Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Tuesday:
Lihue, Kauai – 80
Honolulu airport, Oahu – 84
Kaneohe, Oahu – 79
Molokai airport – 82
Kahului airport, Maui – 82
Kona airport – 83
Hilo airport, Hawaii – 74
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops…as of 5pm Tuesday evening:
Honolulu, Oahu – 81F
Hilo, Hawaii – 71
Haleakala Crater – missing (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 36 (over 13,500 feet on the Big Island)
Precipitation Totals – The following numbers represent the largest precipitation totals Tuesday evening:
0.47 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.23 Palisades, Oahu
0.00 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
1.63 West Wailuaiki, Maui
1.09 Piihonua, Big Island
Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a large 1032 millibar high pressure system to the northeast of Hawaii. Our trade winds will be active through 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 web cam on the summit of near 13,500 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
Trade winds…rising north and west shore surf
The trade winds will remain active through the end of this work week. According to this weather map, we find a large 1032 millibar high pressure system to the northeast of the islands Tuesday night. The small craft wind advisory flags remain up over those windiest areas around Maui County and the Big Island. These trades will carry showers our way at times…mainly around Maui and the Big Island for the moment. Somewhat drier weather in general may arrive Wednesday, lasting into the weekend. Whatever showers that do fall will end up along our windward coasts and slopes, leaving the leeward areas with nice dry weather. The one exception could be the upcountry areas above the Kona coast, where a few afternoon showers could fall.
Trade winds will continue…the following numbers represent the strongest gusts, along with directions early Tuesday evening:
25 mph Port Allen, Kauai – ESE
22 Waianae, Oahu – W
18 Molokai – NE
35 Kahoolawe – ESE
36 Kahului, Maui – NE
07 Lanai Airport – NW
36 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 Tuesday night. This large University of Washington satellite image shows high cirrus clouds to the south of the islands, with a few streaks near the Big Island. Looking northward, we see a large swath of high clouds, associated with an active early season cold front. Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we see those high clouds just to the south of the Big Island, with the rest of the state quite clear. We can use this looping satellite image to see that large area of high clouds just to our south…moving along in the upper air currents towards the northeast. Some of this stuff could easily move a bit further north into the state with time. Checking out this looping radar image shows generally light showers falling over the ocean and over some parts of the islands too…generally on the windward sides. At the time of this writing we see the most compact area of showers to the southeast of the Big Island.
As noted above, the trade winds will blow through the rest of this work week, although are expected to slack off some this weekend. Conditions will remain favorable through the rest of the week, at least for the most part. The cold front that’s catching our attention, thanks to the computer weather models, remains in the outlook. There is still a fair amount of uncertainty about exactly what it will do. It appears that the western islands of Kauai and Oahu would receive the bulk of the rainfall. The other islands could see some showers too, along with some possible volcanic haze…if the winds swing around to the southeast ahead of the front's arrival. The rainfall intensity will depend upon whether an upper level low pressure system approaches at the same time as the cold front, in which case…there could localized heavier rainfall.
Here in Kihei, Maui, at 530pm Tuesday evening, skies were mostly clear…with the trade winds blowing nicely. As I was mentioning this morning, there is a large northwest swell that will bring pounding surf to our north and west facing beaches during the day Wednesday, lasting into Thursday. We now have a NWS issued high surf advisory that has been issued for the islands of Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Molokai and Maui, beginning at noon Wednesday. There will be larger than normal waves breaking along all of the islands, at least on the north and west facing beaches…so that caution should be used when getting near the ocean in these areas. Otherwise, our weather will be decent through the rest of the week. The windward side of the Big Island remained cool, cloudy and showery today. As a matter of fact, the high temperature today in Hilo was only 74F degrees, which is cooler than normal. Looking back in the record books, we find that the lowest maximum temperature for the date was 71 degrees, back in 1964. In contrast, the warmest high temperature around the state today was 84 degrees in Honolulu. ~~~ I'm ready to take the drive back upcountry to Kula, and will 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.
Interesting: Wind is a much more powerful force in the evolution of mountains than previously thought, according to a new report from a University of Arizona-led research team. Bedrock in Central Asia that would have formed mountains instead was sand-blasted into dust, said lead author Paul Kapp.
"No one had ever thought that wind could be this effective," said Kapp, a UA associate professor of geosciences. "You won't read in a textbook that wind is a major process in terms of breaking down rock material."
Rivers and glaciers are the textbook examples of forces that wear down mountains and influence their evolution. Wind can be just as powerful, Kapp said. He and his colleagues estimate wind can be 10 to 100 times more effective in eroding mountains than previously believed.
The team's paper, "Wind erosion in the Qaidam basin, central Asia: implications for tectonics, paleoclimate, and the source of the Loess Plateau," is in the April/May issue of GSA Today.
Interesting2: The town of Sedgwick, Maine, population 1,012 (according to the 2000 census), has become the first town in the United States to pass a Food Sovereignty ordinance. In doing so, the town declared their right to produce and sell local foods of their choosing, without the oversight of State or federal regulation. What does this mean?
In the debate over raw milk, for example, the law opens the gate for consumer and producer to enter a purchasing agreement without interference from state or federal health regulators. According to the Mayo Clinic, a 1987 FDA regulation required that all milk be pasteurized to kill pathogens such as salmonella and E. coli.
The Sedgwick ordinance declares that: Producers or processors of local foods in the Town of Sedgwick are exempt from licensure and inspection provided that the transaction is only between the producer or processor and a patron when the food is sold for home consumption.
This includes any producer or processor who sells his or her products at farmers' markets or roadside stands; sells his or her products through farm-based sales directly to a patron; or delivers his or her products directly to patrons. In short, the ordinance allows buyer and seller to enter their own agreement which overrides the regulation of government when dealing with transactions involving local foods.
Interesting3: Stigma against overweight people is becoming a cultural norm around the world, even in places where larger bodies have traditionally been valued. That's according to a cross-cultural study of attitudes toward obesity to be published in the April issue of Current Anthropology.
Researchers from Arizona State University surveyed people in nine diverse locations around the world and found negative attitudes toward fat bodies in every one. The results suggest a rapid "globalization of fat stigma" in which overweight people are increasingly viewed as ugly, undesirable, lazy, or lacking in self control, the researchers say.
In the U.S., slim bodies have been idealized and fat ones stigmatized for several decades. But that has not been true of the rest of the world, says Alexandra Brewis, a biological anthropologist and one of the study's authors.
"Previously, a wide range of ethnographic studies have shown that many human societies preferred larger, plumper bodies," Dr. Brewis said. "Plump bodies represented success, generosity, fertility, wealth, and beauty." But those fat-positive values are quickly giving way to a more negative Western way of looking at obesity, such as symbolizing personal failing.
The researchers surveyed people in Mexico, Argentina, Paraguay, the U.S., and the U.K. Also included were American Samoa, Puerto Rico, and Tanzania — cultures that have traditionally been thought of as fat-positive. People were asked if they agreed or disagreed with a series of statements about body size.
Some statements were fat-negative ("Fat people are lazy"), others were fat-positive ("A big woman is a beautiful woman"). The responses across these diverse cultures were largely congruent with Western attitudes, the researchers found.
What's more, the highest fat stigma scores were not in the U.S. or the U.K., "but rather Mexico, Paraguay, and — perhaps most surprisingly — in American Samoa," the researchers write.
The change in attitudes in American Samoa has happened with remarkable speed, says Dr. Brewis. "When I was doing research in the Samoas in the 1990s, we found people starting to take on thinner body ideals, but they didn't yet have discrediting ideas about large bodies," she said.
"But that appears to be changing very quickly." "People from sites that have adopted fat-negative attitudes more recently seem to be more strident," said cultural anthropologist Amber Wutich, another of the study's authors.
"The late adopters were more likely to agree with the most judgmental statements like 'fat people are lazy.'" The study didn't test what is driving this rapid shift in attitude, but the researchers say that "newer forms of educational media, including global public health campaigns" may be playing a role.
Dr. Brewis said the findings reveal another dimension to the global obesity epidemic. "There are now more overweight than underweight people around the world," she said. "Our results show that this rapid growth in obesity isn't just a concern because it can undermine health.
As more people globally gain weight, we also need to be as concerned about the profound emotional suffering that comes with these types of prejudicial ideas about big bodies taking hold."
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