Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs / December 9-10, 2009

December 9-10, 2009

Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Wednesday afternoon:

Lihue, Kauai –  76
Honolulu, Oahu – 79
Kaneohe, Oahu – 78
Kaunakakai, Molokai – 80
Kahului, Maui – 82
Hilo, Hawaii – 82
Kailua-kona – 82

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level around the state – and on the highest mountains…at 5pm Wednesday evening:

Kailua-kona – 81F
Lihue, Kauai – 73

Haleakala Crater – 50 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 43 (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:

0.02 Poipu, Kauai  
0.03 Waimanalo, Oahu
0.00 Molokai 
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.01 Oheo Gulch, Maui
0.02 Mountain View, Big Island

Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing weak 1016 millibar high pressure system to the east…with its ridge extending west just to the north of the islands. Our local winds will be light northeast, gradually becoming east-northeast trade winds.

Satellite and Radar Images: To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with this 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.

Tropical Cyclone activity in the eastern and central Pacific – Here’s the latest weather information coming out of the National Hurricane Center, covering the eastern north Pacific. You can find the latest tropical cyclone information for the central north Pacific (where Hawaii is located) by clicking on this link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. Here’s a tracking map covering both the eastern and central Pacific Ocean. A satellite image, which shows the entire ocean area between Hawaii and the Mexican coast…can be found here.

Aloha Paragraphs

  Island Style!

Warm days and cool nights will continue…bringing pleasant late autumn weather conditions to all the Hawaiian Islands.  Our overlying atmosphere is exceptionally dry and stable now…which suggests that very pleasant weather conditions will prevail through most of the rest of this week. The daytime heating, coupled with the light breezes, will prompt some afternoon cloudy periods around the mountains locally…but showers will be few and very far between! Daytime temperatures at sea level will be in the upper 70F’s, reaching into the lower 80’s, with overnight lows in the upper 50’s to 60’s.

The latest computer forecast models are now backing off on any cold fronts arriving through the rest of this week, although we may see one finally making it to the islands at some point…during the first half of the next week.  The north Pacific Ocean will continue to have gale and storm low pressure systems racing by, but their cold fronts will stay north of Hawaii until then. As these fronts move by though, they will help keep our local winds on the light side…from variable directions. This could eventually bring some more volcanic haze (vog) to the islands during the upcoming weekend.

The large north-northwest swell, breaking on the north and west shores, remains dynamic…although will be gradually losing size Thursday onwards. The next northwest swell will arrive this weekend, with another larger NW swell coming our way next Monday into Tuesday. The east sides will see some wrap from these large waves, so those beaches will be locally larger than normal. The south shores will generally be small to very small in contrast…making them good places for a casual swim or snorkeling. Sea water temperatures are running about 77F degrees now, amply warm for a great ocean experience.

It’s early Thursday evening here on Maui, as I begin writing this last section of today’s narrative.  As I’ve mentioned in the paragraphs above, the surf is still locally large, but will be lowering steadily through Friday. What will be most interesting thing to most folks though, will be the outstanding weather conditions that will grace the Hawaiian Islands through most of the rest of this week! As the winds become light to very light at times, we may see some haze around the edges, but hopefully the vog won’t become too much of an issue. ~~~  The cooler and drier air that came into the islands, behind the most recent cold front…is providing nearly cloud free skies, especially during the night and morning hours. This is making for chilly conditions after dark, but will also make for nice sunny days in turn. I’d recommend keeping that extra blanket on the bed through the next several nights! ~~~  Looking out the window here in Kihei, before I take the drive back upcountry to Kula, it’s a little hazy…and there’s hardly a cloud in the sky, just like last evening. I’ll be back again early Thursday morning, with your next new weather narrative from paradise. I hope you have a great Wednesday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting: Almost 95% of the world’s population is not protected by laws banning smoking, the World Heath Organization says. In its second major report on the "tobacco epidemic", the UN agency said second-hand or passive smoking killed nearly 600,000 people each year. The WHO said seven new countries passed comprehensive smoke-free laws in 2008, taking the world total to a mere 17. It warned that tobacco is still the leading preventable cause of death, killing five million people every year.

"Unless urgent action is taken to control the tobacco epidemic, the annual death toll could rise to eight million by 2030," the WHO report said. In 2008, an additional 154 million people were newly covered by smoke-free laws enacted in seven countries – Colombia, Djibouti, Guatemala, Mauritius, Panama, Turkey and Zambia. But that still meant only 5.4% of the world’s people were protected, the report said.

The agency urged governments to implement the 2005 WHO framework convention on tobacco control, which 170 nations have signed. The convention urges countries to adopt measures to prevent smoking – by offering people help to quit, enforcing bans on tobacco advertising and raising tobacco taxes – and to protect non-smokers from tobacco smoke.

Interesting2: Pacific island nations are on the front line of climate change, yet despite being seen as the first victims, many are re-positioning themselves to lead the world in renewable energy infrastructure. Chief Bernard Tunim confronts the issue head-on: "We didn’t create global warming but we are its first victims. The industrialized world must take decisive action at the Copenhagen summit before it’s too late for everyone."

Standing in knee-deep water on Piul Island, Chief Bernard points to a decaying coconut stump nearly 200 metres offshore from the beach we are standing on. "That used to be our shoreline only 10 or 15 years ago," he says. "Look how the sea is eating us away. We are only a small island, the king tides have already swamped our gardens and soon we’ll have to leave. The future of my island is now only for fish, not people."

Piul is one of 5 atolls that make up the Carteret Islands group in Papua New Guinea, where the 3,000 islanders who live on these beautiful yet vulnerable atolls are being recognized as the world’s first climate change refugees. Preparations are being made to relocate them to nearby Bougainville, a large mountainous island, over the next year or two.

For them, talk about climate change and rising seas is not an abstract concept but one that’s a hard reality. Chief Bernard has no time for debates over whether the problem is man-made or not, the effect is the same for him and his people — they’ll lose their homeland. Like many islanders, he worries that the debates by scientists and climate skeptics, along with government inaction, are delaying concrete action.

Interesting3: The rift over a leaked draft climate agreement widened Wednesday with an astonishing attack on the West by one of the poor nations’ leading climate negotiators. Lumumba Stanislaus Dia Ping, the Sudanese ambassador to the Group of 77 developing countries, told a news conference that the draft agreement put forward by the Danish government was aimed at "preserving and advancing developed countries’ economic dominance and supremacy."

"The Empire has always relentlessly and ruthlessly grabbed natural resources," he said. "The Danish text and, let me say texts, seek to secure 60 percent of the global atmospheric space for 20 percent of the world’s wealthiest nations. It is a scramble and a rush of extraordinary magnitude." A number of Web sites are linking to the document, which is labeled "The Copenhagen Agreement," but is being widely referred to as the "Danish text."

Interesting4: There are so many issues on the table at the Copenhagen U.N. climate conference that politicians from all the major players have already declared there is no hope of reaching a binding legal agreement. But progress is still possible. Participants speak of reaching a "political agreement." Exactly what that would be remains undefined, but it would represent some form of commitment to address global warming that goes beyond mere rhetoric — yet falls short of a legally binding treaty.

The two-week formal negotiations with representatives from more than 190 nations started Monday, with the ultimate goal of setting up a mechanism to reduce global greenhouse gases. If the nations of the world don’t limit carbon emissions, global temperatures could rise by 5 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century. Sea-level change is highly uncertain, but it could rise from 7 inches to as much as 6 feet.

More than 110 world leaders have said they plan to attend the conference — that’s unprecedented for climate talks. The talks kick into high gear the second week, with President Obama flying in for the closing summit. Potential Scenarios Negotiators hope to agree at least to the shape of a future treaty, setting the stage for talks at a follow-up conference in 2010.

Possibilities include:

Targets And Timetables: In 1997, these same nations met in Kyoto, Japan, to negotiate a climate deal. In it, the rich nations of the world jointly negotiated targets for reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases, under a certain timetable.

The rest of the world had no obligations. The Kyoto protocol is still in force, and contrary to what is often said about it, it does not expire in 2012. However, after that date, nations have no further emissions-reduction commitments. The United States signed the Kyoto pact, but the U.S. Senate never ratified it, so the U.S. is not party to this treaty.

Kyoto Plus: One option in Copenhagen is to extend the Kyoto Protocol and to have a second, parallel agreement that would include the United States. (The United States has made it clear it won’t join Kyoto, because it gives a free ride to China and other economic rivals.)

Pledge and Review: The United States favors an approach that marks a real departure from the Kyoto structure. Instead of jointly negotiating emissions-reduction targets and timetables for achieving them, the U.S. suggests that each nation bring to the table a pledge of what it intends to do to address climate change.

Pledge And Review, DIY: China and other major developing countries have also stepped forward with pledges to control their emissions. These pledges are domestic plans that in some cases have legal force within the nations involved. But so far developing countries have steadfastly refused to make them legally binding in an international climate deal.

Interesting5: A major split between developing countries has emerged at the UN climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark. Small island states and poor African nations vulnerable to climate impacts laid out demands for a legally-binding deal tougher than the Kyoto Protocol. This was opposed by richer developing states such as China, which fear tougher action would curb their growth.

Tuvalu demanded – and got – a suspension of negotiations until the issue could be resolved. The split within the developing country bloc is highly unusual, as it tends to speak with a united voice. Tuvalu’s negotiator Ian Fry made clear that his country could accept nothing less than full discussion of its proposal for a new legal protocol, which was submitted to the UN climate convention six months ago.

"My prime minister and many other heads of state have the clear intention of coming to Copenhagen to sign on to a legally binding deal," Mr Fry said. "Tuvalu is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change, and our future rests on the outcome of this meeting."

The call was backed by other members of the Association of Small Island States (AOSIS), including the Cook Islands, Barbados and Fiji, and by some poor African countries including Sierra Leone, Senegal and Cape Verde. Several re-iterated the demand of small island developing states that the rise in the global average temperature be limited to 1.5C, and greenhouse gas concentrations stabilized at 350 parts per million (ppm) rather than the 450ppm favored by developed countries and some major developing nations.

Fast-growing economies such as China, India and South Africa oppose the lower target of 350ppm because they feel that meeting it would retard economic development. Here, they also opposed Tuvalu’s call for a new legally-binding protocol to run alongside the existing Kyoto Protocol, arguing that the existing convention and Kyoto agreement are tough enough.