May 6-7, 2009
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Wednesday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 80
Honolulu, Oahu – 83
Kaneohe, Oahu – 81
Kahului, Maui – 87
Hilo, Hawaii – 83
Kailua-kona – 83
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountains…at 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon:
Poipu, Kauai – 84F
Hilo, Hawaii – 77
Haleakala Crater – 54 (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 Wednesday afternoon:
0.03 Hanapepe, Kauai
0.08 Poamoho 2, Oahu
0.01 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.01 Puu Kukui, Maui
0.06 Kamuela Upper, Big Island
Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map shows a 1028 millibar high pressure system located far to the NE of the islands now. This high’s associated ridge extends SW to just north and northeast of Kauai. Our winds will remain generally light southeasterlies through Friday…with daytime onshore sea breezes.
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
A beautiful walk along the shore!
Light trade winds, or light southeast breezes, both overpowered by onshore sea breezes during the days…and offshore flowing land breezes at night. The latest forecast keeps the return of a more pronounced trade wind flow, until sometime early next week. If this turns out to be true, our light winds, dry weather, and hazy conditions will persist for many more days. Our high pressure ridge, as of early Wednesday evening, is located not far north of Kauai…as shown on this weather map.
The close proximity of the high pressure ridge will not only keep our winds light, but our overlying atmosphere rather dry. We will find clear to partly cloudy mornings, which will give way to cloudy afternoons locally. The air mass over our islands is dry and stable, which will continue to greatly limit any showers from falling. Whatever few showers that do manage to drop, will end up over and around the mountains…during the afternoon hours. Don’t look for any increase in showers until at least early next week, maybe.
The winds have shifted just enough now, that at least some of the volcanic haze has been pushed just to the south of the islands. This will keep our atmosphere at least a little hazy however, through much of the rest of this week. It will take the returning trade winds to ventilate this haze away. The daytime heating, coupled with the light winds, will generate lots of afternoon clouds…and a generally more sultry reality than we’re used to seeing during the spring month of May.
It’s early Wednesday morning as I begin writing this last section of today’s weather narrative. I’m about ready to take the drive back home to Kula. Here in Kihei before I leave, I can see that it’s at least partly cloudy out there. The haze situation has improved a little, although it is far from perfect in terms of air quality. We could see the return of most of this haze, which has shifted to our south, but at least for the moment, there are slightly better visibilities for the moment. I’ll be back early Thursday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Wednesday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting: A Hyena’s giggle is not actually laughter, but a sound of frustration. New research found a way to distinguish individual hyenas based on the peculiarities of their, well, let’s call them fighting words. Until now these squeaky cackles have not been well understood by scientists. Researchers recorded the sounds and did the first ever acoustic analysis of them to understand how the calls vary between individuals, and when they are used.
The scientists found that hyenas usually made these noises when they were fighting for food, or in some kind of social conflict. "When a group of hyenas is feeding upon the prey you hear a lot of these giggles, especially during conflict between two individuals," said biologist Nicolas Mathevon of the Jean Monnet University in France, who is a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
Mathevon and colleagues monitored 17 captive hyenas at Berkeley, and measured the length, frequency (pitch) and the amplitude (volume) of each of their giggles. They found that the pitch of the sound depended on the hyena’s social status: Subordinate individuals made noises that were more varied and higher in pitch.
Interesting2: A new study out of the University of Pittsburgh suggests that a moderate dose of alcohol increases a person’s mind wandering, while at the same time reducing the likelihood of noticing that one’s mind has wandered. The study provides the first evidence that alcohol disrupts an individual’s ability to realize his or her mind has wandered, suggesting impairment of a psychological state called meta-consciousness.
These findings suggest that distinct processes are responsible for causing a thought to occur, as opposed to allowing its presence to be noticed. Led by University of Pittsburgh professor of psychology Michael Sayette, researchers Erik Reichle, associate professor and chair of Pitt’s cognitive program in psychology, and Jonathan Schooler, professor of psychology at University of California, Santa Barbara, studied a group of men-half of whom had consumed alcohol and half of whom had been given a placebo.
After 30 minutes, the participants began reading a portion of Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” from a computer screen. If they caught themselves zoning out-having no idea what they had just read or thinking about something other than the text-they pressed a key on the keyboard. They also were prompted at intervals, to see if they could be “caught” mind-wandering before they realized it themselves.
The results revealed that while they were reading the text those who had consumed alcohol were mind-wandering without realizing it about 25 percent of the time-more than double that of those who had not consumed alcohol. But as far as “catching themselves” zoning out, those who had been drinking were no more likely to do so than the other group.
Participants in the alcohol group would have had many more opportunities to catch themselves because they zoned out more often-but they did not. They were impaired in their ability to notice their own mind-wandering episodes. “Researchers have known for a while that alcohol consumption can interfere with our limited-capacity powers of concentration,” said Sayette.
“But this “double-whammy,” (i.e., more zone outs that take longer to recognize) may explain why alcohol often disrupts efforts to exercise self-control-a process requiring the ability to become aware of one’s current state in order to regulate it.”
Interesting3: When pandemics occur, correctional facilities are not immune. With more than 9 million people incarcerated across the globe 2.25 million in U.S. jails and prisons alone it is vital that correctional officials and health professionals be prepared for a worst-case scenario that involves pandemic influenza reaching inmates and staff.
With collaborative planning and training, prison and public health officials can help control influenza outbreaks behind bars, according to an article in the April issue of the Journal of Correctional Health Care. A two-day conference on prison pandemic preparedness held in Georgia in 2007 could serve as a model for such training.
Administrators, medical doctors, registered nurses, physician assistants, and pharmacists were among the participants, as well as state and local public health officials. The objectives were to educate participants about pandemic flu issues in prison settings, provide impetus for initial planning in Georgia’s prisons, and elicit ideas about how the prisons could best prepare for and respond to pandemic flu. Topics included nonpharmaceutical interventions, health care surge capacity, and prison-community interfaces.
Effective training about pandemic influenza requires more than just classroom lectures or checklists, the authors write. The conference employed interactive methods and educational games that recent studies have found effective in training ”adult learners.”
Experiential learning closely resembles the way adults learn on the job and offers a more hands-on approach compared to traditional didactic, classroom-based learning. The training techniques appeared to be very effective. Scores on a test after the training were an average of 69% correct compared to a pretest, which had an average score of 42% correct. As important, the conference served to forge new partnerships among correctional health and public health officials responsible for pandemic planning.
Interesting4: Sharks, barracuda and other large predatory fishes disappear on Caribbean coral reefs as human populations rise, endangering the region’s marine food web and ultimately its reefs and fisheries, according to a sweeping study by researcher Chris Stallings of The Florida State University Coastal and Marine Laboratory. While other scientists working in the Caribbean have observed the declines of large predators for decades, the comprehensive work by Stallings documents the ominous patterns in far more detail at a much greater geographic scale than any other research to date.
His article on the study, "Fishery-Independent Data Reveal Negative Effect of Human Population Density on Caribbean Predatory Fish Communities," is published in the May 6, 2009 issue of the journal PLoS One. "Seeing evidence of this ecological and economic travesty played out across the entire Caribbean is truly sobering," said Associate Professor John Bruno of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who served as the PLoS One academic editor for Stallings’ paper.
"I examined 20 species of predators, including sharks, groupers, snappers, jacks, trumpetfish and barracuda, from 22 Caribbean nations," said Stallings, a postdoctoral associate at the FSU Coastal and Marine Laboratory. "I found that nations with more people have reefs with far fewer large fish because as the number of people increases, so does demand for seafood.
Fishermen typically go after the biggest fish first, but shift to smaller species once the bigger ones become depleted. In some areas with large human populations, my study revealed that only a few small predatory fish remain."
Interesting5: Powered by solar energy generated on its roof, Taipei 101, the world’s tallest completed building, is not only a leader for its breathtaking height but also for its eco-friendly features. Finished in 2004, the skyscraper is a rare example of green design in Asia, a region with the world’s busiest construction sector yet one of the poorest records for eco-friendly building.
China alone is said to be building half of the world’s new floor space, but the vast majority of these new projects will be energy guzzlers. Environmentalists worry that these buildings will produce high carbon emissions for decades to come. "Energy efficiency is fast becoming one of the defining issues of our times, and buildings are that issue’s ‘elephant in the room’," Bjorn Stigson, president of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, said in a statement.
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