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

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

Lihue, Kauai –                    81
Honolulu airport, Oahu –     84
Kaneohe, Oahu –                80
Molokai airport –                 83
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 Monday evening:

Barking Sands, Kauai – 82F
Hilo, Hawaii – 75

Haleakala Crater –     52 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 41 (over 13,500 feet on the Big Island)

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

2.32    Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.42    Manoa Valley, Oahu
0.00    Molokai
0.00    Lanai 
0.00    Kahoolawe
0.13    West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.72    Glenwood, Big Island

Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing high pressure systems to the north-northeast and northeast of Hawaii. Our winds will blow from the southeast to east Tuesday and Wednesday…locally rather strong and gusty in a few places.

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

Fair weather Tuesday
 
 
 
 

East to east-southeast breezes through Tuesday, then turning to the south and southeast through the rest of the work week, with trade winds returning later this coming weekend…maybe.  Glancing at this weather map, we find a couple of high pressure systems to the northeast of our islands. Looking at the low level wind flow around our islands, we find our winds almost back around to near east…the trades. The winds remain strong enough around parts of Maui County and the Big Island, that a small craft wind advisory remains in effect. This marine advisory will likely remain in place through Tuesday into Wednesday even.

Light to moderately strong breezes, locally stronger will prevail…the following numbers represent the strongest gusts, along with directions early Monday evening:

29 mph       Port Allen, Kauai – ESE
23              Waianae, Oahu – NE
25              Molokai – NE 
37              Kahoolawe – ESE
36              Kahului, Maui – ENE
06              Lanai Airport – SW  
33              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 Monday night.  This large University of Washington satellite image shows less high clouds in our area now…although there are some pretty substantial areas to the west of the state.  Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we see still quite a few clouds around, although finally we're seeing some clear skies appearing over and around the Aloha state too. We can use this looping satellite image to see that the winds are carrying some moisture to our windward sides. Checking out this looping radar image shows light to moderately heavy showers falling offshore of the islands…with some showers falling over the islands in a few areas as well.

The atmosphere over the Hawaiian Islands is less shower prone now…which will continue into mid-week.  As this happens we will begin to see more sunshine during the days…especially along the leeward sides during the morning hours. The models are still calling for a cold front to approach the islands from the northwest, which will halt our trade winds again by mid-week or so. This frontal boundary is expected to stall before arriving into the island chain. The winds will turn south and southeast, putting us into a muggy reality, with possible volcanic haze showing up then…through the first part of the weekend.

As the winds taper off Wednesday, we’ll likely find ourselves shifting into a convective weather pattern, which should last into Saturday.  If this happens as the computer models suggest, we’ll find daytime onshore sea breezes. Then at night, the cooler air will drain back down to the coast, called offshore flowing land breezes. If there aren’t any high or middle level clouds around then, mornings will be generally clear. As the sea breezes blow moisture from over the ocean upslope during the day, clouds will form over the mountain slopes late morning through the early evening hours…with localized showers.

The computer models differ in what will take place thereafter. It could be that the trade winds return Sunday, into early next week. This of course would take us back into a trade wind weather pattern, along with windward biased showers. Then, on the other hand, some of the models are showing the old stalled cold front becoming reinvigorated, finally getting pushed down into the state next Monday, perhaps bringing showers with it. The models show it dissipating over the central islands Tuesday. This is the wild card at the moment, which will take several more days to clarify perhaps…stay tuned.

~~~ Here in Kihei, Maui at around 540pm Monday evening, there are some clear areas, along with clouds banked up along the slopes of the Haleakala Crater, and the West Maui Mountains. I expect most of these clouds to dissipate and clear away tonight, prompting a clear morning for a change on Tuesday. There has continued to be a bit of haze around the edges, although maybe we'll even see that fading soon too, at least temporarily. I'm ready for the drive back upcountry to Kula, although I'll be back early Tuesday morning with your next fresh weather narrative. I hope you have a great Monday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting: Noise pollution in the oceans has been shown to cause physical and behavioral changes in marine life, especially in dolphins and whales, which rely on sound for daily activities. However, low frequency sound produced by large scale, offshore activities is also suspected to have the capacity to cause harm to other marine life as well.

Giant squid, for example, were found along the shores of Asturias, Spain in 2001 and 2003 following the use of airguns by offshore vessels and examinations eliminated all known causes of lesions in these species, suggesting that the squid deaths could be related to excessive sound exposure.

Michel André, Technical University of Catalonia in Barcelona, and colleagues examined the effects of low frequency sound exposure — similar to what the giant squid would have experienced in Asturias — in four cephalopod species.

As reported in an article published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, a journal of the Ecological Society of America, all of the exposed squid, octopus and cuttlefish exhibited massive acoustic trauma in the form of severe lesions in their auditory structures.

The researchers exposed 87 individual cephalopods — specifically, Loligo vulgaris, Sepia officinalis, Octopus vulgaris and Illex coindeti — to short sweeps of relatively low intensity, low frequency sound between 50 and 400 Hertz (Hz) and examined their statocysts.

Statocysts are fluid-filled, balloon-like structures that help these invertebrates maintain balance and position — similar to the vestibular system of mammals. The scientists' results confirmed that statocysts indeed play a role in perceiving low frequency sound in cephalopods.

André and colleagues also found that, immediately following exposure to low frequency sound, the cephalopods showed hair cell damage within the statocysts. Over time, nerve fibers became swollen and, eventually, large holes appeared — these lesions became gradually more pronounced in individuals that were examined several hours after exposure.

In other words, damage to the cephalopods' auditory systems emerged immediately following exposure to short, low intensity sweeps of low frequency sound. All of the individuals exposed to the sound showed evidence of acoustic trauma, compared with unexposed individuals that did not show any damage.

"If the relatively low intensity, short exposure used in our study can cause such severe acoustic trauma, then the impact of continuous, high intensity noise pollution in the oceans could be considerable," said André.

"For example, we can predict that, since the statocyst is responsible for balance and spatial orientation, noise-induced damage to this structure would likely affect the cephalopod's ability to hunt, evade predators and even reproduce; in other words, this would not be compatible with life."

The effect of noise pollution on marine life varies according to the proximity of the animal to the activity and the intensity and frequency of the sound. However, with the increase in offshore drilling, cargo ship transportation, excavation and other large-scale, offshore activities, it is becoming more likely that these activities will overlap with migratory routes and areas frequented by marine life.

"We know that noise pollution in the oceans has a significant impact on dolphins and whales because of the vital use of acoustic information of these species," said André, "but this is the first study indicating a severe impact on invertebrates, an extended group of marine species that are not known to rely on sound for living.

It left us with several questions: Is noise pollution capable of impacting the entire web of ocean life? What other effects is noise having on marine life, beyond damage to auditory reception systems? And just how widespread and invasive is sound pollution in the marine environment?"

Interesting2: The Antarctic Peninsula has warmed rapidly for the last half-century or more, and recent studies have shown that an adjacent area, continental West Antarctica, has steadily warmed for at least 30 years, but scientists haven't been sure why. New University of Washington research shows that rising sea surface temperatures in the area of the Pacific Ocean along the equator and near the International Date Line drive atmospheric circulation that has caused some of the largest shifts in Antarctic climate in recent decades.

The warmer water generates rising air that creates a large wave structure in the atmosphere called a Rossby wave train, which brings warmer temperatures to West Antarctica during winter and spring. Antarctica is somewhat isolated by the vast Southern Ocean, but the new results "show that it is still affected by climate changes elsewhere on the planet," said Eric Steig, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences and director of the UW Quaternary Research Center.

Steig is the corresponding author of a paper documenting the findings that is being published April 10 in the journal Nature Geoscience. The lead author is Qinghua Ding, a postdoctoral researcher in the UW Quaternary Research Center. Co-authors are David Battisti, a UW atmospheric sciences professor, and Marcel Küttel, a former UW postdoctoral researcher now working in Switzerland.

The scientists used surface and satellite temperature observations to show a strong statistical connection between warmer temperatures in Antarctica, largely brought by westerly winds associated with high pressure over the Amundsen Sea adjacent to West Antarctica, and sea surface temperatures in the central tropical Pacific Ocean.

They found a strong relationship between central Pacific sea-surface readings and Antarctic temperatures during winter months, June through August. Though not as pronounced, the effect also appeared in the spring months of September through November.

The observed circulation changes are in the form of a series of high- and low-pressure cells that follow an arcing path from the tropical Pacific to West Antarctica. That is characteristic of a textbook Rossby wave train pattern, Ding said, and the same pattern is consistently produced in climate models, at least during winter.

Using observed changes in tropical sea surface temperatures, the researchers found they could account for half to all of the observed winter temperature changes in West Antarctica, depending on which observations are used for comparison. "This is distinct from El Niño," Steig said.

That climate phenomenon, which affects weather patterns worldwide, primarily influences sea-surface temperatures farther east in the Pacific, nearer to South America. It can be, but isn't always, associated with strong warming in the central Pacific.

Steig noted that the influence of Rossby waves on West Antarctic climate is not a new idea, but this is the first time such waves have been shown to be associated with long-term changes in Antarctic temperature.

The findings also could have implications for understanding the causes behind the thinning of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which contains about 10 percent of all the ice in Antarctica. Steig noted that the westerly winds created by the high pressure over the Amundsen Sea pushes cold water away from the edge of the ice sheet and out into the open ocean.

It is then replaced by warmer water from deeper in the ocean, which is melting the seaward edge of the ice sheet from below.