June 29-30, 2010
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Tuesday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 84
Honolulu, Oahu – 85
Kaneohe, Oahu – 81
Kaunakakai, Molokai – 84
Kahului, Maui – 87
Hilo, Hawaii – 80
Kailua-kona – 84
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level around – and on the highest mountains…as of 5pm Tuesday evening:
Kaneohe, Oahu – 76
Hilo, Hawaii – 68
Haleakala Crater – 48 (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:
1.09 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.89 Moanalua RG, Oahu
0.09 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.04 Kahoolawe
0.24 West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.22 Mountain View, Big Island
Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing two near 1030 millibar high pressure systems generally to the north of the islands. Trade winds gradually increasing Wednesday 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 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
The lovely island of Kauai…Makua Beach
The trade winds are picking up now, remaining breezy through the rest of this week…into next week. Looking at this weather map, we see a pair of moderately strong high pressure systems, located generally to the north of our islands. As the winds are increasing now, small craft wind advisories have gone up in the coastal and channel waters around Maui and the Big Island. The computer models show the trade winds sticking around through the rest of this week…and likely right on into next week. This is very common as we finish off June, and head into the fully summer month of July.
Whatever showers that get carried our way on the trades…will end up on the windward sides primarily. Here’s an IR satellite image showing a batch of clouds heading towards Kauai….and then off to the west of that island during the night. As this looping radar image of the islands shows as well, there were some showers near kauai
The eastern Pacific Ocean has no active tropical cyclones Tuesday night.
Meanwhile, in the Gulf of Mexico we find that tropical storm Alex has recently become a category 1 hurricane in the western Gulf of Mexico…forecast to impact the Mexican coast Wednesday night or Thursday morning. Here’s the latest graphical track map…along with a satellite image. Otherwise, there are no active tropical cyclones elsewhere in the world.
It’s Tuesday evening as I begin writing this last section of today’s narrative update. As noted above, the trade winds have surged as expected. To get a sense of how strong they are as I finish off this work day, here’s the strongest gusts on each of the islands Tuesday evening:
Kauai – 27 mph
Oahu – 33
Molokai – 31
Lanai – 23
Kahoolawe – 39
Maui – 39
Big Island – 30
These aren’t all that impressive, although are pretty solid for the evening hours. We saw some gusts today reaching 40 mph, and I’m quite sure there will be gusts above that mark on Wednesday and Thursday…probably right on into the upcoming holiday weekend. We have somehat drier air coming our way now, so that our shower activity, even on the windward sides, will be rather limited. ~~~ Here in Kihei before I leave for the drive upcountry to Kula, it’s clear to partly cloudy, a nice time to head down to some local beach, with perhaps a cocktail in hand, if you’re over 21 that is, to enjoy the sunset. I’ll be back early Wednesday morning with your next new weather narrative. I hope you have a great Tuesday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Extra: A satellite loop of hurricane Alex…in the southwest Gulf of Mexico.
Interesting: Reducing the consumption of meat and dairy products and improving agricultural practices could decrease global greenhouse gas emissions substantially. By 2055 the emissions of methane and nitrous oxide from agriculture could be cut by more than eighty percent, researchers of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research find. The results of the modeling study have recently been published in the journal Global Environmental Change.
"Meat and milk really matter," says Alexander Popp of PIK. "Reduced consumption could decrease the future emissions of nitrous oxide and methane from agriculture to levels below those of 1995," explains the first author of the study. In the past, agricultural emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly methane and nitrous oxide, have increased steadily. In 2005 they accounted for 14 percent of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.
"Besides the conscious choice of food on the consumers’ side there are technical mitigation options on the producers’ side to reduce emissions significantly," says Popp. The researchers used a global land use model to assess the impact of future changes in food consumption and diet shifts, but also of technological mitigation options on agricultural greenhouse gas emissions up to 2055.
The global model combines information on population, income, food demand, and production costs with spatially explicit environmental data on potential crop yields. The calculations show that global agricultural non-carbon dioxide (non-CO2) emissions increase significantly until 2055 if food energy consumption and diet preferences remain constant at the level of 1995.
Taking into account changing dietary preferences towards higher value foods, like meat and milk, associated with higher income, emissions will rise even more. In contrast, reducing the demand for livestock products by 25 percent each decade from 2015 to 2055, leads to lower non-CO2 emissions even compared to 1995. Furthermore, there are technological mitigation options to decrease emissions significantly.
However, these technological mitigation options are not as effective as changes in food consumption. The highest reduction potential could be achieved by a combination of both approaches, the researchers report. Compared to a scenario that takes population growth and an increase in the demand for livestock products into account, emissions of methane and nitrous oxide could be cut by 84 percent in 2055.
However, livestock products are very valuable for nutrition as they contributed globally an average of one third of protein to dietary intakes in 2003. For many poor and undernourished people in the developing world who frequently suffer from protein deficiencies livestock products are important parts of food consumption. In contrast, less meat-oriented diets in the developed regions would have positive health effects, the authors note.
Agricultural, non-carbon dioxide non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions consist mainly of methane and nitrous oxide. Nitrous oxide is about 300 and methane about 20 times more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. Agricultural emissions originate from the use of synthetic fertilizers on croplands and from flooded rice fields.
Because animal products require large amounts of fodder crops, livestock production is connected to higher emissions from fertilizer application. Additional livestock emissions occur due to manure excretion, management and application and methane producing microbes in ruminants’ digestive systems.
Interesting2: Cyclical changes in atmospheric pressure and sea surface temperature in the North Atlantic Ocean affect drought in the Sahel region on the southern Sahara rim. This has been revealed in an international study carried out by researchers from the University of Haifa, the French National Meteorological Service, Columbia University and the University of San Diego.
The study was published recently in the scientific journal Atmospheric Science Letters. That climate variability in one region can have an effect on more distant areas is known in the climate research literature — the challenge being to locate these far-connections and understand their projections.
The current study, co-authored by Dr. Shlomit Paz of the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Haifa, analyzed a number of climate parameters in the North Atlantic over the 20th century, including atmospheric pressure at sea level and sea surface temperature.
They revealed two "natural climate signals": a multi-decadal signal of a period exceeding 40 years, and a quasi-decadal signal with periodicity ranging from 8 to 14 years. These two signals may cancel or enhance one another. In order to establish these findings, the scientists compared them with climactic fluctuations as observed in coral and tree-ring studies, by which the temperature values of the past few hundred years can be reconstructed.
The signals were identified in this case too. Next the researchers identified a correlation between the cyclical waves and droughts in the Sahel region: When the Atlantic Ocean cools, there are droughts in the region, and when the Ocean temperature rises, rain returns to the Sahel region. They also found that during drought periods in the Sahel, the force of hurricanes in the Atlantic drops; and vice versa.
This is not merely a theoretical study, Dr. Paz explains. The Sahel region suffered drought over more than 20 years, from the 1970s to the mi-1990s, which caused deep environmental and social crises, such as hunger, civilian desertion, ethnic conflicts, and more. In 2007 the UN published a report stating that the situation in Darfur was intensified by the ongoing drought in the Sahel region and its surroundings.
This study contributes to information availability for climatic models, thereby improving their prediction capability. The researchers are currently investigating whether current human activity has an impact on these phenomena and are examining the effects of the signals on today’s climate in Europe. They note that the thermal imbalance caused by urban development makes the research more challenging.
"Today we are able to gain a better understanding of how the oceans play an important role in the earth’s ‘climate memory’. Once we become familiar with the natural signals, we will be able to better understand how the human factor correlates with climate," Dr. Paz states.
Email Glenn James: 
mark Says:
Beautiful photo of “Tunnels” beach.
Please refer to true name: Makua beach. Mahalo.~~~Thanks for the clarification Mark, changed. Aloha, Glenn