June 4-5, 2009
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Thursday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 85
Honolulu, Oahu – 90
Kaneohe, Oahu – 82
Kahului, Maui – 85
Hilo, Hawaii – 81
Kailua-kona – 86
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountains…at 4 p.m. Thursday afternoon:
Honolulu, Oahu – 88F
Hilo, Hawaii – 78
Haleakala Crater – 57 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 37 (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 Thursday afternoon:
0.26 Mount Waialaele, Kauai
0.89 Manoa Lyon Arboretum, Oahu
0.03 Molokai
0.14 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.81 Puu Kukui, Maui
1.02 Glenwood, Big Island
Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map shows a 1026 millibar high pressure system to the northeast of the islands, with a ridge extending from the southwest flank of this high…into the area northwest of Kauai. The trade winds will remain quite strong both Friday and Saturday.
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 nice beach on the south coast of Maui
The trade winds strengthened right on schedule Thursday…which will remain breezy through the rest of the week. Looking at this weather map Thursday evening, we see the same 1025 millibar high pressure system to our northeast, that’s been there all this week. This high pressure cell has a ridge extending southwest from its center…which extends into the area northwest of Kauai. These trades became strong enough during the day Thursday, to trigger a small craft wind advisory in the windier locations around Maui and the Big Island, which will stay active Friday into the weekend.
There will be a few showers around, although almost all of those will fall along the windward sides now…generally during the night and early morning hours. The leeward beaches will remain mostly dry, with lots of sunshine, right on into the afternoon hours for the most part. The forecast models continue to show a dry pattern holding firm through the upcoming weekend time frame. These same models want to back off on the trade winds some after the weekend…as well as bring in an increase in windward biased showers.
The surf has dropped in size Thursday, and will remain generally smaller into the early weekend…then rise again later Saturday along our leeward beaches. This is the time of year when the southern hemisphere is heading towards winter. Thus, we find late autumn storms brewing downunder. These storms generate swells, which travel northward towards the Hawaiian Islands. We’ll see our next new south swell arriving later this Saturday, and then a second impulse later Sunday…followed by a third even larger swell around next Tuesday. Our local surfing community is getting excited by these new surf episodes!
We’re into a well established trade wind episode now, which will be increasing another notch over the next day or two. These cooling and refreshing breezes will take the edge off the daytime heat, although our high temperatures will still be rising well into the 80F’s during the days. It’s much easier to handle the tropical heat however, when the trade winds are blowing. We will see them prevailing through the rest of this week, although they may relax a little in speed as we move into next week. This time of year, it would be extremely unusual to have the trade winds stop altogether though.
It’s Thursday evening here in Kihei, Maui, as I begin writing this last section of today’s narrative. Thursday was one of those days, that most everyone has been waiting for…a day filled with sunshine and breezy trade winds. I know that this summery reality took its time getting here, but I think that most folks would admit that it was worth waiting for. I foresee clear skies prevailing during the days for the most part, so that lots of good sunbathing will occur along our beaches. If you are going to bask in those sun rays, be sure to have some sort of protection from the UV rays! ~~~ Looking out the window here before I leave for the drive back upcountry to Kula, I see mostly sunny skies in just about all directions. There are those usual clouds hugging the slopes of the Haleakala Crater…which is par for the course. Using the words par and course, gets me thinking that I’ll go and do some more putting at the Spreckelsville golf club this weekend, which is fun! That of course, at the same time reminds me that I have my nice evening walk to do when I get home too, which I always enjoy very much. I love moving my body, it feels so good. Ok, this Maui weatherman is out of here, but I’ll be back online early Friday morning, here to bring you your next new weather narrative from paradise. I hope you have a great Thursday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting: Brutal heat continues in parts of India, with sweltering heat sweeping into Amritsar in Punjab at 111F. While Amritsar was hotter by nine degrees than normal, intense heat also prevailed in Ludhiana, which recorded a maximum of 109F. There was no respite for Patiala residents either where mercury shot to 110.3F well above average.
Chandigarh recorded the season’s highest maximum so far as mercury here rose to 107F. In Haryana, Ambala experienced a hot day also at 107F while the high at Karnal settled at 107.2F. Jammu also braved a hot day recording a high of 109F. The heat is set to continue across the region.
Farmers in Vidarbha are worried that production of the famous Nagpur oranges might fall in the next season which begins in September due to the prevailing high temperatures coupled with water and electricity shortages. About 20% trees in orange orchards in the Nagpur and Amravati divisions in Vidarbha have dried up due to day temperatures ranging above 113F.
Interesting2: Researchers have detected giant, fast-moving waves of air, caused by thunderstorms and other disturbances, above Poker Flat, Alaska, where a new radar is churning out the first three-dimensional images of upper atmospheric phenomena in the polar region. "People have been envisioning doing this project for 40 years," said Eric Donovan, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. "There’s just a lot going on in this region that we don’t understand." The radar combines 4,096 small antennas, each with its own transmitter, on a single instrument, rather than one giant dish equipped with one powerful transmitter. Rather than physically rotating the radar to point in different directions, the steering is done electronically by a slight phasing of each of the antenna elements differently.
Interesting3: Green energy overtook fossil fuels in attracting investment for power generation for the first time last year, according to figures released today by the United Nations. Wind, solar and other clean technologies attracted $140bn compared with $110bn for gas and coal for electrical power generation, with more than a third of the green cash destined for Britain and the rest of Europe.
The biggest growth for renewable investment came from China, India and other developing countries, which are fast catching up on the West in switching out of fossil fuels to improve energy security and tackle climate change.
"There have been many milestones reached in recent years, but this report suggests renewable energy has now reached a tipping point where it is as important — if not more important — in the global energy mix than fossil fuels," said Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN’s Environment Program.
It was very encouraging that a variety of new renewable sectors were attracting capital, while different geographical areas such as Kenya and Angola were entering the field, he added. The UN still believes $750bn needs to be spent worldwide between 2009 and 2011 and the current year has started ominously with a 53% slump in first quarter renewables investment to $13.3bn.
Counting energy efficiency and other measures, more than $155bn of new money was invested in clean energy companies and projects, even though capital raised on public stock markets fell 51% to $11.4bn and green firms saw share prices slump more than 60% over 2008, according to the report, Global Trends in Sustainable Energy, drawn up for the UN by the New Energy Finance (NEF) consultancy in London.
Interesting4: Millions of years ago, rivers ran in Antarctica through craggy mountain valleys that were strangely similar to the modern European Alps, Chinese and British scientists reported on Wednesday. In a study published by the British journal Nature, the scientists described a vast terrain that had been hidden beneath ice up to two miles thick for eons, until new imaging technology recently uncovered them.
"The landscape has probably been preserved beneath the ice sheet for around 14 million years," the paper said. The imaging revealed "classic Alpine topography" similar to Europe’s Alps, showing that rivers had once existed on Antarctica and had cut their way through the mountains. Later, these valleys were gouged and deepened by glaciers.
The research also looked at deep-sea isotope records and theorized there was a period of global cooling, called the Eocene, between 52 and 34 million years ago, that eventually led to the formation of the polar ice caps. Then came two progressively dramatic periods of cooling, which scientists have linked to a decline in naturally-produced greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere — the same gases that, now man-made, are blamed for global warming today.
Interesting5: Brazil approved on Wednesday an environmental permit for a hydroelectric dam in the Amazon, an official said on Wednesday, advancing a project the government hopes will shore up power supplies but critics call an ecological disaster. The environmental agency Ibama granted a consortium including the French utilities giant Suez the license to build the Jirau dam on the Madeira River, an Ibama spokesman said.
The Jirau project and the nearby Santo Antonio dam are part of a plan to dam one of the Amazon river’s biggest tributaries to ensure Brazil’s economy will have sufficient energy supplies over the next decade.
The two dams, which together form the $13 billion, 6,450 megawatt Madeira River Hydroelectric Complex, will also create a waterway that would reduce shipping costs for Brazil’s agriculture exports.
Environmentalists say the dam could dramatically change the nearby ecosystem by flooding hundreds of thousands of hectares, and they insist the government has not provided enough safeguards to prevent ecological damage.
Interesting6: The sea floor is strewn with raw materials that could be very important in the future: Manganese and iron, but also rarer and more precious elements such as cobalt, copper, zinc and nickel, are present in great quantities in the form of deep-sea nodules and crusts. The depositions of such materials from seawater and sediment, is the result of a process known as bio-mineralization.
Microorganisms such as bacteria and algae contribute to this process of nodule and crust accretion and catalyze the accumulation of metals, as has been shown by new research at the Institute of Physiological Chemistry and Patho-biochemistry at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.
The new findings could, the scientists believe, contribute to an environment-friendly and sustainable use of valuable marine natural resources. Competition for the resources on the seabed has already begun; the industrialized countries have already staked their claims and marked off regions with large re-serves of raw materials.
"This is a potential source of international conflict," believes Professor Werner Müller of the University of Mainz. Once we understand exactly how the deep-sea nodules and crusts are created, we might perhaps in the not too distant future be in the position to develop strains of microorganisms that could very specifically "grow" important raw materials for us.
Interesting7: Californians’ thirst for water has pushed salmon and other fish to the brink of extinction, a federal agency ruled on Thursday as it directed officials to cut water supplies to cities and farms to save several species. California’s rivers used to brim with trout, salmon, sturgeon and more, but the federal, state and local governments built a monumental system of dams and pipelines in the most populous state that turned a desert into productive farmland and left some rivers dry.
The state faces a water crisis and a third year of drought. Add climate change and a growing population to the mix, and the fate of some salmon runs looks untenable without change, the National Marine Fisheries Service said in a report ordered as part of a long-running court battle over the salmon. It called for a 5 percent to 7 percent cut in water diversions for cities and agriculture from key state and federal water suppliers.
Water conservation, recycling and groundwater use could offset the cuts, the report said, but water agencies described a tougher situation. That reflects a larger argument about whether the state can conserve its way out of crisis or should build more dams and canals to capture the last trickles that bypass the system.
"It is becoming increasingly more difficult to operate our projects," U.S. Bureau of Reclamation regional director Don Glaser, the top federal water planner in the area, said after the report was released. State and federal water projects this year have slashed deliveries to 40 percent of most requests, due to fish issues and drought, and agricultural losses are seen near $1 billion.
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