Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs / July 18-19, 2011

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

Lihue, Kauai –                    79                  
Honolulu airport, Oahu –    87 (record for Monday – 91 in 1985, 1987) 
Kaneohe, Oahu –                81
Molokai airport –                 84
Kahului airport, Maui –           87   (record for Monday – 94 in 1953) 
Kona airport                       83  
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 Monday evening:

Barking Sands, Kauai  – 87
Hilo, Hawaii – 80

Haleakala Crater –     55 (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 Monday evening:  

0.62     Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.25     Moanalua RG, Oahu
0.06     Molokai
0.00     Lanai
0.04     Kahoolawe
0.67     West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.64     Kawainui Stream, Big Island

Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a 1036 millibar high pressure system to the north of our islands. Our local trade winds will remain active through Wednesday.

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 most of this week…becoming a bit lighter starting Sunday. Glancing at this weather map, we find a fairly strong 1036 millibar high pressure system located to the north of the islands Monday night. This sprawling high pressure cell dominates the Pacific, from the International Dateline to our west, across the eastern Pacific to the Baja California coast of Mexico. 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 Monday evening: 

30                 Port Allen, Kauai – ENE  
30                 Waianae, Oahu – E 
27                 Molokai – NE
33                 Kahoolawe – E
33                 Kahului, Maui – NNE
22                 Lanai – SW
35                    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.  Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we find scattered lower level clouds, which are generally out over the ocean at the time of this writing. At the same time we find an area of high cirrus clouds just to our northwest….clipping Niihau and Kauai. We can use this looping satellite image to see the lower clouds being carried along in the trade wind flow, and the area of cirrus to our southwest through north of Hawaii. Checking out this looping radar image we see showers being carried along in the trade wind flow, falling over the ocean in the light to moderately heavy category…focusing on the Big Island at the time of this writing.

Sunset Commentary:  July is known for a near constant trade wind flow, blowing 95% of the time on average. So far this month, our breezy trades match that climatological figure pretty closely. They will remain active at least through the rest of this work week. There is a chance, according to what the computer forecast models are suggesting, that they could falter later this coming weekend…into the early part of next week.

If this occurs, which isn’t a sure thing by any means…it would fly in the face of what would be considered normal.  What would prompt this is a developing gale low pressure system in the Gulf of Alaska, which could send a cold front pushing down towards the tropics. This in turn would nudge our trade wind producing high pressure ridge, which has been settled into the area north of the islands…down towards Hawaii, with the trade winds getting lighter, or even turning to the southeast. If this happens, we would begin to feel rather hot and humid for a few days.

As for any showers, there will be some, although matching the norm, they will be heavily weighted towards the windward sides…and especially during the cooler nights. Those typically wetter mountain areas will pick up the most frequent showers. The leeward sides will see clouds at times, although with the atmosphere being as stable as it is, showers will be few and far between. The one exception could be the upcountry slopes, above the Kona coast on the Big Island during the afternoon hours. Speaking of afternoon showers, and if the trades become lighter this coming Sunday into next Monday…we could see some enhancement to those convective showers, especially on the Big Island and Maui too.

Here in Kihei, Maui, at 530pm HST Monday evening, it was clear to cloudy, depending upon just where on looks. There trade winds are pretty strong in various locations, although looking out the window here in upper Kihei, they were quite light. Today was a pretty typical day, with little change expected for the time being. We may see a short increase in windward showers around Wednesday night into Thursday, although it looks as if this will concentrate most notably on Kauai and Oahu. I'm close to closely up shop here in Kihei, and taking the drive back upcountry to Kula. It's definitely cloudy up that way, which will make for a cool walk. I'll be back here with your next new weather narrative early Tuesday morning. I hope you have a great Monday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting: Phosphate is a mineral that is used in fertilizer to boost agricultural productivity. It is greatly responsible for the "green" revolution and the increased output of farms around the world. Unfortunately, the world will be coming to a point, if certain trends hold, where we will run out of phosphate. The mineral is widely used, but utterly un-recycled.

Like fossil fuels, phosphate may come to a point where it is too costly to use, and world hunger may be the consequence. Phosphate is an inorganic chemical mined from the earth. It typically consists of one phosphorus atom surrounded by oxygen atoms.

The addition of phosphates can have a huge impact to an ecosystem. Like water and air, it is literally essential to life on Earth. On cropland, it can greatly boost yields. However, from there it usually drains into waterways. In freshwater and marine environments, it acts as a limiting nutrient, often causing eutrophication (oxygen deprived water).

The largest reserve of phosphate rock can be found in the country of Western Sahara, just south of Morocco. Once a Spanish colony, it is now controlled by Morocco. One of the reasons the Moroccans are so interested is thought to be the vast phosphate reserves.

The mines are at Bou Craa which produces several million tons of phosphate rock each year. It gets transferred down a huge 150-kilometer long conveyor belt to the Atlantic port of El Ayoun. Farmers around the world use about 170 million tons of phosphate every year to keep their soils fertile.

One ton of phosphate is typically used for every 130 tons of grain. Fifteen percent of all phosphate comes from Western Sahara and Morocco. The other big producers are the US and China which each use up their own. This makes Western Sahara and Morocco the biggest players in the international phosphate trade.

The biggest nations which rely on this trade are India and Brazil which may be starving otherwise. According to the US Geological Survey, the world has 65 billion tons of known phosphate reserves, but only 16 billion tons that are economically viable to mine.

Almost 80 percent are found in Western Sahara and Morocco. The US, with only 1.4 billion tons, may run out soon, causing alarm among agronomists. Academic researcher, Dana Cordell, of the Global Phosphorus Research Initiative, has predicted that we could reach "peak phosphorus" production by 2030.

There are no substitutes for phosphate. On the other hand, the other vital nutrient for plants, nitrogen, can be found from a number of sources. It can be fixed from the atmosphere thanks to German chemist Fritz Haber. Phosphate cannot be fixed from anything. It must be mined and the mines are going to run out. Unless a solution can be found, the long term consequences may be lower yield crops and a hungrier world.

Interesting2: Researchers from Texas A&M University have returned from a trip to examine the scope and size of this year's "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico and have measured it currently to be about 3,300 square miles, or roughly the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined, but some researchers anticipate it becoming much larger. Oceanography professor Steve DiMarco, one of the country's leading authorities on the dead zone, says the team of researchers journeyed more than 1,400 miles throughout the Gulf over a five-day period, the first ever focusing on the month of June.

DiMarco says the size of the dead zone off coastal Louisiana has been routinely monitored for about 25 years. Previous research has also shown that nitrogen levels in the Gulf related to human activities have tripled over the past 50 years. During the past five years, the dead zone has averaged about 5,800 square miles and has been predicted to exceed 9,400 square miles this year, which would make it one of the largest ever recorded, according to the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium.

Hypoxia occurs when oxygen levels in seawater drop to dangerously low levels, and severe hypoxia can potentially result in fish kills and harm marine life, thereby creating a "dead zone" of life in that particular area. Because of record amounts of water flowing from the Mississippi River into the Gulf, there is keen interest in the dead zone areas this year, DiMarco explains, adding that the size of this year's dead zone could still change because large amounts of water are still flowing into the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River.

DiMarco says he will examine the area again on Aug. 8 and will visit many of the same locations for additional data. In all, 10 researchers, including six graduate students, helped to collect data on the latest cruise, which was funded by the NOAA Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research and Texas Sea Grant. "This was the first-ever research cruise conducted to specifically target the size of hypoxia in the month of June," DiMarco says.

"We found three distinct hypoxic areas. One was near the Barataria and Terrebonne region off the Louisiana coast, the second was south of Marsh Island (also Louisiana) and the third was off the Galveston coast. We found no hypoxia in the 10 stations we visited east of the Mississippi delta." "The largest areas of hypoxia are still around the Louisiana coast, where you would expect them because of the huge amounts of fresh water still coming down from the Mississippi River," he adds.

"The hypoxic area extends about 50 miles off the coast. The farther you go west toward Texas, there is still hypoxia, but less severe. However, we did see noticeable hypoxia near the Galveston area." The Mississippi is the largest river in the United States, draining 40 percent of the land area of the country. It also accounts for almost 90 percent of the freshwater runoff into the Gulf of Mexico.