June 3-4, 2010
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Thursday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 83
Honolulu, Oahu – 85
Kaneohe, Oahu – 82
Kaunakakai, Molokai – 82
Kahului, Maui – 85
Hilo, Hawaii – 84
Kailua-kona – 81
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level around the state – and on the highest mountains…at 5pm Thursday evening:
Honolulu, Oahu – 82F
Molokai airport – 77
Haleakala Crater – 61 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 45 (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:
0.08 Mount Waialaele, Kauai
0.01 Kahuku, Oahu
0.00 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.04 West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.10 Kawainui Stream, Big Island
Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a high pressure ridge running east to west, to the north of the Hawaiian Islands. The trade wind flow will remain light Friday into Saturday…locally stronger.
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
Hawaiian Plumeria Flowers
The late spring trade winds will remain lighter than normal through the rest of this week…then strengthen again as we move into early next week. The current thought is that the trade winds, while weakening…won’t go away completely by any means. This weather map shows an elongated ridge of high pressure running more or less west to east, to the north of the islands. There are a series of low pressure systems, connected by their associated cold fronts, to the north of this ridge…anchored to the west and east by two weak high pressure cells. As these lows and fronts, called cyclone families in the weather business, move along in the prevailing westerly wind flow, to the north of the ridge, they will push the ridge down a bit closer to
The trade winds will bring a few light showers our way, particularly along the windward sides…otherwise it should remain generally dry for the time being. There are lots of stable cumulus and stratocumulus clouds around the islands Thursday morning…although they burned off nicely during the afternoon hours. This satellite image shows the general lack of clouds as move into the night. If we pull our view back even further, using this satellite picture, we see active thunderstorm cells firing off well down to the south and southwest of our islands. These cumulonimbus clouds have streaks of high cirrus being carried off by the upper winds aloft towards our islands. As the trade winds continue, only in a softer fashion, there will be a few passing showers, generally along our windward coasts and slopes. As the overlying atmosphere is so dry and stable however, it would be surprising to see more than a few showers. As we move into the Sunday-Monday time frame, an upper level low pressure system may edge closer, and in the process…enhance some of these showers then for several days.
It’s Thursday evening as I begin writing the last section of today’s narrative.
The trade winds remained stronger than I anticipated today, and were actually quite strong and gusty in many places. At around 5pm this evening, the strongest gusts were still reaching the 30 mph mark on almost all the islands. The clouds will increase again tonight, although it appears the Big Island and perhaps Maui will have the most…generally over the windward sides. There’s an area of high cirrus clouds migrating northward towards the islands, and at the time of this writing, the northern edge of these icy upper level clouds were just south of the Big Island. ~~~ During much of the day Thursday, we had quite a coverage of dry stable low clouds over the islands. As we moved into the afternoon hours however, most of those evaporated totally away…as expected. Looking up towards the Haleakala Crater again this evening, there are a few thin clouds, although its mostly clear up that way. Most of the state actually turned mostly clear as we headed towards sunset. I’ll be back before sunrise again on Friday, with your next new weather narrative. I hope you have a great Thursday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting: The stimulatory effects of caffeine may be nothing more than an illusion, according to new research that shows there is no real benefit to be gained from the habitual morning cup of coffee. Tests on 379 individuals who abstained from caffeine for 16 hours before being given either caffeine or a placebo and then tested for a range of responses showed little variance in levels of alertness.
The study, published online in the journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, reports that frequent coffee drinkers develop a tolerance to both the anxiety-producing effects and the stimulatory effects of caffeine. While frequent consumers may feel alerted by coffee, evidence suggests that this is actually merely the reversal of the fatiguing effects of acute caffeine withdrawal.
And given the increased propensity to anxiety and raised blood pressure induced by caffeine consumption, there is no net benefit to be gained. Peter Rogers, from the University of Bristol’s Department of Experimental Psychology and one of the lead authors of the study, said: "Our study shows that we don’t gain an advantage from consuming caffeine — although we feel alerted by it, this is caffeine just bringing us back to normal.
On the other hand, while caffeine can increase anxiety, tolerance means that for most caffeine consumers this effect is negligible." Approximately half of the participants were non/low caffeine consumers and the other half were medium/high caffeine consumers. All were asked to rate their personal levels of anxiety, alertness and headache before and after being given either the caffeine or the placebo.
They were also asked to carry out a series of computer tasks to test for their levels of memory, attentiveness and vigilance. The medium/high caffeine consumers who received the placebo reported a decrease in alertness and an increase in headache, neither of which were reported by those who received caffeine. However, their post-caffeine levels of alertness were no higher than the non/low consumers who received a placebo, suggesting caffeine only brings coffee drinkers back up to ‘normal’.
The authors also found that the genetic predisposition to anxiety did not deter coffee drinking. In fact, people with the gene variant associated with anxiety tended to consume slightly larger amounts of coffee than those without the variant, suggesting that a mild increase in anxiety may be a part of the pleasant buzz caused by caffeine.
Interesting2: In the first peer-reviewed scientific paper to be published about the Icelandic volcano since its eruption in April 2010, UK researchers write that the ash plume which hovered over Scotland carried a significant and self-renewing electric charge. The volcano-chasing researchers argue this adds a further dimension to understanding the detailed nature of volcanic plumes and their effects on air travel.
The paper, to be published today, Thursday 27 May, in IOP Publishing’s Environmental Research Letters, is published as the UK continues to face the possibility of further flight disruption from future volcanic activity. Shortly after the volcano’s active eruption phase began in mid-April, the Met Office contacted Joseph Ulanowski from the Science and Technology Research Institute at the University of Hertfordshire, who last year, together with Giles Harrison from the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading, had developed a specialist weather balloon which could assess the location and composition of the volcanic ash clouds.
Their balloons, originally designed and used to study the properties of desert dust clouds, are able to assess not only the size of atmospheric particles but also the electric charge present. Measurements made last year with the balloons in Kuwait and off the west coast of Africa showed clearly that desert dust could become strongly electrified aloft. Charging modifies particle behavior, such as how effectively particles grow and are removed by rain.
A hastily scrambled team travelled to a site near Stranraer in Scotland where a balloon was launched, detecting a layer of volcanic ash 4km aloft, about 600m thick, with very abrupt upper and lower edges. From their measurements, the researchers conclude that neither energy from the volcanic source – more than 1200 kilometers away – nor weather conditions could have been responsible for the position of the charge found by the balloon.
Interesting3: Oil from the BP spilling into the Gulf of Mexico could float around Florida and up the U.S. East Coast as far as North Carolina, the National Center for Atmospheric Research said on Thursday. Citing computer models, scientists at the federally-funded center said in a statement that the oil could reach Florida’s Atlantic Coast within weeks and could move as far north as Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. "I’ve had a lot of people ask me, ‘Will the oil reach Florida?’"
NCAR scientist Synte Peacock said in the statement. "Actually, our best knowledge says the scope of this environmental disaster is likely to reach far beyond Florida, with impacts that have yet to be understood." The center’s statement said the study is not a forecast because it is not possible to accurately predict where the oil will be weeks or months from now.
However, the computer simulations of the oil’s movement "provide an envelope of possible scenarios for the oil dispersal." Where and when the oil will move depends on regional weather conditions and the Gulf of Mexico’s Loop Current, the statement said.
Interesting4: Less ice covers the Arctic today than at any time in recent geologic history. That’s the conclusion of an international group of researchers, who have compiled the first comprehensive history of Arctic ice. For decades, scientists have strived to collect sediment cores from the difficult-to-access Arctic Ocean floor, to discover what the Arctic was like in the past. Their most recent goal: to bring a long-term perspective to the ice loss we see today.
Now, in an upcoming issue of Quarternary Science Reviews, a team led by Ohio State University has re-examined the data from past and ongoing studies — nearly 300 in all — and combined them to form a big-picture view of the pole’s climate history stretching back millions of years. "The ice loss that we see today — the ice loss that started in the early 20th Century and sped up during the last 30 years — appears to be unmatched over at least the last few thousand years," said Leonid Polyak, a research scientist at Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University.
Polyak is lead author of the paper and a preceding report that he and his coauthors prepared for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program. Satellites can provide detailed measures of how much ice is covering the pole right now, but sediment cores are like fossils of the ocean’s history, he explained. "Sediment cores are essentially a record of sediments that settled at the sea floor, layer by layer, and they record the conditions of the ocean system during the time they settled.
When we look carefully at various chemical and biological components of the sediment, and how the sediment is distributed — then, with certain skills and luck, we can reconstruct the conditions at the time the sediment was deposited." For example, scientists can search for a biochemical marker that is tied to certain species of algae that live only in ice. If that marker is present in the sediment, then that location was likely covered in ice at the time.
Scientists call such markers "proxies" for the thing they actually want to measure — in this case, the geographic extent of the ice in the past. While knowing the loss of surface area of the ice is important, Polyak says that this work can’t yet reveal an even more important fact: how the total volume of ice — thickness as well as surface area — has changed over time. "Underneath the surface, the ice can be thick or thin.
The newest satellite techniques and field observations allow us to see that the volume of ice is shrinking much faster than its area today. The picture is very troubling. We are losing ice very fast," he said. "Maybe sometime down the road we’ll develop proxies for the ice thickness. Right now, just looking at ice extent is very difficult." To review and combine the data from hundreds of studies, he and his cohorts had to combine information on many different proxies as well as modern observations.
They searched for patterns in the proxy data that fit together like pieces of a puzzle. Their conclusion: the current extent of Arctic ice is at its lowest point for at least the last few thousand years. As scientists pull more sediment cores from the Arctic, Polyak and his collaborators want to understand more details of the past ice extent and to push this knowledge further back in time.
During the summer of 2011, they hope to draw cores from beneath the Chukchi Sea, just north of the Bering Strait between Alaska and Siberia. The currents emanating from the northern Pacific Ocean bring heat that may play an important role in melting the ice across the Arctic, so Polyak expects that the history of this location will prove very important.
He hopes to drill cores that date back thousands of years at the Chukchi Sea margin, providing a detailed history of interaction between oceanic currents and ice. "Later on in this cruise, when we venture into the more central Arctic Ocean, we will aim at harvesting cores that go back even farther," he said. "If we could go as far back as a million years, that would be perfect."
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