June 1-2, 2010
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Tuesday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 83
Honolulu, Oahu – 84
Kaneohe, Oahu – 81
Kaunakakai, Molokai – 84
Kahului, Maui – 86
Hilo, Hawaii – 83
Kailua-kona – 83
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level around the state – and on the highest mountains…at 5pm Tuesday evening:
Barking Sands, Kauai – 85F
Princeville, Kauai – 77
Haleakala Crater – 52 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 34 (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 Tuesday afternoon:
0.23 Mount Waialaele, Kauai
0.10 Moanalua RG, Oahu
0.00 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.14 West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.08 Mountain View, Big Island
Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a 1027 millibar high pressure system to our northeast. The trade wind flow will be slightly lighter Wednesday...then lighter into Thursday
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. Of course, as we know, our hurricane season won’t begin again until June 1st here in the central Pacific.
Aloha Paragraphs
Windward Oahu
As we began this new work week, our trade wind speeds were still on the strong and gusty side, which is pretty normal for this time of year. Wind gusts exceeded 30 mph generally, with a couple of the windier spots in the southern part of the island chain…surging past 40 mph at mid-day. The latest weather map shows a moderately strong 1026 millibar high pressure system to the northeast of our islands…moving eastward. There are a whole host of developing gale low pressure systems in the western Pacific, and a couple of lows up in the
As for rainfall, there isn’t expected to be much, and most of that for the time being, will fall along the windward coasts and slopes. The overlying atmosphere remains on the dry and stable side, as evidenced by the rather unimpressive rainfall totals lately. As the trade winds lose much of their strength by Thursday into the weekend, and perhaps even into early next week…we’ll see some shifting around of whatever showers that are around then. If the trade winds continue, even lightly, we could continue to see a few showery clouds moving over our windward sides. If on the other hand, the high pressure ridge migrates down right over the islands, we would be involved with a full on convective weather pattern. This implies that our mornings could start off clear to perhaps partly cloudy, and slightly cooler than normal. As the daytime heating kicks in, along with the light winds prompting afternoon clouds forming over and around the mountains…we could see some possible upcountry showers. Just how light the trade winds will become is still a question, and only time will tell us later this week. The way it looks from here either way though, the ongoing drought, to severe drought conditions…will continue into the future.
It’s Tuesday evening as I begin writing this last section of today’s narrative.
The trade winds hung on today, and will do so into mid-week. There were wind gusts up above 40 mph today in those windiest spots around Maui and the Big Island. Early Tuesday evening the strongest winds gusts around the state included: 35 mph on Oahu and Molokai; 39 mph on Kahoolawe, 36 mph on Maui and the Big Island. The winds are still blowing strong enough atop the summits on Maui and the Big Island, that wind advisories are in effect until at least Wednesday morning. ~~~ Looking out the window here in Kihei, Maui before I leave for the drive back upcountry to Kula, I see mostly clear skies. I expect just a few showers overnight, and generally nice weather again on Wednesday. The winds will still be up tomorrow, although the surf is coming down in most places. This will make for more great beach weather, as long as you get out there before the strongest winds kick in during the afternoon hours. I’ll be back early Wednesday morning with your next new weather narrative from paradise. I hope you have a great Tuesday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Extra: Weather Satellites
Interesting: Archey’s frog is a survivor: virtually unchanged evolutionarily for 150 million years, the species has survived the comet that decimated the dinosaurs, the Ice Age, and the splitting of continents. Seventy million years ago New Zealand broke away from Australia, essentially isolating Archey’s frog and its relatives from all predatory mammals.
Yet, if the New Zealand government has its way this species may not survive the century, let alone the next few decades. The New Zealand government has put forward a controversial proposal to begin opening three of the nation’s protected areas to mining: Great Barrier Island, Paparoa National Park, and Coromandel Peninsula where the last populations of Archey’s frogs live.
According to critics, the government’s proposal could push Archey’s frog toward extinction, while negatively impacting a number of other endangered species, beloved wild lands, and a nation driven by tourism.
The conservation organization EDGE considers the Archey’s frog to be a truly one-of-a-kind species. In fact, it is the organization’s top amphibian. "Archey’s New Zealand frog is an incredibly special animal and an asset to global biodiversity.
It is the world’s most Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered [EDGE] amphibian out of more than 6,500 species—or ‘Number 1 EDGE Amphibian’ for short," explains Helen Meredith, EDGE’s Amphibian coordinator.
"Archey’s frog is almost indistinguishable from the fossilized remains of frogs that lived 150 million years ago… These frogs were around before the Atlantic Ocean existed, and before the planet’s highest mountain range—the Himalayas—had even started to form."
New Zealand government: open protected areas for mining Named as EDGE’s number one amphibian means that Archey’s frog is not only an evolutionary treasure—representing the ancient origin of all modern frogs —but is also on the edge of extinction.
Struck by disease, alien predators, and climate change the IUCN Red List currently classifies the frog as Critically Endangered. Still the species survives—if not thrives; but conservationists are deeply concerned that the New Zealand government’s plans to open up three protected areas, all classified as Schedule Four, to mining would further imperil Archey’s frog as well as other endangered flora and fauna.
According to Nicola Vallance—an advocate with the local conservation organization Forest and Bird—New Zealand’s designation of Schedule Four "identifies conservation land, which due to its high conservation values, should be excluded from the possibility of being mined. This land includes national parks, nature reserves and scientific reserves—land considered to be core conservation land. About 40 percent of the conservation estate (13 percent of New Zealand’s landmass) is in Schedule Four."
Bishop, one of the world’s foremost experts on Archey’s frogs, is unequivocal on how the mining will impact the Critically Endangered frog: "the mining has the potential to push Archey’s over the edge and could drive them to extinction. They have already suffered a dramatic decline to less than 20 percent of their former distribution probably through disease, but if we destroy their habitat too there is no way they will be able to recover."
Interesting2: The air we breathe doesn’t always come from our own backyard. In fact, sometimes it doesn’t even come from our neighbors. On April 22, 2010, a NASA satellite captured the appearance of a large dust cloud over the eastern coast of United States that originated on the other side of the world — in China. "Dust can stimulate the production of more clouds, altering local weather and potentially the climate," said Zhoayan Liu, a researcher at the National Institute of Aerospace and NASA’s Langley Research Center who is monitoring the dust movement.
The dust cloud was in upper troposphere, the atmospheric layer in which we live. The dust plume that arrived in the U.S. maintained an average size of more than 1,200 miles wide and six miles tall as it traveled across the Earth. It began in China’s Taklimakan and Gobi Deserts, and over 10 days, NASA captured the dust moving across the Pacific Ocean, through the United States and Canada and over Virginia.
"It is likely that a cold front over the deserts generated strong surface winds that pushed a large amount of the dust into the atmosphere and from there the jet streams brought it across the world," said Liu. Liu and his colleagues at NASA discovered the relocation of the dust after analyzing data from Langley’s Earth observing satellite CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations).
It can be difficult to distinguish dust from regular clouds and other types of aerosols in photographs taken from space. CALIPSO, however, measures vertical profiles of the atmosphere and produces data that makes a distinction between the different particle types in our atmosphere, such as clouds, smoke, or dust. Not only can it tell scientists what is in our air, CALIPSO can also identify the vertical and horizontal location of the particles as well.
To validate what the satellite saw, NASA scientists took to the sky with the NASA King Air B200 aircraft and a lidar instrument similar to the one on CALIPSO. Aboard the plane, scientists were able to take the same measurements as CALIPSO over North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania. The local flights, which took place the same day and time that the satellite detected the dust, confirmed what the satellite observed.
"This transport of dust out of China happens every spring, but we rarely see it move this far with such intensity," said Raymond Rogers, a Langley scientist who participated in the local flights. The air is always made up of various kinds of particles, but it is uncommon that those particles relocate in such large amounts that can their origin can be visibly tracked.
Rogers and Liu said that using CALIPSO and local airborne measurements to monitor the presence of dust in our atmosphere will provide others with data that can be used to gain a better understanding of how dust impacts humans and ecosystems.
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