Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha paragraphs / July 17-18, 2011

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

Lihue, Kauai –                    85                  
Honolulu airport, Oahu –      87 (record for Sunday – 91 in 1995) 
Kaneohe, Oahu –                81
Molokai airport –                 83
Kahului airport, Maui –             86  
Kona airport                       84  
Hilo airport, Hawaii –           82

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

Barking Sands, Kauai  – 86
Hilo, Hawaii – 80

Haleakala Crater –     54 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 46 (over 13,500 feet on the Big Island)

Here are the 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Sunday evening:  

0.45     Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.99     South Fork Kaukonahua, Oahu
0.04     Molokai
0.11     Lanai
0.08     Kahoolawe
0.95     Puu Kukui, Maui
0.58     Kawainui Stream, Big Island

Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a 1035 millibar high pressure system to the north of our islands. Our local trade winds will remain active through 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. 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 shining down during the night at times. Plus, during the nights you will be able to see stars, and the sunrise and sunset 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. A satellite image, which shows the entire ocean area between Hawaii and the Mexican coast…can be found here.  Here's a tropical cyclone tracking map for the eastern and central Pacific.

 Aloha Paragraphs

Trade winds, off and on passing windward
showers…generally nice weather
 

The trade winds will prevail through the next week…at least. Glancing at this weather map, we find a moderately strong 1035 millibar high pressure system located to the north of the islands Sunday night. This robust high pressure cell dominates the Pacific, from the International Dateline to our west, across the eastern Pacific to the Baja California coast of Mexico. There’s still no end in sight to this typical summertime trade wind flow. We have limited small craft wind advisories covering those windiest channels and coasts around Maui County and the Big Island.

Our trade winds will remain active…the following numbers represent the strongest gusts (mph), along with directions Sunday evening: 

33                 Port Allen, Kauai – NE  
31                 Honolulu, Oahu – NE 
33                 Molokai – NE
33                 Kahoolawe – E
37                 Kahului, Maui – NE
07                 Lanai – 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 Sunday night.  Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we find just a few clouds, which are generally out over the ocean at the time of this writing. We can use this looping satellite image to see thunderstorms far to our south-southwest, with high cirrus clouds just to the west…having moved over Kauai at the moment. Checking out this looping radar image we see very few showers being carried along in the trade wind flow, most notably over the ocean.

Sunset Commentary:  We'll find typical trade wind weather conditions prevailing well into the future. This means that the trade winds will be blowing, and that showers will be carried our way at times.  The computer models are now showing that our trade winds may decrease a notch or two by next weekend. They also point out the chance of an increase in showers then too, although since this prospect is so far out into the future, let's just hold it lightly at this point. Otherwise, there don't appear to be any big surprises on the weather horizon, so our generally nice weather will continue into the new work week ahead.

Here in Kula, Maui this evening at 530pm HST, skies were clear to cloudy depending upon which direction I look…with the air temperature a warm 74.5F degrees. Today started off in quite cloudy way, with some showers falling along our windward sides. As the day went on however, those clouds cleared way back, making way for a generally sunny to partly cloudy day. I still don't see any major changes on our weather horizon, so that our upcoming new work week should be just fine. ~~~ I stayed home all day today, and ended up working around this property with my neighbor. I did some trimming of branches, which opened up my view down the mountain even more than it was. I used to think that a million dollars was a lot of money, although these days I hear trillion more and more. So perhaps I should start referring to the view from my weather deck as the famous trillion dollar view! ~~~ I just made a nice red sauce, with lots of organic vegetables. I added a couple of red peppers from the garden, and lots of fresh picked basil leaves too. All I'll have to do when I get home from work during the coming work, will be to cook the pasta, add some capers, and grate on some hard cheese. Yum, that sounds so good, although my fresh Ahi tuna, Yukon potatoes, and steamed broccoli dinner sounds pretty good too. ~~~ I'll be back early Monday morning with your next new weather narrative from paradise, I hope you have a great Sunday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting:  The loss of large predators and large herbivores may be "humankind's most pervasive influence on nature," according to a paper published in journal Science.  When top predators and large herbivores are weakened, the animals and plants they eat usually thrive because they're no longer actively killed.  Their overpopulation, and the ripple effect throughout the ecosystem, is throwing ecosystems out of balance.

The impacts of this phenomenon on the planet include changes in soil, water, vegetation, and the atmosphere. The phenomenon also increases human contact with invasive and disease-carrying species.

The study provided the following examples:

-As large ungulates recovered from a devastating rinderpest epidemic in the Serengeti in Africa, herbivory increased, and the frequency of wildfire declined in that region. Wildfire frequency increased following the late Pleistocene/early Holocene decline of megaherbivores in Australia and the northeastern United States.

-Industrial whaling in the 20th century resulted in the loss of large numbers of plankton-consuming great whales, which are now known to sequester carbon into the deep sea through deposition of feces. The result has been the transfer of approximately 105 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere that would have been absorbed by whales, contributing to climate change.

The study said previous research of ecosystems focused on species on the bottom of the food chain partly because it was easier to do so. Contrastingly, apex consumers are usually "large, long-lived, and not amenable to laboratory experiments."

"There is an urgent need for interdisciplinary research to forecast how a continued loss of top level consumers will further harm the planet's ecosystems," said Dr. James A. Estes of University of California at Santa Cruz, the lead author of the paper.