Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs / March 11-12, 2011

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

Lihue, Kauai –                   80
Honolulu airport, Oahu –   85
Kaneohe, Oahu –               77
Molokai airport –                81
Kahului airport, Maui –       85
Kona airport –                   84
Hilo airport, Hawaii –          81

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops…as of 5pm Saturday evening:

Honolulu, Oahu – 83F
Kaneohe, Oahu – 77

Haleakala Crater –     missing (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 43 (under 14,000 feet on the Big Island)

Precipitation Totals – The following numbers represent the largest precipitation totals Saturday afternoon:

0.99    Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.23    Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.00    Molokai
0.00    Lanai
0.00    Kahoolawe
0.18    West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.71    Laupahoehoe, Big Island

Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a trade wind producing high pressure system far east-northeast, with its ridge running back west…just to the north of the islands. Our trade winds will be light to moderately strong through this weekend into Monday…as a cold front moves by to the north.

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 web cam 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 web cams 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 ended November 30th here in the central Pacific…and begins again June 1st.

 Aloha Paragraphs

Nice weather this weekend
 
 

The trade winds will remain light to moderately strong into the new work week ahead…then pick up later Tuesday into Wednesday…becoming even stronger towards the end of the week.  According to this weather map, we find a high pressure center far to the east-northeast of the islands Saturday night. Our trade winds will remain on the lighter side of the wind spectrum for the time being. The outlook continues to show however, that we will see the trade winds picking up again Wednesday, becoming blustery Thursday into Friday.       

Light to moderately strong trade winds…the following numbers represent the strongest gusts, along with directions Saturday evening:

22 mph       Barking Sands, Kauai – SE
16              Kahuku, Oahu – NE
18              Molokai – NE
24              Kahoolawe – ESE
23              Kapalua, Maui – NE
10              Lanai Airport – NE
29                South Point, Big Island – NE

We can use the following links to see what’s going on in our area of the north central Pacific Ocean Saturday night. This large University of Washington satellite image shows rather extensive clouds far to our northwest and northeast, involved with an active cold fronts…up in the middle latitudes of the north central Pacific. At the same time there is thin line of high clouds to our south. Looking at this NOAA satellite picture, we see patches of low level clouds around the state. We can use this looping satellite image to see the high clouds to our north and south moving eastward, while the low clouds are moving westward in the trade winds. Checking out this looping radar image, shows that there are hardly any showers around, even in the ocean offshore from the islands.

The trade winds will prevail, although won't be strong and gusty through Monday, although will then increase again around next Tuesday or Wednesday...becoming strong and gusty Thursday and Friday.  We can expect light to moderately strong trade winds to prevail in general.  The computer models are showing a solid trade wind producing 1034 millibar high pressure system moving into the area north of the islands later Tuesday…then shifting eastward and strengthening. This type of high pressure system will increase our trade winds, likely back up into the strong realms. The models show that the winds will accelerate further during the second half of the new week. This will be strong enough to trigger the return of small craft wind advisories in our coastal and channel waters, perhaps even becoming strong enough to warrant wind advisories on a few islands…and perhaps even gale warnings in the the channels near Maui and the Big Island.

As noted above, the trade winds will continue, bringing generally fair weather conditions to the Hawaiian Islands. We'll have nice weather prevailing through the first several days of the new week too. As we move into the middle of the week however, we'll become more windy. At the same time, which is often the case with a surge in trade wind speeds…we'll see at least some increase in our windward biased showers. It's still too early to know how many showers will be around then, although we can say that the leeward sides will be generally dry, remaining pleasant for the most part. This could change a little between now and then, but again we have lots of time to fine tune this outlook as we move into the new week.

Last evening after a very big work day, with the Japanese earthquake and tsunami and all…I saw a film in Kahului. This great film was called The Adjustment Bureau, starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt…among many others. I feel very comfortable giving this new film a solid A grade, no doubt about it. By the way, the critics are giving it a B-, while the viewers are giving it a B rating, so I'm coming in quite a bit above that personally. It was entertaining from the first frame to the last, with nothing I didn't like about it. I've always liked Matt Damon, in all his various films, and I think that Emily Blunt did a fine acting job as well. The whole story wraps itself around their love affair, which was quite touching at times. The action was fast and furious throughout, which you regular readers will know that I don't mind in the least. I've been looking forward to seeing this film ever since I saw the first trailer, and found it thrilling. Here's the trailer in case you would like to take a peek.

I had a nice day, starting off with a long fast walk, followed by a trip down to Paia for my weekly food shopping excursion.  I've been hanging out since returning, doing some reading, although not much more than that. As noted above, our winds are going to be getting strong and gusty during the second half of the new week. The computer models have been pointing this out for several days now, and although they toned it down briefly for a day or two, it looks like windier weather will return. Saturday was such a great day, with dry conditions and sunny weather ruling. I'll be back again Sunday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Saturday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting: The most surprising thing about the magnitude-8.9 earthquake that hit Japan today is that it was a surprise. Despite what may be the world's most intensive effort to map faults and assess risks by a notoriously earthquake-prone and earthquake-conscious nation, such a strong quake was not anticipated for the region, says University of Tokyo geophysicist Robert Geller.

The earthquake occurred 130 kilometers east of Sendai and 373 kilometers northeast of Tokyo, along or very near the boundary between two tectonic plates, where the Pacific plate is being drawn under the Japanese islands. Movement along plate boundaries is known to be capable of producing major earthquakes.

And Japan's latest national seismic risk map gave a 99% chance of a magnitude-7.5 or greater quake occurring in that area in the next 30 years, Geller says. Although today's quake technically satisfies that prediction, the logarithmic scale used for measuring the power of earthquakes means that a magnitude-8.9 earthquake releases well over 100 times more energy than does a magnitude-7.5 quake.

"I don't think those hazard assessments are meaningful," Geller says. Geller believes the quake is the strongest to hit Japan since the start of reliable observations over a century ago. It is also more than 1000 times the force of the magnitude-6.3 quake that struck Christchurch, New Zealand, on 22 February.

Interesting2: University of Leicester geologists have recorded the impact of the earthquake, off the coast of Japan, using sophisticated equipment in the Department of Geology. The magnitude 8.9 earthquake east of Honshu on 11/3/11 was recorded on a SEIS-UK seismometer. It shows three traces that measure movement of Earth's surface in the vertical, north-south and east-west direction. SEIS-UK is part of the Natural Environment Research Council's Geophysical Equipment Facility.

Dr Richard England, senior lecturer in Geophysics at the University of Leicester, said: "Today's earthquake that occurred off the coast of Japan is unusually large. Only 1 or 2 earthquakes of this magnitude occur each year and when they occur they are not normally as close to the surface.

"While Japan is well prepared for even this type of earthquake, it will be some time before the full extent of the damage is known. Most of the devastation will have been caused by the resulting tsunami from the movement of the seafloor at the epicentre of the earthquake.

"The tsunami will be travelling out across the Pacific Ocean and warnings have been issued for the Hawaiian islands, the Philippines, the west coast of north and south America and the east coast of Australasia. Because the tsunami waves travel relatively slowly there will be time to evacuate coastal areas but low lying Pacific Ocean islands will be particularly at risk.

"In Japan the immediate danger will now be from continuing aftershocks. There was a M 7.1 event this morning which would normally be considered a strong earthquake. These 'smaller' events will still have the potential to generate small tsunami and further shake buildings and infrastructure already damaged, further delaying rescue and relief efforts. The aftershocks could continue for some time.

"Parallels have been drawn with the December 2004 earthquake off Sumatra. This earthquake is not quite as large but the cause, sudden movement along a subduction zone is the same. In this case the Eurasian plate has moved over the Pacific plate." Are these events becoming more common? Dr England says the answer to this is, no.

"The timing of Earthquakes is not predictable, although seismologists are getting better at being able to determine which areas are most at risk. The December 2004 event raised awareness of the possibility of major earthquakes and the devastating effects they can have on communities. As a result they are much better reported so everyone takes more notice when they occur."

Interesting3:  The first waves to hit Hawaii from a tsunami triggered by a massive earthquake off Japan washed up onshore at Waikiki on Friday, with no initial reports of any damage. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre reported wave changes at Waianae Harbour at around 3:24am on Friday (0024 AEDT Satudray), shortly before the relatively small waves were seen at Waikiki.

The Tsunami Warning Centre in Palmer, Alaska placed Hawaii and parts of the US West Coast under a warning following Japan's magnitude 8.9 earthquake, urging residents to stay tuned for more information on rising waves. "It's not going to be a major damaging event,'' said Gerard Fryer with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre as the surge began to hit, although he added there might be scattered damage.

Waves were measured at 48cm at Nawiliwili on the island of Kauai, according to officials at an emergency center in Honolulu. Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar. End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar. The warnings also affected coastal areas through Central and South America as well as the western rim of the Pacific.

US President Barack Obama said he was monitoring the tsunami threat to his home state of Hawaii and the US West Coast after expressing condolences to those killed in the earthquake and offering to aid Japan. "We are asking all our citizens in the affected region to listen to their state and local officials,'' he said in a statement.

"I have instructed FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) to be ready to assist Hawaii and the rest of the US states and territories that could be affected.'' Hawaii is about 6500km east of the epicentre of Friday's earthquake. Hawaii authorities were arranging buses to evacuate residents and opening evacuation centres.

"All residents in tsunami evacuation zones … should evacuate immediately,'' the emergency department said. Peter Carlisle, the mayor of the state capital Honolulu, told CNN authorities had ordered the evacuation based on the "worst-case scenario''. "One of the things about tsunamis is they're very, very unpredictable, and you can't tell how many waves there are going to be, which wave is going to be the one that is … going to cause the greatest damage.''

"It's a very, very difficult situation to confront.'' The US Pacific Fleet command said however that it would not be evacuating any personnel or sailing ships out of Pearl Harbour, on the southeastern side of Oahu Island, near Honolulu. "Projected wave assessments inside harbor indicate no need to sortie ships. Taking all measures to ensure ships secure in port,'' it said on the micro-blogging website Twitter.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, based in Ewa Beach, west of Honolulu, issued a widespread warning extending across virtually the entire Pacific Ocean, including Antarctica and South America. "A tsunami has been generated that could cause damage along coastlines of all islands in the state of Hawaii,'' the centre said. "Urgent action should be taken to protect lives and property.'' Waves heights cannot be predicted, and the first wave may not be the largest, it said.

Interesting4: One of Indonesia's most active volcanoes, Mount Karangetang, erupted Friday, sending lava and searing gas clouds down its slopes. The Washington Post reported that volcanology official Agus Budianto said authorities were still trying to evacuate residents living near the slopes of Mount Karangetang. There have not been immediate reports of injuries or damages.

The 1 784-meter mountain is located on Siau, part of the Sulawesi island chain. It last erupted in August, killing four people. The eruption occurred hours after a devastating 8.9-magnitude earthquake hit Japan and triggered a Pacific-wide tsunami. In November 2010, Indonesia's most dangerous volcano, Mount Merapi, erupted and killed at least 58 people and injured dozens.