climate modeling to date." Schindler says more inland water studies are needed in Canada because they provide valuable data on water levels, carbon cycles, acid rain and the frequency of forest fires. There are three long-term inland water studies in Canada, all of them in Ontario. Schindler is calling for more funding and expansion of the research program.
Interesting2: Representatives from more than 140 countries today committed to reduce global mercury pollution, which will help protect the world’s citizens from the dangerous neurotoxin. This agreement was propelled by the United States’ reversal in policy, which also influenced policy reversals of other countries, including China and India. The announcement is a historic step forward in the fight against mercury pollution, according to scientists and policy experts at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
"This is great news for reducing mercury pollution around the world, and shows a commitment from the Obama Administration to international environmental issues," said Susan Egan Keane, policy analyst for NRDC. "The United States has taken a leadership role that will chart a new course on mercury protections around the world. We have set a strong example that is already influencing others to do the same."
The committed countries will reduce risks to human health and the environment from mercury by coordinating global cuts in the use and release of mercury into our air, water and land. The United Nations Environment Program Governing Council, which is meeting this week in Nairobi, Kenya, will now develop a legally binding treaty to be enacted by 2013.
The treaty will include actions to reduce global mercury pollution and human exposure to the chemical, by reducing intentional use of mercury in industrial processes and products and reducing emissions from coal plants and smelters. It will also address the problems posed by mercury waste sites.
Interesting3: A new international study has warned that millions of people dependent on fisheries in Africa, Asia and South America could face unprecedented hardship as a consequence of climate change. Researchers examined the fisheries of 132 nations to determine which were the most vulnerable, based on the potential environmental impact of climate change, how dependent their economy and diet were on fisheries, and the capacity of the country to adapt.
Climate change can affect the temperature of inland lakes, the health of reefs and how nutrients circulate in the oceans, the researchers say. They identified 33 countries as "highly vulnerable" to the effects of global warming on fisheries. These countries produce 20 per cent of the world’s fish exports and 22 are already classified by the UN as "least developed". Inhabitants of vulnerable countries are also more dependent on fish for protein — 27 per cent of dietary protein is gained from fish, compared with 13 per cent in other countries.
Two-thirds of the most vulnerable nations identified are in tropical Africa. The study, led by the Malaysia-based WorldFish Center, was published in Fish and Fisheries this month. Using an approach developed from the International Panel on Climate Change’s methods for assessing the vulnerability of nations to climate change as a whole, the authors determined that both coastal and landlocked African countries such as Guinea, Malawi, Senegal and Uganda; Asian countries including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan, and Yemen; and Colombia and Peru in South America, are among the most vulnerable.
The 33 countries should be a priority for climate change adaptation efforts and, more importantly, their fisheries should be maintained or enhanced to ensure they can make contributions to poverty reduction, say the authors. Edward Allison, director of policy, economic and social science at WorldFish Center and the paper’s lead author, says that to ensure fisheries continue to support the poorest people policies should be implemented on two fronts: mitigation and adaptation.
But while mitigation can be valuable — because of relationships between emission reductions, energy saving and responsible fisheries — "the challenge of adaptation is both significant and potentially urgent", he says. "Policy support for adaptation involves supporting measures to reduce exposure of fishing people to climate-related risks, reducing dependence of peoples’ livelihoods on climate-sensitive resources, and supporting people’s capacity to anticipate and cope with climate-related changes", he concludes.
Interesting4: During the past 14 years, a tiny insect no bigger than a grain of rice has laid waste a swathe of British Columbia’s forests so vast that the rust-red wasteland is visible from space. The mountain pine beetle has infested and killed over half the lodge pole pine forest in the centre of the province—an area larger than England. It has rampaged eastwards into northern Alberta for the first time. (It has also made localized attacks on forests in all 11 western American states.)
Scientists now fear the voracious beetle is about to invade the jack pines of the boreal forest, which could see the plague sweep across northern Canada to the Atlantic coast. It is an unprecedented infestation that could become a catastrophe. The pine beetle is a well-known pest, not an exotic import, but no effective means has been found to stop it.
The beetles swarm up trees in large numbers, killing them by boring through the bark, sapping their nutrients and emitting a damaging blue fungus. Cold winters and forest fires normally keep the beetle populations in check. Some forest scientists trace the current outbreak to 1994, when provincial-government foresters, fearing the ire of greens, failed to eradicate a small infestation in a provincial park by cutting and burning.
In any event, recent British Columbian winters have not been cold enough to kill the beetles. The infestation is gathering pace: foresters fear that by 2013 four-fifths of British Columbia’s central-southern pine forest will be gone. Wafted eastwards by strong winds, in 2002 the beastie made its debut in northern Alberta and further south in the national parks of Jasper, Banff and Kananaskis on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. It has advanced 250 miles across the province to Slave Lake. The beetle is now established in Alberta, despite vigorous cutting and burning.
Interesting5: Nine out of 10 marine species found off Australia’s south-west coast are found nowhere else on earth but less than one per cent of this globally significant region is protected. A new report found a series of globally significant “hotspots” for marine life in the region, home to a far greater proportion of unique marine life than the Great Barrier Reef, and recommends the creation of large sanctuaries to secure its future. Protecting Western Australia’s big blue backyard was prepared by the Australian Conservation Foundation for a new collaboration of key Australian and international conservation groups formed to secure the future of Australia’s south-west marine environment.
WWF-Australia is a key member of “Save our Marine Life”, which also includes the Conservation Council of Western Australia, the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Wilderness Society, the Australian Marine Conservation Society , the Nature Conservancy and the Pew Environment Group. The report highlighted Perth Canyon, one of only two known sites in Australian waters where the endangered blue whale comes to feed, and the Diamantina Fracture Zone, Australia’s largest mountain range submerged in its deepest stretch of water at 7,400 metres and thought to host unique species not yet known to science.
The report also identified the importance of creating large marine sanctuaries to Western Australia’s tourism and whale watching industry. At the launch in Perth today Professor Jessica Meeuwig of the Centre for Marine Futures at the University of Western Australia said: “Many economically important marine species, such as rock lobster, dhufish and baldchin groper are under threat. “Large marine sanctuaries are critical to maintaining the health of the marine environment, helping fish stocks recover and securing the future of commercial and recreational fishing in the region.”
Interesting6: Indochina’s few surviving elephants are under increasing threat from booming illegal ivory prices in Viet Nam, according to a new market analysis released by TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network. An assessment of the illegal ivory trade in Viet Nam said Vietnamese illegal ivory prices could be the highest in the world, with reports of tusks selling for up to USD1500/kg and small, cut pieces selling for up to USD1863/kg. Most of the raw ivory was said to originate from the Lao Peoples’ Democratic Republic, with small amounts from Viet Nam and Cambodia.
“This is a worrying trend that indicates even more pressure is being put on already fragile Asian Elephant populations,” said Azrina Abdullah. Director of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia. According to IUCN figures, no more than 1,000 elephants are believed to survive in Lao PDR, while in Viet Nam, fewer than 150 are believed to exist. In December 2008, TRAFFIC released a report that found evidence of widespread smuggling of live Asian Elephants and their ivory from Myanmar.
Mammoth ivory from Russia was also used in small quantities, but no African raw ivory was found, although it was still being illegally imported into Viet Nam up to at least 2004. Trade in ivory was outlawed in Viet Nam in 1992, but a major loophole in the legislation exists because shops can still sell ivory in stock dating from the prohibition. This allows some shop owners to restock illegally with recently-made carved ivory.
Interesting7: The most detailed map of the Moon ever created has revealed never-before-seen craters at the lunar poles. The map is also revealing secrets about the Moon’s interior — and hinting about Mars’s interior as well. C.K. Shum, professor of earth sciences at Ohio State University, is part of the international research team that published the map in the February 13 issue of the journal Science.
"The surface can tell us a lot about what’s happening inside the Moon, but until now mapping has been very limited," Shum said. "For instance, with this new high-resolution map, we can confirm that there is very little water on the Moon today, even deep in the interior. And we can use that information to think about water on other planets, including Mars."
Using the laser altimeter (LALT) instrument on board the Japanese Selenological and Engineering Explorer (SELENE) satellite, the researchers mapped the Moon at an unprecedented 9-mile resolution. The principal investigator of the LALT instrument is Hiroshi Araki of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, and he is the lead author of the study. Shum is a member of the LALT science team.
The map is the first to cover the Moon from pole to pole, with detailed measures of surface topography, on the dark side of the moon as well as the near side. The highest point — on the rim of the Dririchlet-Jackson basin near the equator — rises more than 6.5 miles high, while the lowest point — the bottom of Antoniadi crater near the south pole — rests more than 5.5 miles deep. In part, the new map will serve as a guide for future lunar rovers, which will scour the surface for geological resources.
But Araki and his colleagues did something more with the map: they measured the roughness of the lunar surface, and used that information to calculate the stiffness of the crust. If water flowed beneath the lunar surface, the crust would be somewhat flexible, but it wasn’t. The surface was too rigid to allow for any liquid water, even deep within the Moon.
Interesting8: Earth and the other planets of the solar system are under constant bombardment from particles that range in size from a sand grain to a boulder and are collectively known as meteoroids. Many meteoroids are the detritus left over from collisions of asteroids and comets and impacts to other planets. If a meteoroid enters Earth’s atmosphere, it starts to burn up, forming a bright streak in the sky, called a meteor.
Meteors can come from asteroid or comet fragments. If that meteor is brighter than any of the planets in the sky, it is deemed a fireball (also called a bolide). A blazing bolide can also create a sonic boom that can be heard up to 30 miles away — these explosive noises were heard over Kentucky on Friday, Feb. 13, and over Texas on Sunday, Feb. 15, causing a number of startled citizens to call local law enforcement.
Initial speculation that these streaks of light and accompanying boom were caused by debris from the Feb. 10 collision of two satellites was later refuted by astronomers, who said it was likely a meteor. Preston Starr, the observatory manager at the University of North Texas, told the Associated Press that the object would have been about the size of a truck and that somewhere between eight and 10 such objects burn up in the atmosphere every year.
Interesting9: A fresh new face has moved into our neighborhood, but once this green-colored comet swings by Earth tonight, it may never come again. Comet Lulin is currently sailing through the inner solar system and is getting closer to our home planet, with its nearest approach expected on February 24.
Although it’s hard to glimpse with the naked eye, the comet "should be a fairly easy object [to see using] modest amateur telescopes or even binoculars," said Don Yeomans, a comet expert at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Astronomer Mark Hammergren of Chicago’s Adler Planetarium added that the icy body has the potential to do something unexpected.
Comet Lulin is arriving from the far reaches of the solar system on a nearly parabolic orbit—"it’s almost as if it comes from infinity and goes back out to infinity," he said. This means Lulin could be on its first pass by the sun, so the comet should still be encrusted in "fresh" ices preserved by the freezing environment of the outer solar system, Hammergren said.
As Lulin is exposed to the sun’s heat for the first time, those ices are vaporizing—activity that could cause the comet to brighten rapidly or even break apart. Even now the comet is spewing cyanogen and diatomic carbon, both gases that glow green in sunlight out in the vacuum of space.
What’s more, the comet’s orbit is in nearly the same plane as Earth’s, but the comet is traveling in the opposite direction. This causes Lulin to appear to move unusually fast and display a rare anti-tail—an optical effect that creates a secondary "tail" pointing toward the sun.
Interesting10: NASA scientists reported today that the global average surface temperature in 2008 was the coldest since 2000, but was still well above the long-term average, coming in at ninth-warmest since measurements began in 1880. This followed another report from the National Climatic Data Center that said 2008 was the eighth-warmest year on record. The two organizations analyze data sets slightly differently, which explains the disparity.
Most of the Earth was either near normal or warmer than average, with Eurasia, the Arctic and the Antarctic Peninsula being exceptionally warm (see map, above). Much of the Pacific Ocean was cooler than the long-term average due to a strong La Nina, a natural cooling of the ocean water in that region. El Nino is the opposite phase, when water is warmer-than-average.
The north-central USA was one of the few locations on the Earth’s land area that was cooler-than-average. "Given our expectation that the next El Nino will begin this year or in 2010, it still seems likely that a new global surface air temperature record will be set within the next one to two years, despite the moderate cooling effect of reduced solar irradiance," said James Hansen, director of GISS.
The sun is just passing through solar minimum, the low point in its 10- to 12-year cycle of electromagnetic activity, when it transmits its lowest amount of radiant energy toward Earth.
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