Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs / February 7-8, 2010

February 7-8, 2010

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

Lihue, Kauai – 77
Honolulu, Oahu – 83
Kaneohe, Oahu – 79
Kaunakakai, Molokai – 78
Kahului, Maui – 81
Hilo, Hawaii – 81
Kailua-kona – 80

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

Port Allen, Kauai – 81F
Lihue, Kauai – 74

Haleakala Crater –    48 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 36 (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 Sunday afternoon:

0.10 Lihue, Kauai  
0.04 Waimanalo, Oahu
0.00 Molokai 
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.13 Oheo Gulch, Maui 
0.21 Kapapala Ranch, Big Island

Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a 1021 millibar high pressure system, currently far to the northeast, with its ridge extending back to the north of Kauai. This will keep trade winds blowing into Tuesday.

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

Trade winds prevail…generally fine weather continuing

A ridge of high pressure is north of Kauai Sunday evening, with the trade winds continuing through the next several days…along with pleasant weather conditions. This ridge has bounced back to our north, as a cold front has moved by north of the state during the afternoon. This leaves the islands in great shape, with generally clear skies, and dry weather through the next couple of days. There will be just a few windward showers, while the leeward sides remain mostly clear and dry. Air temperatures will be seasonable, running just about what we would expect this time of year.
 
The trade winds will gradually become lighter, and perhaps turn to the southeast later Tuesday into Wednesday. This swinging around of the winds, and their easing up in strength, will be prompted by the approach of our next cold front. The computer models are now showing this next cold front stalling somewhere near Kauai or Oahu Wednesday. Following in the wake of the frontal boundary, will be NE and ENE trade winds, which will become quite blustery. These showers may keep the windward sides off and on showery for a day or two.

It’s Sunday evening, as I begin writing the last section of today’s narrative. Today was one of those perfectly gorgeous days here in Hawaii. There was abundant sunshine, and warm trade winds blowing, with hardly a shower anywhere. The volcanic haze, which we saw in our skies locally Saturday, has now all been blown away by the fresh trade winds. I anticipate that Monday and Tuesday will continue this lovely string of days that are gracing our islands during this winter period. ~~~ I didn’t leave home today for a second, and the closest to my car that I got, was to just check the oil briefly this afternoon…which was just where it was suppose to be on the dip stick. I learned a long time ago, that’s its important to keep clean oil in the car, as it preserves the engine effectively. At any rate, I hung out at home and did some domestic chores. I bbq’d some organic chicken thighs, and sauteed a bunch of organic vegetables, which I’ll have as dinners during the upcoming work week. Perhaps the most fun of the day, was hanging out with the neighbors on three sides of my house. We all worked together to get some wiring arranged for internet connectivity issues. It’s always fun and stimulating to hang with these people, as they all happen to be in the top of their various fields of endeavor. ~~~ It’s so nice out, I plan to hang out on the deck after finishing the last little bit of this narrative update. I hope you have a great Sunday night, and perhaps will be able to stop by again on Monday. I’ll have your next new weather narrative ready and waiting early Monday morning. Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting: Despite the frightening regularity of humanitarian disasters like the earthquake in Haiti, international responses remain fragmented and must be improved, argue a group of trauma surgeons on the British Medical Journal website. They warn that an uncoordinated push to get people and equipment into the affected zone as soon as possible can worsen the situation and reduce the effectiveness of relief efforts. They also advise anyone thinking about volunteering to join an established group and obtain appropriate training to enable them to function in a disaster zone.

Many health care professionals from developed countries do not know what to do when faced with the horrors of a major humanitarian disaster, so proper preparation is key to providing prompt relief, write Dr Charles Krin and colleagues. In the US, volunteers are required to undertake a National Incident Management System (NIMS) course so that they are aware of the likely systems and where they will fit in to the system.

Other countries run similar programs. Passports and immunizations also need to be kept up to date. Medical volunteers should have a basic understanding of field and trauma medicine, be able to treat wounds and fractures with limited equipment and in non-sterile conditions, and know basic field sanitation and water purification techniques. These measures will help avoid well intentioned but sometimes misguided help from uncoordinated and untrained people that can hamper relief efforts, say the authors.

Surely, we have learnt enough from the natural disasters of the last few decades to allow us to set priorities and offer a reasonably coordinated international relief effort the next time this happens, say the authors. They call for international dialogue to explore ways to improve the response to these events.

"We have a perfect opportunity in Haiti to work towards true international cooperation, they conclude. "The Haitians will benefit from a long-term commitment to rebuilding, and the world medical community will benefit from the lessons learned when next we are called upon to provide disaster relief."

Interesting2: Communicating why biodiversity loss matters for people is essential for reversing it. The failed UN climate talks in Copenhagen in December could hardly have been a less promising prelude to the International Year of Biodiversity, which opened last month (January). As with climate change, the threat of large-scale biodiversity loss — and the need for global political action to stop it — is growing every day.

At a meeting about biodiversity organized by the British government in London in January, Robert Watson, former head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), warned that damage to the natural environment was approaching "a point of no return", a familiar phrase in the climate change debate.

Both issues face formidable challenges in persuading political leaders and the public of the urgent need to take action. The reasons are complex. But at root is the conflict between the need to radically change our use of natural resources and the desire to maintain current forms of economic growth in both developed and developing countries.

The solutions are equally complicated. Part of the answer, in each case, lies in enhancing the media’s ability to communicate messages emerging from the underlying science, so that these accurately reflect both the urgency of the situation, and how ordinary people’s lives may be affected.

Interesting3: Extensive commercial fishing endangers dolphin populations in the Mediterranean. This has been shown in a new study carried out at the University of Haifa’s Department of Maritime Civilizations. "Unfortunately, we turn our backs to the sea and do not give much consideration to our marine neighbors," states researcher Dr. Aviad Scheinin.

The study, which was supervised by Prof. Ehud Spanier and Dr. Dan Kerem, examined the competition between the two top predators along the Mediterranean coast of Israel: the Common Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) and bottom trawlers. (Trawling is the principal type of commercial fishing in Israel and involves dragging a large fishing net through the water, close to the sea floor, from the back of a boat.)

These two predators off the coast of Israel trap similar types of fish near the sea floor, so the researchers decided to examine the nature of the competition between the two. Commercial trawling in the Mediterranean off the coast of Israel targets codfish, red mullet and sole, three commercial and sought-after types of fish.

The Department of Fisheries in Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture has data showing that over the years the amount of fish from the sea floor looted by Israel’s commercial trawling is larger than the amount of fish that nature provides, indicating that the sea floor fish population dropped between the years 1949 and 2006.

Would this decline in fish supply necessarily cause direct harm to the dolphins, seeing as their diet might also include other types of fish? In order to verify this, the researcher examined the contents of the stomachs of 26 dolphins that died and landed on the beach, or that had been caught by mistake.

He also examined the behavior of living dolphins by carrying out 232 marine surveys over more than 3,000 km. along the central coast of Israel. The dolphins’ stomachs contained mainly non-commercialized fish, suggesting that they perhaps do not compete directly with the commercial trawlers, and that the commercial fishing does not directly affect the dolphins’ nutrition.

Interesting4: Sure, some delicacies might taste just like chicken, but they usually feel and look much different. Soy meat alternatives, such as the soy burger, have become more popular recently, with increased sales of eight percent from 2007 to 2008. Now, scientists at the University of Missouri have created a soy substitute for chicken that is much like the real thing.

The new soy chicken also has health benefits, including lowering cholesterol and maintaining healthy bones. Fu-Hung Hsieh, an MU professor of biological engineering and food science in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources and the College of Engineering, is leading the project to create a low-cost soy substitute for chicken.

His research, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Illinois-Missouri Biotechnology Alliance, has led to a process that does more than just add color and flavor to soy. Hsieh has developed a process that makes the soy product simulate the fibrous qualities of a chicken breast.

"Early tests provided some of the fibrous texture to the final product, but it tasted more like turkey," Hsieh said. "In order to produce a more realistic product, we had to tweak the process and add extra fiber to give the soy a stringy feeling that tears into irregular, coarse fibers similar to chicken." To create the soy chicken, Hsieh starts with a soy protein extracted from soy flour.

The soy then goes through an extrusion cooking process that uses water, heat and pressure while pushing the mixture through a cylinder with two augers. "This particular soy substitute is different because we are working with a higher moisture content, which is up to 75 percent," Hsieh said. "The high moisture content is what gives the soy a very similar texture to chicken — in addition to the appearance."

Along with pleasing the senses, Hsieh’s soy chicken provides health benefits for consumers. Soy foods contain important nutrition components, some of which help maintain healthy bones and prevent prostate, breast and colorectal cancers. Soy foods also are a good source of essential fatty acids and contain no cholesterol.

The FDA has approved a claim that encourages 25 grams of soy protein in a daily diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol to help reduce cholesterol that is at or above moderately high levels.

Interesting5: Southern Brazil should feel relief from the intense heat by Monday, but temperatures will remain hot through the weekend. High temperatures on Thursday reached 100 degrees F in Port Alegre. Pelotas also recorded a high of 102 F during the day on Wednesday. While beach goers have enjoyed the heat, nights of oppressive warmth has been problematic for several Brazilians.

The demand for energy has reached the state record for Rio Grande do Sul after Tuesday’s temperatures. This is likely due to an increased demand in air conditioning and other cooling devices. Neighboring Argentina helped fill Brazil’s electricity demand Wednesday by exporting 500 megawatts of power, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Interesting6: Scant ice over the Arctic Sea this winter could mean a "double whammy" of powerful ice-melt next summer, a top U.S. climate scientist said on Thursday. "It’s not that the ice keeps melting, it’s just not growing very fast," said Mark Serreze, director of the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center. In January, Arctic sea ice grew by about 13,000 square miles a day, which is a bit more than one-third the pace of ice growth during the 1980s, and less than the average for the first decade of the 21st century.

Arctic ice cover is important to the rest of the world because the Arctic is the globe’s biggest weather-maker, sometimes dubbed Earth’s air-conditioner for its ability to cool down the planet. More melting Arctic sea ice could affect this weather-making process; it is unlikely to lead to rising sea levels, any more than an ice cube melting in a glass of water would make the glass overflow.

If Arctic ice fails to build up sufficiently during the dark, cold winter months, it is likely to melt faster and earlier when spring comes, Serreze said by telephone from Colorado. "We’ve grown back ice in the winter, but that ice tends to be thin and that’s the problem," he said.

"You set yourself up for a world of hurt in summer. The ice that is there is also thinner than it was before and thinner ice simply takes less energy to melt out the next summer." With less of the Arctic sea covered in ice in winter, and with the existing ice thinner and more fragile than before, "you’ve got a double whammy going on," Serreze said.