Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs / March 2-3, 2011

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

Lihue, Kauai –                   80
Honolulu airport, Oahu –     80
Kaneohe, Oahu –               75
Molokai airport –                77
Kahului airport, Maui –        82
Kona airport –                      82
Hilo airport, Hawaii –          77

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

Kailua-kona – 80F
Kaneohe, Oahu – 70

Haleakala Crater –     missing (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 41 (under 14,000 feet on the Big Island)

Precipitation Totals – The following numbers represent the largest precipitation totals Wednesday evening:

0.14    Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.26    Olomana, Oahu
0.00    Molokai
0.00    Lanai
0.00    Kahoolawe
0.26    West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.41    Kawainui Stream, Big Island

Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a high pressure ridge north of the islands. Our winds will gradually swing around to the southeast, south and southwest Thursday into Friday…becoming locally strong and gusty.

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 ends November 30th here in the central Pacific.

 Aloha Paragraphs

Increasing clouds, showers and
wind into Thursday and Friday –
some of this will be heavy and blustery…
especially later Thursday into Friday.
Small craft advisory, high wind watch
summits of Maui and the Big Island,
gale warning offshore waters

Winds will shift around to the south and southeast Wednesday night, which will veer to the southwest Thursday into Friday.  According to this weather map, we find a ridge of high pressure north of the islands. This ridge was responsible for bringing a light to moderately strong wind flow over us recently. As a trough of low pressure, and its associated cold front approaches Kauai and Oahu, we'll find stronger winds developing from the south and southwest ahead of it. As expected, these winds will become blustery, coming ashore along our south and west facing coasts and slopes…called Kona winds. These winds will bring rough and choppy conditions to these typically more placid waters during the winter months. Winds in the wake of the front will be northeast later this weekend…lasting into the early part of next week.

Winds will be generally light to moderately strong…the following numbers represent the strongest gusts, along with directions Wednesday evening:

25 mph        Port Allen, Kauai – E
18              Kahuku, Oahu – WNW
10              Molokai – NE
25                Kahoolawe –SE
16              Lipoa, Maui – SE
15              Lanai Airport – NE
25                South Point, Big Island – NNE

We can use the following links to see what’s going on in our area of the north central Pacific Ocean Wednesday night. This large University of Washington satellite image shows lots of high and middle level clouds to the west through north, as it now begins to move over the Hawaiian Islands with more force. Looking at this NOAA satellite picture, we see generally partly to mostly cloudy skies, a combination of high and low level clouds…although with some rain clouds on the horizon adding into the mix.  We can use this looping satellite image to see those clouds to our west continuing to stream in our direction, which will increase over the next several days. Checking out this looping radar image, it shows that we're beginning to see some light to moderately heavy showers heading towards the islands. They were mostly over the ocean at the time of this writing, although likely the islands will find an increase in showers overnight locally.

As has been the case for the last several days, the models remain insistent in deepening a trough of low pressure to our west. This trough continue to edge further east, and we can see evidence of that in all the cloudiness out to the west of Hawaii. This trough will have an embedded cold front at the surface, which will reach Kauai Friday, and then stall somewhere towards Maui on Saturday. This trough and front combination is expected to bring increasingly strong Kona winds, along with locally heavy showers to Kauai and Oahu, and likely to a lesser extent for the other islands into Saturday.

Trade winds will follow in the wake of the cold front on Sunday, keeping the windward sides off and on showery into early next week. The leeward sides will probably have decent weather in contrast, although this will depend upon the direction and strength of the following winds. Often if these trade winds are northeast, as they have been through the last several days, and happen to be on the stronger side of the wind spectrum…some showers could be carried over into the south and west leeward sides on the smaller islands. The Big Island will be immune from these showers, as there isn’t a clear path (low elevation corridor) from the windward to the leeward sides there.

~~~ Here in Kihei, Maui at around 530pm Wednesday evening, skies were partly sunny, with just a light breeze. As I was writing above, all this is going to be changing, as we push into Thursday and Friday. Winds will perhaps will be the main event, although locally heavy rains could give the winds a run for their money! The winds may be most strong and gusty from Oahu down through Maui, while the rains may be most heavy from Kauai to Oahu. Do you note a degree of the unknown? Well, yes I do have some uncertainty, although those are the small details concerning…"how much and where." The main thing here is that we're going to be dipping back into a winter reality, with lots of clouds, locally lots of rain, and windy weather too. Things will start off rather mildly tonight, as the first round of generally light rains fall here and there. Then, later Thursday into Friday, things should pick up, with more water falling from the sky…along with lots of air in a hurry! I'll be back early Thursday morning with your next new outlook on this unfolding wet and windy reality. I hope you have a great Wednesday night until then! One more thing, now that I'm home in Kula, I see that as the winds are swinging around to the southeast and south, they are carrying volcanic haze up over Maui. Aloha for now…Glenn.  

Extra: As I've been doing lately, here's the statistics for this website during the month of February: there were 427,181 page impressions, according to google. At the same time, there were 9,434 clicks on the google ads…which is a way that I make a few bucks in return for putting in my time. Adding January into this mix, there were about 1 million visits to this site in about 60 days…which is approximately 16,666 visits a day. Considering that I'm maintaining Hawaii Weather Today by myself, I'm honestly very happy with the so called traffic that uses this weather information.

Traffic isn't the right word of course, as I don't consider you folks as traffic. I consider my visitors as guests, and in many cases as friends…even though I haven't personally met most of you. Nonetheless, the point of all this is really just to thank you, to sincerely thank you for trusting this site, and according to your emails…even enjoying your visits! Aloha, Glenn.

Interesting: Today, the U.S. government launched what's being billed as the largest study ever conducted of how an oil spill affects human health. The Gulf Long-Term Follow-Up Study will survey Gulf of Mexico residents who helped with the cleanup of last year's Deepwater Horizon oil spill and follow them for at least 5 years.

The $19 million study by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) will contact people known to have been involved in the gulf cleanup efforts and ask them to undergo physical examinations and fill out questionnaires about their health.

This direct approach will be more encompassing than simply relying on extant medical records, principal investigator Dale Sandler, head of the epidemiology branch at NIEHS, explained at a teleconference today. "People might not be complaining, they might just feel lousy and not report it," she says.

The study team plans to contact 100,000 people with the goal of enrolling 55,000 in the study. The first letters will go out today, and efforts will ramp up in April. The questionnaire and findings will also be accessible on the study's Web site. "We're trying to set an example for doing research in daylight," Sandler said.

The National Institutes of Health will put up about $19 million, including $8 million from a special fund for crosscutting initiatives managed by NIH Director Francis Collins, and $6 million from BP, which played no part in the study's design and will not be involved in analyzing the results.

Interesting2: The World Bank has offered Tanzania an alternative to stop a major road project across the Serengeti national park that conservationists say threatens one of Africa's biggest wildlife spectacles. Conservation groups say the government's planned highway through the northern edge of the Serengeti would hinder the annual migration of some 2 million wildebeest.

The World Bank's John Murray McIntire said it was ready to help the east African nation in financing an alternative route for the road that would otherwise cut through the park.

"The World Bank is proposing alternatives that we believe will achieve Tanzania's development objectives while preserving the unique character of the Serengeti as part of the world's environmental heritage," the World Bank country director for Tanzania, Uganda, and Burundi, told Reuters in an emailed response to questions.

He said the World Bank could finance an alternative road through new development assistance to the country, dependent on officials making the request. Tanzania's tourism earnings jumped by 11.3 percent in 2010 to $1.28 billion, with the Serengeti attracting the biggest number of visitors among the east African country's national parks.

International conservation groups such as the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Zoological Society of London have campaigned to stop the construction of the highway, asking the Tanzanian government to consider other options. President Jakaya Kikwete has defended his government's plan, saying the project would not hurt the Serengeti.

Interesting3: Compared to people in employment, men and women who are unemployed suffer more often and longer from both physical and emotional complaints. Why the unemployed should have health problems more often is discussed by Lars E. Kroll and his coauthor in the current issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International, along with a report on the findings of the GEDA study.

The GEDA study (Gesundheit in Deutschland Aktuell, or Current Health in Germany) was carried out in 2008-2009 by the Robert Koch Institute. The results showed that unemployed people between the ages of 30 and 59 years are especially often affected by physical, emotional, and functional impairments such as sleep disorders, anxiety disorders, and substance addictions.

As a result, the unemployed make more use of the health care system. The health consequences of unemployment result from loss of income, loss of social contacts in the workplace, or loss of social reputation. Unemployed men and women who are supported by their partners, family members, or friends are less frequently affected by these complaints.

Interesting4: In times of uncertainty employers should engage more openly with their staff and drop the jargon to improve communication and allow feedback, according to a paper in this month's International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management. D. Keith Denton of the Department of Management, at Missouri State University, in Springfield, suggests that it is essential for companies that wish to survive economic strife to create an atmosphere of trust in these untrusting times.

He says that, "Companies with high-trust levels give employees unvarnished information about company's performance and explain the rationale behind management decisions. They are also unafraid of sharing bad news and admitting mistakes." However, companies must also take note of employee input for improving the work climate. "Lack of good communication leads to distrust, dissatisfaction, cynicism and turnover," he adds.

A study by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) published in HR Magazine (2008) reports that communication between employees and senior management is among the top five most important indicators of job satisfaction.

Employers should be able to spot the signs: "If there is a high level of engagement, the leader can expect that members of the group will express their feelings, concerns, opinions and thoughts more openly," Denton explains.

"Conversely, if trust is low, members are more likely to be evasive, competitive, devious, defensive or uncertain in their actions with one another." Senior management must communicate directly with employees so that they understand business goals, policies and the company's vision and, most importantly, the company's status.

But, when communication breaks down, through conscious or subconscious misunderstandings disorganization ensues, a lack of clear goals becomes apparent and employee commitment wanes. Denton suggests that numerous channels are available, bulletin boards, intranets, newsletters and email all of which can be effective.

But research shows that "face-to-face communication" stands out above all others. "One-on-one conversations and small group meetings take time, but are well worth the investment. It is the only place where true dialogue can and does occur," he concludes.