May 12-13, 2009
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Tuesday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 81
Honolulu, Oahu – 86
Kaneohe, Oahu – 79
Kahului, Maui – 84
Hilo, Hawaii – 82
Kailua-kona – 84
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountains…at 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon:
Honolulu, Oahu – 84F
Kapalua, Maui – 77
Haleakala Crater – 55 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 46 (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 Tuesday afternoon:
0.02 Moloaa Dairy, Kauai
0.04 Aloha Tower, Oahu
0.00 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.03 Puu Kukui, Maui
0.28 Kealakekua, Big Island
Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map shows a 1025 millibar high pressure system located far NE of the islands. This high pressure cell has a ridge running southwest from its center, to a point northwest of Kauai. The placement of this ridge will provide light trade winds generally, although a bit stronger locally…varying between east and southeast as we move into Thursday.
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
Vintage Hawaii
Light trade winds, locally a little stronger through mid-week…then light and variable or southeast breezes into the weekend. A high pressure ridge is located a couple of hundred miles northwest of Kauai Tuesday night. This weather map shows a 1026 millibar high pressure system far to northeast of our islands…with the ridge extending southwest. At the moment we will find light to almost moderate trade winds blowing through Wednesday. As we push into Thursday onwards, we’ll see much lighter winds, with an increasing amount of volcanic haze moving over the smaller islands. The winds will strengthen this coming Sunday into early next week from the northeast direction, helping to ventilate the haze away then.
Showers will be limited, with a possible increase beginning Sunday into early next week…as a very late season cold front slides down into the island chain then. Whatever few showers that fall over the next several days, will spread themselves over the windward sides…and perhaps a few light ones in the upcountry areas during the afternoons too. The atmosphere remains dry and stable for the time being. A late season cold front may bring an increase in showers, although this time of year, dry conditions usually prevail. The computer models continue to suggest that we may get wet Sunday and Monday, although climatology suggests otherwise. I suggest we take a wait and see attitude for another couple of days.
It’s early Tuesday evening as I begin writing this last section of today’s weather narrative. The winds have taken on a bit more of a trade wind orientation now, keeping the haze situation under control…at least for the moment. Tuesday was another good day, with plenty of sunshine for all our outdoor activities. Just before I leave for the drive back upcountry to Kula, I see a fairly stiff trade wind breeze out the window here in Kihei, Maui. There appears to be a little haze, but less so than what I saw this morning. ~~~ Looking at this looping satellite image, I see very few clouds over the islands, and just a few over the offshore waters. There is an area of fast moving, high cirrus clouds down to the southwest of the islands, which could eventually shift northward towards Hawaii. Meanwhile, checking out this looping radar image, we find practically no showers anywhere around our beautiful state. ~~~ Based on all of the above, I’d say we’re in fine shape. I’ll be back early Wednesday morning with your next new weather narrative from paradise, to confirm that we’re still looking good. I hope you have a great Tuesday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting: A new University of British Columbia study finds that our brains are much more active when we daydream than previously thought. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds that activity in numerous brain regions increases when our minds wander.
It also finds that brain areas associated with complex problem-solving – previously thought to go dormant when we daydream – are in fact highly active during these episodes.
"Mind wandering is typically associated with negative things like laziness or inattentiveness," says lead author, Prof. Kalina Christoff, UBC Dept. of Psychology.
"But this study shows our brains are very active when we daydream – much more active than when we focus on routine tasks." For the study, subjects were placed inside an fMRI scanner, where they performed the simple routine task of pushing a button when numbers appear on a screen.
The researchers tracked subjects’ attentiveness moment-to-moment through brain scans, subjective reports from subjects and by tracking their performance on the task.
The findings suggest that daydreaming – which can occupy as much as one third of our waking lives – is an important cognitive state where we may unconsciously turn our attention from immediate tasks to sort through important problems in our lives.
Until now, the brain’s "default network" – which is linked to easy, routine mental activity and includes the medial prefrontal cortex (PFC), the posterior cingulate cortex and the temporoparietal junction – was the only part of the brain thought to be active when our minds wander.
Interesting2: The planet’s largest animal may be returning to pre-whaling feeding grounds. Scientists have documented the first known migration of blue whales from the coast of California to areas off British Columbia and the Gulf of Alaska since the end of commercial whaling in 1965.
In the scientific journal Marine Mammal Science, researchers from Cascadia Research Collective in Washington state, NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center in California, and Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans identified 15 separate cases where blue whales were seen off British Columbia and the Gulf of Alaska.
Four of the whales were identified as animals previously observed off the coast of California, suggesting a re-establishment of a historical migration pattern. Researchers made this identification by comparing photographs of blue whales taken in the north Pacific Ocean since 1997 with a library of nearly two thousand photographs of blue whales off the West Coast.
A positive match was determined based on pigmentation patterns in skin color and shape of the dorsal fin. Blue whales were severely depleted during commercial whaling activities during the early 1900’s in the north Pacific and along the West Coast as far south as Baja California.
Formerly large populations of blue whales in the north Pacific never rebounded after commercial whaling ended while those animals off southern California have apparently fared much better.
Scientists are still not certain exactly why blue whales are now beginning to migrate from southern California to the north Pacific Ocean although changing ocean conditions may have shifted their primary food source of krill further north.
Blue whales are thought to be the largest animal ever to have existed on earth, reaching lengths of nearly 100 feet. They were nearly hunted to extinction throughout the world and are currently listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and as endangered on the red list of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. There are an estimated 5,000 to 12,000 animals remaining today, with the largest population of approximately 2,000 off the U.S. West Coast.
Interesting3: An international team of scientists has proposed a set of basic rules to help save the world’s imperiled coral reefs from ultimate destruction. Their proposal is being unveiled at the World Ocean Conference 2009 in Manado, Indonesia, where leaders of six regional governments plus Australia and the United States are meeting to declare the largest-ever marine reserve in world history, the Coral Triangle Initiative.
“The catastrophic decline in the world’s coral reefs demands urgent management responses on two fronts,” say the researchers from the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CoECRS), The Australian Museum, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, James Cook, Perpignan and the United Nations Universities and The Nature Conservancy.
These are the “…reduction of immediate direct threats such as climate change, over-fishing and water pollution, and actions to protect or enhance the resilience of reef ecosystems in the face of existing and unavoidable future threats,” they say.
The key to saving threatened coral ecosystems is to maintain the links (connectivity) between reefs allowing larvae to flow between them and re-stock depleted areas, the team led by Pew Fellow Dr Laurence McCook of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) argues.
“Ecological connectivity is critically important to the resilience of coral reefs and other ecosystems to which they are linked,” says Dr McCook. “The ability of reefs to recover after disturbances or resist new stresses depends critically on the supply of larvae available to reseed populations of key organisms, such as fish and corals. For reefs to survive and prosper they must in turn be linked with other healthy reefs.”
Email Glenn James: 