February 11-12, 2010
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Thursday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 75
Honolulu, Oahu – 78
Kaneohe, Oahu – 76
Kaunakakai, Molokai – 75
Kahului, Maui – 81
Hilo, Hawaii – 78
Kailua-kona – 79
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level around the state – and on the highest mountains…at 5pm Thursday evening:
Port Allen, Kauai – 79F
Kapalua, Maui – 68
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 Thursday afternoon:
0.49 Kokee, Kauai
0.46 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.20 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.27 Puu Kukui, Maui
0.87 Kawainui Stream, Big Island
Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing high pressure systems located far to the east-northeast and west-northwest. At the same time, a dissipating cold front is located around Oahu. This pressure configuration will keep trade winds blowing 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 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
A nice night in the islands…some windward showers
The cold front that passed over Kauai and Oahu yesterday into the night…tried to push down into
As this front washes out over the state, we’ll find localized brisk trade winds, with trade winds lasting through the weekend…into the first several days of next week. There are showers to the east of the front, which will bring some moisture to the windward sides of the islands through the next several days. As we move into the upcoming weekend we’ll see the trade winds continuing, blowing generally in the moderately strong levels. The leeward sides will be in good shape for the most part, although when the trade winds are particularly gusty, they may carry some showers into those areas as well. Early next week the storm track will buckle, rather than be a zonal flow…sending inclement weather down into our tropical latitudes starting around the middle of next week. The GFS model shows a cold front bringing showers our way around next Wednesday…lasting for a day or two. The models go on to show another area of showers arriving next weekend, although that’s too far out into the future to have much certainty about just yet.
The surf remains active along our north, west…and south facing beaches. The waves on the north and west shores are the largest…although will be gradually dropping Friday. The surf along our leeward beaches is considerably smaller, although larger than normal for this season. So, folks should be careful along our south and west facing leeward beaches, as well as the north shores too. The west sides of both the
It’s Thursday evening, as I begin writing the last section of today’s narrative. As noted above, the trade winds will be part and parcel of our Hawaiian island weather picture through the rest of this week…into the first part of next week. These trade winds will go through their changes, in terms of strength, but generally be in the light to moderately strong range…locally gusty at times. As for the showers, they will fall mostly along the windward sides and around the mountains…with just a few slipping over into the leeward sides here and there on the smaller islands. As for air temperatures, Thursday was a bit on the cool side, what with the leftover clouds from the dissipating cold front, and the slightly chilly northeasterly wind direction. Sea Level temperatures topped out in the 70F’s across the board…although somehow the Kahului airport was able to climb just above 80 degrees during the afternoon. ~~~ I’m about ready to get into my car, for the drive back upcountry to Kula, Maui. It’s been yet another good day of weather work, and I’m ready to be home for the night, to walk, eat, read, and get some shut eye. I will be back very early Friday morning however, with your next new weather narrative. I hope you have a great Thursday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Extra: Realizing there are no words to convey the wonder and mystery of Antarctica — what it is like to be amidst such an abundance of wildlife that is totally unafraid of humans — I pass along this video, taken on the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia, showing a remarkable and loving interaction between a young ("weaner") elephant seal (probably weighing 300 pounds) and the lovely young woman who was the "hostess" on a ship (ran all the hotel aspects of the voyage, but also loved to get on land and be with the animals). Video was taken by her husband, who was also their excellent chef. This video was taken last November. This youtube video says it all.
Interesting: The same cold front that brought a dangerous blizzard through the mid-Atlantic is also responsible for bringing some of the first rain to Haiti since the earthquake. The blizzard was so massive for the eastern half of the U.S. that the storm pushed a cold front all the way down to Haiti. "The front moving through is causing rain showers." Port-au-Prince saw heavy rain Wednesday night that will continue through the day on Thursday and into Friday. Highs for the day will linger in the upper 80s.
Temperatures will drop into the upper 60s overnight on Thursday, accompanied by a chilly rain. The showers are drenching earthquake survivors in the tent camps of Port-au-Prince and aggravating the mosquito problem for the area.
The magnitude 7 earthquake rocked the island nation on January 12, killing over 200,000 and displacing millions from their homes. The cold front from the recent blizzard was also responsible for 10 to 15 foot waves washing upon the northern shores of the eastern Caribbean Islands earlier in the week. Haiti could see a similar threat for its northern shores as this front pushes through.
Interesting2: Are warming conditions in the Arctic unprecedented in Earth’s history? It turns out that they are not. The Earth’s climate has gone through warming and cooling times in the past as can be seen in the fossil record that shows tropical species in regions now too cool to support them. These past variations were obviously not caused by the effects of man’s activities.
This does not mean that the current warming trend is not caused, or affected by anthropogenic air pollution. There is now increased evidence that the Arctic could face seasonally ice-free conditions and much warmer temperatures in the future. Scientists have documented evidence that the Arctic Ocean and Nordic Seas were too warm to support summer sea ice during the mid-Pliocene warm period (3.3 to 3 million years ago).
This period is characterized by warm temperatures similar to those projected for the end of this century, and is used as an analog to understand future conditions. The U.S. Geological Survey found that summer sea-surface temperatures in the Arctic were between 50 to 64°F during the mid-Pliocene, while current temperatures are around 32°F. Examining past climate conditions allows for a better understanding of how Earth’s climate system really functions.
USGS research on the mid-Pliocene is the most comprehensive global reconstruction for any warm period. This research will help refine climate models, which currently underestimate the rate of sea ice loss in the Arctic. Loss of sea ice could have varied and extensive consequences, such as contributions to continued Arctic warming, accelerated coastal erosion due to increased wave activity, impacts to large predators (polar bears and seals) that depend on sea ice cover, intensified mid-latitude storm tracks and increased winter precipitation in western and southern Europe, and less rainfall in the American west.
"In looking back 3 million years, we see a very different pattern of heat distribution than today with much warmer waters in the high latitudes," said USGS scientist Marci Robinson. "The lack of summer sea ice during the mid-Pliocene suggests that the record-setting melting of Arctic sea ice over the past few years could be an early warning of more significant changes to come." Global average surface temperatures during the mid-Pliocene were about 5.5°F greater than today and within the range projected for the 21st century by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Interesting3: Climate change has affected Kenyan coffee production through unpredictable rainfall patterns and excessive droughts, making crop management and disease control a nightmare, a researcher said on Thursday. Intermittent rainfall in the 2007/08 crop year, for example, caused a terrible bout of the Coffee Berry Disease that cut Kenyan output 23 percent to 42,000 metric tons as farmers were caught out by rains and did not protect their crop in time.
"We have seen climate change in intermittent rainfall patterns, extended drought and very high temperatures," said Joseph Kimemia, director of research at Kenya’s Coffee Research Foundation (CRF)."Coffee operates within a very narrow temperature range of 19-25 degrees (Celsius).
When you start getting temperatures above that, it affects photosynthesis and in some cases, trees wilt and dry up. We have see trees drying up in some marginal coffee areas." For coffee to flower, for example, it needs a couple of months of dry weather followed by showers.
This year, Kenya had rains in January, normally a very dry month when the bushes undergo what is known as stress before they flower. Because of the unpredictable weather, bushes are flowering when they should not and have coffee berries at different stages of maturity.
This means farmers have to hire labor through most of the year to pick very few kilos of coffee. "You look at a coffee tree and cannot determine the season because it has beans of all ages. That is a problem when it comes to disease management, insect management and the worst problem is in harvesting," he said. "The cost is enormous."
Interesting4: Vancouver Olympics organizers breathed a sigh of relief today as Mother Nature finally cooperated and snow began to fall on the barren hills of Cypress Mountain three days before the moguls competition begins. ‘It’s snowing quite well right now,’ said Stephen Bourdeau, spokesman at the Cypress Mountain Olympic venue. ‘We’ve had a nice little dumping that’s covering the trees. We expect more of this in the next couple of days.’
emperatures hovered just below freezing so the rain that was falling in Vancouver had turned to snow on Cypress, a mountain on the outskirts of the city. ‘It’s just cold enough,’ Bourdeau said. ‘We’re very happy – we’ve been waiting for this for a long time.’ Once the weather failed to provide enough of a snow blanket on Cypress for the freestyle skiing and snowboarding events, Vancouver organizers had to bring snow to the mountain.
After the warmest ever January in Vancouver organizers started moving snow from other areas of Cypress to the competition site and had to resort to trucking snow in from another mountain nearly three hours drive away.
Helicopters were also called into service, flying overhead in constant sorties and filling the air with the loud chop-chop sound of the rotors as they delivered snow to the higher parts of the courses. Trucks were moving snow 24 hours a day and the helicopters were operating constantly during daylight hours, except when skiers were training.
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Greg Says:
BTW, Glenn,
I miss the colored maps with directional arrows ou used to post which show the progress of swells across the Pacific Ocean.
Greg~~~Those are on the surf page, Aloha…Glenn
Greg Says:
Glenn,
Many thanks for your informative website. Can you tell us where the big waves are coming from. I assume it’s a sotrm or series of storms, but from the looks of the waves and the duration — it’s been several days now — this must have been a big storm (or series).
All the Best, Greg~~~Hi Greg, yes, waves that arrive here in Hawaii, from any direction, are generated by strong winds on the ocean surface…often from storms, except along the east shores, where trade winds generate the wind swell along those windward sides. Aloha, Glenn