Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs / March 6-7, 2011

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

Lihue, Kauai –                   80
Honolulu airport, Oahu –     82
Kaneohe, Oahu –               78
Molokai airport –                79
Kahului airport, Maui –        82
Kona airport –                      83
Hilo airport, Hawaii –          83

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

Port Allen, Kauai – 81F
Hilo, Oahu – 74

Haleakala Crater –     missing (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 32 (under 14,000 feet on the Big Island)

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

2.28    Mount Waialeale, Kauai
4.07    Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.14    Molokai
0.05    Lanai
0.03    Kahoolawe
3.06    Puu Kukui, Maui
1.89    Kawainui Stream, Big Island

Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing the tail-end of a weakening cold front now to the northeast of the state. At the same time we have a trade wind producing high pressure system to the northeast. Our trade winds will remain active Monday and Tuesday.

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

Trade wind weather pattern

The trade winds are back, lasting through the next week…varying in strength day to day. According to this weather map, we see a high pressure system northeast of Hawaii Sunday night. The recent cold front is now over the ocean to our northeast…and quickly losing its influence. In the wake of the cold front we're finding gusty trade winds. These winds are strong enough, that small craft wind advisories remain active. This advisory covers the coastal and channel waters from Molokai down through the Big Island. There may be a slight reduction in trade wind speeds Monday and Tuesday, although they will continue to blow through the upcoming week…strengthening further after mid-week

Strengthening trade winds…the following numbers represent the strongest gusts, along with directions Sunday evening:

24 mph       Port Allen, Kauai – E
23              Honolulu, Oahu – NE
30              Molokai – NE
29              Kahoolawe – E
36              Kahului, Maui – NE
18              Lanai Airport – NE 
37                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 Sunday evening. This large University of Washington satellite image shows the swath of high clouds just clipping the Big Island, as it continues to move eastward. Looking at this NOAA satellite picture, we see that the islands from Kauai down through Maui County are now out from under this departing swath of clouds. The Big Island was still covered slight at the time of this writing..although it will lose its high clouds soon too.  We can use this looping satellite image to see those clouds slowly shifting eastward. Checking out this looping radar image, we can see the northeast winds carrying a few light to moderate showers, with the active showers focusing around the Big Island.

Here in Kula, Maui at around 515pm Sunday evening, skies were generally clear, with some cumulus clouds around too. Sunday began nicely, although there were some heavier showers over on the windward sides. Those clouds cleared nicely during the day, although the clouds got darker and darker over the Haleakala Crater into early afternoon. At one point a bunch of very large drops began falling, really big raindrops! It rained briefly, and during that time I heard a couple of claps of thunder. Those clouds cleared back, leaving sunny skies in their place. Looking up the mountain there are still dark clouds brewing there, although in the opposite direction, down towards the coasts…it is totally clear and sunny. I expect a generally fine week ahead, with the trade winds blowing, with some passing showers at times along the windward sides. I'll be back early Monday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Sunday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting: An algal bloom is an explosion of growth and population of algae, which typically consist of one or a small number of phytoplankton, the foundation of the food chain. These blooms occur all over the world, even in the icy waters of the Arctic Ocean. They normally occur for a reason such as an overabundance of nutrients in the water from natural or man-made sources, or naturally with rising spring temperatures.

In the Arctic, higher temperatures and melting ice have caused a shift in the region's natural bloom cycle. They are progressively coming earlier, and the shift has great importance to the entire food chain and carbon cycling. Researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, together with colleagues from Portugal and Mexico, have studied the yearly spring phytoplankton bloom in the Arctic.

Their research indicates the peak timing of the event has been coming earlier in the year over the past decade. To arrive at this conclusion, they used satellite images to see changes in the ocean color. Algal blooms normally cause a greening of the ocean by the sheer abundance of their numbers. Newer satellites are even able to directly detect the production of phytoplankton.

The data showed that the annual spring bloom has arrived up to 50 days earlier in certain areas. Most of the areas with earlier blooms are also areas where ice cover has diminished, creating gaps where blooms may be possible. The blooms typically last between one and two weeks. They create a major addition to organic matter which then benefits the entire ecosystem from bottom to top.

Also, like any plant, algae requires carbon dioxide for growth. They are a major part of the global carbon cycle, converting carbon dioxide into organic material. However, earlier blooms may not sync up with the natural cycles of marine species which depend on them.

For example, the peak of the bloom may occur while the creatures are still in their egg or larval life stages, and the organic matter produced may not be useable to them. The resulting mismatch in timing may explain the annual variability of fish stocks in the region. "The spring bloom provides a major source of food for zooplankton, fish and bottom-dwelling animals," says Mati Kahru, lead author of the study.

"The advancement of the bloom time may have consequences for the Arctic ecosystem." The concern for the researchers is that earlier blooms may spread to other parts of the globe and throw off marine ecosystems elsewhere. Food chains around the world could be affected.

Interesting2: Scientists working in the remotest part of Antarctica have discovered that liquid water locked deep under the continent's coat of ice regularly thaws and refreezes to the bottom, creating as much as half the thickness of the ice in places, and actively modifying its structure. The finding, which turns common perceptions of glacial formation upside down, could reshape scientists' understanding of how the ice sheet expands and moves, and how it might react to warming climate, they say.

The study appears in this week's early online edition of the journal Science; it is part of a six-nation study of the invisible Gamburtsev Mountains, which lie buried under as much as two miles of ice. Ice sheets are well known to grow from the top as snow falls and builds up annual layers over thousands of years, but scientists until recently have known little about the processes going on far below.

In 2006, researchers in the current study showed that lakes of liquid water underlie widespread parts of Antarctica. In 2008-2009, they mounted an expedition using geophysical instruments to create 3-D images of the Gamburtsevs, a range larger than the European Alps. The expedition also made detailed images of the overlying ice, and sub-glacial water.

"We usually think of ice sheets like cakes–one layer at a time added from the top. This is like someone injected a layer of frosting at the bottom–a really thick layer," said Robin Bell, a geophysicist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and a project co-leader. "Water has always been known to be important to ice sheet dynamics, but mostly as a lubricant. As ice sheets change, we want to predict how they will change.

Our results show that models must include water beneath." The Antarctic ice sheet holds enough fresh water to raise ocean levels 200 feet; if even a small part of it were to melt into the ocean, it could put major coastal cities under water. The study appears in this week's early online edition of the journal Science; it is part of a six-nation study of the invisible Gamburtsev Mountains, which lie buried under as much as two miles of ice.

Ice sheets are well known to grow from the top as snow falls and builds up annual layers over thousands of years, but scientists until recently have known little about the processes going on far below. In 2006, researchers in the current study showed that lakes of liquid water underlie widespread parts of Antarctica. In 2008-2009, they mounted an expedition using geophysical instruments to create 3-D images of the Gamburtsevs, a range larger than the European Alps.

The expedition also made detailed images of the overlying ice, and subglacial water. "We usually think of ice sheets like cakes–one layer at a time added from the top. This is like someone injected a layer of frosting at the bottom–a really thick layer," said Robin Bell, a geophysicist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and a project co-leader. "Water has always been known to be important to ice sheet dynamics, but mostly as a lubricant.

As ice sheets change, we want to predict how they will change. Our results show that models must include water beneath." The Antarctic ice sheet holds enough fresh water to raise ocean levels 200 feet; if even a small part of it were to melt into the ocean, it could put major coastal cities under water.

Interesting3: Deep sea mining is a relatively new mineral retrieval process that takes place on the ocean floor. Ocean mining sites are usually around large areas of polymetallic nodules or active and extinct hydrothermal vents at about 1,400 – 3,700 meters below the ocean’s surface. The vents create sulfide deposits, which contain precious metals such as silver, gold, copper, manganese, cobalt, and zinc.

The deposits are mined using either hydraulic pumps or bucket systems that take ore to the surface to be processed. As with all mining operations, deep sea mining raises questions about environmental damages to the surrounding areas.

As undersea mining grows ever more likely, one major question looms: Can these valuable minerals be extracted on a large scale without causing significant environmental damage, particularly to the unique ecosystems near the deep hydrothermal vents where the minerals accumulate? Because deep sea mining is a relatively new field, the complete consequences of full scale mining operations are unknown.

However, many experts are certain that removal of parts of the sea floor will result in disturbances to the benthic layer, increased toxicity of the water column and sediment plumes from tailings. Removing parts of the sea floor disturbs the habitat of benthic organisms, possibly, depending on the type of mining and location, causing permanent disturbances.

One scientist seeking to address this question is Duke University marine biologist Cindy Lee Van Dover, who was one of the first researchers to explore hydrothermal vents, cataloging numerous species of animals and microbes living in a part of the ocean that biologists once assumed was barren.

Today, much of her work is focused on figuring out how drilling into the seabed might disrupt newly discovered life forms, such as the giant tubeworms that thrive near the vents.

In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Van Dover compared the deep sea to America’s Wild West and cautioned that wildlife losses could be similar if mining companies and the International Seabed Authority — the regulatory agency in charge of the ocean’s mineral resources — fail to establish environmentally sound mining practices before deep-sea exploitation begins.

To this end, she has gone on research trips with Nautilus Minerals, the Canadian mining company, and is advising the company on conservation issues. But time is short, and Van Dover says she is continually surprised by how swiftly deep-sea mining is developing. "When I heard in 2005 that people were serious about wanting to mine hydrothermal vents, I just laughed," said Van Dover.

“Those of us in the biological community just didn’t think mining was going to happen for decades.” There are vast unknowns to undersea mining. One of the major concerns is the impact to the existing marine life. Van Dover said in her interview: "In some cases these vents have been around for, you know 5,000 years or more, and there’s one example in the mid-Atlantic Ridge of a vent that has built up over 100,000 years.

And what we don’t yet understand is, if you were to mine a site like that how quickly will the animals that live there come back? Until we understand the impacts of both a single mining event and a cumulative mining event on one of these older sites, we’re going to wonder how the animals will respond."

Interesting4: Marine scientists are debating whether 80-plus bottlenose dolphins found dead along the U.S. Gulf Coast since January were more likely to have perished from last year's massive oil spill or a winter cold snap. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared "an unusual mortality event" last week when the number of dead dolphins washing up in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida had reached nearly 60, about half of them newly born or stillborn calves.

The death toll along 200 miles of shoreline has climbed to at least 82 since then, many times the normal mortality rate for dolphins along the Gulf Coast this time of year. Although none so far showed outward signs of oil contamination, suspicions immediately turned to petrochemicals that fouled Gulf waters after a BP drilling platform exploded in April 2010, rupturing a wellhead on the sea floor.

Eleven workers were killed in the blast, and an estimated 5 million barrels (206 million gallons) of crude oil spewed into the Gulf over more than three months. Scientists in the Gulf already were in the midst of investigating last year's discovery of nearly 90 dead dolphins, most of them adults, when officials became alarmed at a surge in dead baby dolphins turning up on beaches in January.

The latest spike in deaths, and a high concentration of premature infants among them, has led some experts to speculate that oil ingested or inhaled by dolphins at the time of the spill has taken a belated toll on the marine mammals, possibly leading to dolphin miscarriages. The die-off has come at the start of the first dolphin calving season in the northern Gulf since the BP blowout.

But scientists at the independent Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama suggested on Thursday that unusually chilly water temperatures in the Gulf may be a key factor.