May 26-27, 2009
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Tuesday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 82
Honolulu, Oahu – 86
Kaneohe, Oahu – 83
Kahului, Maui – 89
Hilo, Hawaii – 81
Kailua-kona – 85
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountains…at 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon:
Kapalua, Maui – 86F
Kaneohe, Oahu – 77
Haleakala Crater – 50 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 41 (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:
0.72 Anahola, Kauai
0.82 Punaluu Pump, Oahu
0.02 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.18 Kahoolawe
0.19 Ulupalakua, Maui
2.10 Pahoa, Big Island
Marine Environment – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map shows a 1011 millibar low pressure system to the north of Hawaii, with its associated trough extending southward into the islands. This pressure configuration will keep light breezes in place, generally from the southeast to southwest…with localized sea breezes through 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
La Perouse Bay…on Maui
The much lighter than normal breezes remain in place Tuesday evening, although there is hope that the missing trade winds will return by this weekend. Looking at this weather map we see a trough of low pressure just to the north of Kauai and Oahu. At the same time, we have a high pressure system far to the northeast, with its associated ridge just to the east of the Big Island. This is a good sign, although we may have to wait until the end of the week, before we see signs of the trade winds return. There remains quite a bit of haze across some parts of the Aloha state, which will stick around until the trade winds finally blow it all away.
The light wind conditions, associated with this convective weather pattern, will bring clear mornings and locally cloudy afternoons…with localized upcountry showers. The low pressure areas in the vicinity of the islands will keep the threat of random showers around into Thursday. This long lasting convective pattern will persist, that is until the trade winds manage to work their way back into our island weather picture. The latest outlook suggests that it will be another couple of days at least, that we have to endure this stagnant air mass over our islands. As the trade winds finally return, the emphasis for showers will shift back over to the north and east facing windward coasts and slopes.
The weather here in the islands the last several days has been very warm and excessively humid…at least in many sea level locations. One of the reasons why is that we’ve had very unusual south Kona winds blowing, bringing up tropical moisture into our area. As the winds have been so light, there’s been no relief from these ultra-tropical conditions. This reality will continue until the trade winds return, which may not happen until we reach the weekend. The fact that the trade winds are on hold through at least this weekend, which is at the very tail-end of the month of March…is uncommon. We’ve had more light wind days this spring than we’ve seen in many years. As has been mentioned here before, the trade winds typically blow about 86% of the time during the month of May, which certainly hasn’t been the case thus far. This late in the spring season, we’re bordering on this lack of trade wind days, almost qualifying as a true rarity. Certainly by the time we get into June, a month that usually has the trade winds blowing 91% of the days, it would be very rare not to see the trade winds taking over almost exclusively.
It’s Tuesday evening here in Kihei, Maui, as I begin writing this last section of today’s narrative. It was a very sultry day here in Kihei, as I know it was in many of the lowland areas around the state. Showers were most generous over the islands of Kauai and Oahu Tuesday, which became locally heavy at times. Using this looping radar image, we can see a few showers around the Big Island and Maui, but most were happening in the vicinity of Kauai and Oahu. One of the main things that we can see, checking out that radar image, is that our winds are still coming up from the south to southeast. These Kona winds are bringing uncomfortably hot and humid conditions to our islands! ~~~ I’m heading out to my car now, to take the drive back home to Kula. Looking out the window here in Kihei before leaving, I see hazy skies, and partly to mostly cloudy skies. If I run through any heavy showers between here and when I get into the upcountry area, I will come back online and let you know. Update: I ran though some light showers coming up through the pasture lands between Pukalani and Kula, but nothing heavy by any means. What I have found here in Kula however, is pea soup fog, perhaps e even double thick fog, along with unusually warm temperatures for this elevation. At 645pm, my outside thermometer is reading 70.7F degrees, which is very warm for this time of the evening. These very unusual Kona breezes are bringing really warm air into our state. The high temperature of 89F degrees today in Kahului, Maui must have felt almost unbearable! ~~~ I’ll be back again early Wednesday morning with your next new weather narrative. I hope you have a great Tuesday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting: The death toll is rising in Bangladesh after Tropical Cyclone Aila hit the region on Monday. Reports out of the region suggest that at least 87 people have now been confirmed dead with more than 800 people injured. An estimated 110,000 people have been evacuated or displaced from their homes in the Indian state of West Bengal.
Flooding rain is causing chaos in the attempt to get people to safety, the Navy Coast Guard is struggling to get to may areas as they are still dealing with extremely rough seas, so the full extent of the death and destruction is yet unknown.
It is impossible to move form Chittagong to the offshore islands where many villagers remain stranded. The tidal surge battered river and flood control embankments and dykes and submerged many villages. Khulna, Satkhira, Patuakhali and Barisal were amongst the many that were badly affected by the storm.
River transport from Dhaka to all 39 routes into southern districts remain suspended. Many are taking shelter in schools and medical centres and colleges in the hope they are returning home soon. The Indian Army and police were rushed in to help the coastal North and South Parganas district which was thought to be worst hit by the cyclone.
This region is home to the world’s largest mangrove forests, which straddle West Bengal and Bangladesh. It’s largely inhabited by fishing communities and the endangered royal Bengal tiger.
Low-lying areas such as Cuttack were also hit hard as around 400 thatched huts were damaged and some completely destroyed. As of Tuesday, the former tropical cyclone broke up and dissipated well inland near the border of India and northern Bangladesh.
Its leftover moisture, however, was triggering heavy rain along the eastern Himalaya of Bhutan, India, easternmost Nepal and a few spots in southernmost Tibet. Highest rainfall of 8-12 inches swelled rivers flowing southward into lowlands of northeastern India.
Interesting2: While most of the planet has been warming for decades, part of Antartica, the East Antarctic Ice Sheet — has actually been getting colder. At least that was the general consensus. A major study by Pennsylvania State University; NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.; and NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City shows this may not be the case at all.
The work was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet, with an average elevation of about 6,000 feet above sea level, is substantially lower than East Antarctica, which has an average elevation of more than 10,000 feet.
While the entire continent is essentially a desert, West Antarctica is subject to relatively warm, moist storms and receives much greater snowfall than East Antarctica. The researchers devised a statistical technique that uses data from satellites and from Antarctic weather stations to make a new estimate of temperature trends.
"People were calculating with their heads instead of actually doing the math," Steig said. "What we did is interpolate carefully instead of just using the back of an envelope. While other interpolations had been done previously, no one had really taken advantage of the satellite data, which provide crucial information about spatial patterns of temperature change."
The study found that warming in West Antarctica exceeded one-tenth of a degree Celsius per decade for the last 50 years and more than offset the cooling in East Antarctica. The illustration depicts the warming that scientists have determined has occurred in West Antarctica during the last 50 years, with the dark red showing the area that has warmed the most.
Interesting3: With rising seas lapping at coastal cities and threatening to engulf entire islands in the not-too-distant future, it’s easy to assume our only option will be to abandon them and head for the hills. There may be another way, however. Archaeological sites in the Caribbean, dating back to 5000 BC, show that some ancient civilizations had it just as bad as anything we are expecting.
Yet not only did they survive a changing coastline and more storm surges and hurricanes: they stayed put and successfully adapted to the changing world. Now archaeologists are working out how they managed it and finding ways that we might learn from their example.
The sea-level rise that our ancestors dealt with had nothing to do with human-induced climate change, of course: it was a hangover from the last ice age. As the massive ice sheet that lay on North America melted, the continent was buoyed upwards.
As a result, the northern Caribbean, on the other end of the same tectonic plate, sank, making seas in the region rise up to 5 meters over 5000 years. Although the cause of this rise was very different to what we face today, the effects were probably the same.
Rising waters not only nibble away at coastlines, they also mean that hurricanes and storm surges reach further inland. Higher seas also mean that groundwater becomes contaminated with salt, and as the water table rises the waterlogged land becomes more likely to flood.
Email Glenn James: 