Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Friday:
Lihue, Kauai – 85
Honolulu airport, Oahu – 89 (record for Friday – 93 in 1996)
Kaneohe, Oahu – 84
Molokai airport – 85
Kahului airport, Maui – 88
Kona airport 85
Hilo airport, Hawaii – 85
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops…as of 5pm Friday evening:
Port Allen, Kauai – 88
Kapalua, Maui – 80
Haleakala Crater – 48 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 43 (over 13,500 feet on the Big Island)
Here are the 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Friday evening:
0.37 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.29 Moanalua RG, Oahu
0.01 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.05 Kahoolawe
0.28 West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.18 Kealakekau, Big Island
Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing high pressure systems to the northeast through northwest of our islands. Our local trade winds will remain moderately strong through Sunday into the new week…strongest around Maui and the Big Island.
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
Summer trade wind weather pattern
The trade winds will continue, light to moderately strong through the remainder of this week. Glancing at this weather map, showing high pressure systems to the northwest through northeast of our islands. Our local trade winds will remain moderately strong…gradually increasing in strength through the weekend. As we move into early next week, our trade winds may increase another notch.
Our trade winds will remain active…the following numbers represent the strongest gusts (mph), along with directions Friday evening:
28 Lihue, Kauai – NE
22 Honolulu, Oahu – NE
22 Molokai – NE
15 Kahoolawe – E
22 Kapalua, Maui – NE
17 Lanai – NE
25 Upolu 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 Friday night. Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we find low level clouds around the edges, although most island areas were generally clear at the time of this writing. Clouds and a few showers will likely increase to some extent tonight, as usual. There are no signs of high or middle level clouds in this picture. We can use this looping satellite image to see a rather limited amount of lower level clouds moving into the state from the east. There are areas of thunderstorms over the ocean…far to the southwest and west of the islands. Checking out this looping radar image we see a few showers falling, coming in along our windward sides for the most part.
Sunset Commentary: As has been the case this week, there has been little variation in our local weather from day to day. The trade winds have been light to moderately strong, and as expected, should pick up a notch through the weekend…into the new week ahead.
As for rainfall, likewise, there’s been little difference in this department, from day to day this week. As the trade wind speeds pick up a little going forward, this usually signals a modest increase in precipitation…especially during the night and early morning hours.
Otherwise, nothing of note expected, that is until later this weekend into early Monday, when we’ll see rising surf along our leeward sides. These swells, coming up from the southern hemisphere, may be large enough to trigger a high surf advisory along our south shores…becoming larger on our west sides too. The largest swell of this series will likely arrive early Tuesday morning coming up.
Here in Kihei, Maui at 530pm HST Friday evening, skies were generally clear in all directions, with the trade winds having picked up in strength…compared to the last several days. In the broader world of weather, all eyes remain glued to hurricane Irene, which fortunately continues to lose strength, although not enough yet! This hurricane's outer rain bands are soaking the Carolina coasts, with all this flooding rainfall moving north during the night into Saturday. Irene will head up the eastern seaboard of the United States, and needs to be monitored very closely by all those folks who live in the mid-Atlantic states…all the way up the coast through New England…into Canada. This is a very dangerous tropical cyclone, and you folks who live along its expected path, need to be making preparations, or having completed them, and following the orders of the emergency management very closely! Then, in the opposite direction, again in relation to the Hawaiian Islands, we have typhoon 14W in the Philippine Sea. This particular storm, named Nanmadol, is way stronger than Irene! Here's a picture of Nanmadol, very near Taiwan…along with another tropical cyclone named Talas to its right. ~~~ Turning our attention back here to Hawaii, once again we remain in a pleasant trade wind weather pattern, with no indications otherwise well into the future. I'll be back early Saturday morning with your next new updates. I hope you have a great Friday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Extra: fun video…air swimmers
Interesting: Researchers at Brazil's National Observatory have discovered evidence of a massive underground river flowing deep beneath the Amazon River, reports the AFP. Presenting this week at the 12th International Congress of the Brazilian Geophysical Society in Rio de Janeiro, Elizabeth Tavares Pimentel reported the existence of a 6,000-kilometer-long (3,700-mile) river flowing some 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) under the Amazon.
Like the Amazon, the river flows west to east, but is considerably wider (200-400 kilometers) and moves at only a fraction of the speed of the giant surface river.
The hidden river — dubbed the Hamza after Pimentel's supervisor Valiya Hamza — discharges into the Atlantic deep underground. "It is likely that this river is responsible for the low level of salinity in the waters around the mouth of the Amazon," said a statement released by the National Observatory. "The Amazon region has two discharge fluid systems: the surface drainage [through] the Amazon River… and the flow of groundwater through the deep sedimentary layers."
Interesting2: Here's one way that old-fashioned newsprint beats the Internet. Tulane University scientists have discovered a novel bacterial strain, dubbed "TU-103," that can use paper to produce butanol, a biofuel that can serve as a substitute for gasoline. They are currently experimenting with old editions of the Times Picayune, New Orleans' venerable daily newspaper, with great success.
TU-103 is the first bacterial strain from nature that produces butanol directly from cellulose, an organic compound. "Cellulose is found in all green plants, and is the most abundant organic material on earth, and converting it into butanol is the dream of many," said Harshad Velankar, a postdoctoral fellow in David Mullin's lab in Tulane's Department of Cell and Molecular Biology.
"In the United States alone, at least 323 million tons of cellulosic materials that could be used to produce butanol are thrown out each year." Mullin's lab first identified TU-103 in animal droppings, cultivated it and developed a method for using it to produce butanol. A patent is pending on the process. "Most important about this discovery is TU-103's ability to produce butanol directly from cellulose," explained Mullin.
He added that TU-103 is the only known butanol-producing clostridial strain that can grow and produce butanol in the presence of oxygen, which kills other butanol-producing bacteria. Having to produce butanol in an oxygen-free space increases the costs of production.
As a biofuel, butanol is superior to ethanol (commonly produced from corn sugar) because it can readily fuel existing motor vehicles without any modifications to the engine, can be transported through existing fuel pipelines, is less corrosive, and contains more energy than ethanol, which would improve mileage.
"This discovery could reduce the cost to produce bio-butanol," said Mullin. "In addition to possible savings on the price per gallon, as a fuel, bio-butanol produced from cellulose would dramatically reduce carbon dioxide and smog emissions in comparison to gasoline, and have a positive impact on landfill waste."
Interesting3: Climate change is redefining the rules by which we live and at a pace we never expected. Because of rising sea level, several areas of the globe are in danger of vanishing from the map, disappearing under water. Society must adapt and maybe, one day, live in floating houses.
Depending on their geographical situation, some countries are more advanced than others in their adjustment to the effects of global warming, and particularly the rising level of the seas. In 1953, the Netherlands and large parts of Belgium and England were struck by what is known as the Watersnoodramp, literally "flood disaster," destroying 10.000 buildings and killing over 2.500 people. Since then, the "low countries" have developed a culture of flood engineering that has sealed the reputation of its builders and might help to fight the consequences of rising sea levels due to climate change.
The results of FLOATEC, a European R&D project underwritten by EUREKA, can be found all over Europe, but the Netherlands is the primary market for the solution developed within the project. 'It had the full backing of the Dutch government' says Edwin Blom, project leader at Dura Vermeer.
'The authorities designated some areas of the country as preferred grounds for experimentation on amphibian houses'. The project also benefited of a unique legal obligation existing in Netherlands: 7% to 12% of every construction site is to be dedicated to water storage, which makes floating houses also very convenient.
The leading partner in the EUREKA FLOATEC project, Dura Vermeer, is a Dutch company specializing in building homes in a country where many would consider buying a houseboat. It is currently employing some 3000 people in The Netherlands. Over the last 12 years, this company has become an outright leader in a market that barely existed before — that of floating buildings. With some revolutionary achievements under its belt, such as the Rotterdam floating exhibition pavilion, a greenhouse built on water, or the amphibious village in Maasbommel, all located in Netherlands, it has a strong record of daring architectural projects.
Best of both worlds
So, how do you build a floating house? Edwin Blom describes it as a relatively easy construction process: The secret lies in the foundations of the building, made of multiple layers of light plastic foam supporting the concrete, allowing it to float the same way a boat would do. But the technology used until now has its limitations. There is a maximum size and weight beyond which a structure loses its buoyancy and simply sinks. The engineers from Dura Vermeer had to look for a technological partner able to solve this problem, the key being in the use and development of the right type of material.
However, it proved to be impossible to find in the Netherlands a collaborator with the level of skill and innovation required. They finally found a good match thanks to the network of European R&D experts offered by EUREKA: Acciona Infrastructures, a Spanish company and a forerunner in the sector of nanotechnology-based composite materials. Whereas most of the research done in the sector has been oriented towards lucrative high-tech sectors such as aerospace or military, Acciona Infrastructures has been from the very start looking to adapt their knowledge to the needs of the construction business.
Easy as building blocks
Together with a Spanish engineering consultancy, Solintel, the partners worked on a new way to build floating structures: simpler, more solid and using lighter materials. This new building method uses EPS, or expanded polystyrene, 'the same kind as is used for packaging and which people are familiar with: little white balls glued together', says Blom. The modified polystyrene is inserted in multiple layers in between stratums of composite and concrete and divided into beam-like modules that can easily be assembled into a bigger supporting structure 'a bit like building blocks'. The modules are arranged in a floating grid into which the concrete is cast.
Even so, the technology is much more advanced than the one traditionally used, Edwin Blom points at the fact that it is still much cheaper than other method used until now: 'We simply do not need to use as much material as we used to, he says. Smaller blocks can now support bigger structures and, in the end, the cost of the whole building is reduced'. For his Spanish counterpart Osorio, the project was 'a real technological breakthrough that would never have been possible without EUREKA'.
If climate change means more floods in densely populated areas, the technology to answer this problem now exists thanks to the FLOATEC project, and the cards to be played are now in the hands of the governments and local authorities in charge of urban planning. For some countries, small island-states in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the stakes are even higher, as it is estimated that they could disappear within the next 100 years. According to Jenny Grote Stoutenburg, a researcher in law from the German Max Planck Institute, 'if a threatened island managed to keep an artificial, floating structure, occupied by caretakers, it could probably maintain its claim to statehood'.
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