Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Friday:
Lihue, Kauai – 86
Honolulu airport, Oahu – 89 (record for Friday – 94 in 1997)
Kaneohe, Oahu – 82
Molokai airport – 87
Kahului airport, Maui – 88
Kona airport 85
Hilo airport, Hawaii – 84
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 – 86
Kaneohe, Oahu – 80
Haleakala Crater – 45 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 45 (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:
0.59 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.45 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.00 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.12 Kahakuloa, Maui
0.30 Kawainui Stream, Big Island
Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a near 1029 millibar high pressure system far to the north-northeast of our islands. Our local trade winds will be gradually easing up through Sunday…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
Trade winds…gradually becoming lighter
The trade winds will continue, light to moderately strong, locally stronger around Maui County and the Big Island…easing up into the weekend and beyond. Glancing at this weather map, we find a near 1029 millibar high pressure system far to the north-northeast of our islands. Our local trade winds will remain active…strongest around Maui County and the Big Island. The computer forecast models continue to suggest that our trade winds will become lighter this weekend into the new week.
Our trade winds will remain active, although gradually lighter…the following numbers represent the strongest gusts (mph), along with directions Friday evening:
25 Port Allen, Kauai – ENE
23 Kahuku, Oahu – NE
25 Molokai – NE
24 Kahoolawe – E
25 Kapalua, Maui – NE
18 Lanai – SW
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 a few low level clouds around, although with an area of clouds approaching Maui County and the Big Island from the east. There are higher level cirrus clouds to the north of the islands. We can use this looping satellite image to see areas of thunderstorms over the ocean, far to the south…and high cirrus to the west and north of the islands. Checking out this looping radar image we see that there are very few showers being carried along in the trade wind flow…although some will arrive tonight into Saturday morning along the windward sides of Molokai, Maui and the Big Island. It should be pointed out, that there is an extended radar outage for the Molokai WSR-88D…until September 23, 2011.
Sunset Commentary: The forecast for this weekend remains favorably inclined…with no obvious deviations through the holiday on Monday. Today the trade winds were blowing in a pretty normal fashion, gusting up to 30+ in those windiest locations around Maui County and the Big Island. There’s been a few showers along our windward coasts and slopes during the last 24 hours, although nothing remarkable. One area of clouds will be carried our way tonight, bringing some modest increase in showers to our windward sides…although nothing significant by any means.
Looking a bit further ahead, the main thing that our local population may notice, will be the gradually lighter wind flow…although it won’t come to an abrupt stop. There will be a slow reduction in speeds through the weekend, which will carry forth into the first several days of the new week ahead. They will likely bottom-out in strength at some point between Monday and Tuesday, and may begin to rebound later on Wednesday or Thursday. Depending upon how light the trade winds become, we might begin to see some haze forming around the edges. At the same time, the Kona area might actually begin to see clearer skies, without the trade winds blowing volcanic haze into that region of the state.
These lighter trade winds will end our solid trade wind weather pattern, and ease up into at least a modified convective weather pattern. What does modified mean? It just means, at least in this case, that there may still be a few windward showers during the nights, and also a few afternoon upcountry showers along our leeward slopes too. The main thing though, is that whatever showers that do manage to fall will be generally light. This is due to the very stable, and probably drier than normal air mass that the computer forecast models are forecasting through the first half of the new week.
I'm going to see a new film this evening in Kaului, called The Debt, starring Helen Mirren, Jessia Chastain, and Sam Worthington…among many others. The synopsis: In 1997, shocking news reaches retired Mossad secret agents Rachel and Stefan about their former colleague David. All three have been venerated for decades by their country because of the mission that they undertook back in 1966, when the trio tracked down Nazi war criminal Vogel in East Berlin. At great risk, and at considerable personal cost, the team's mission was accomplished – or was it? The suspense builds in and across two different time periods, with startling action and surprising revelations. The critics are giving this film a B- grade, while users are being a little more generous with a B rating. I'll let you know what I thought Saturday morning. Here's the trailer for this film, just in case you were interested.
Here in Kihei, Maui at 6pm HST Friday evening, skies were mostly clear, as they were in most areas of the state today. I'm so ready to launch off into this long three day holiday weekend, as it's been yet another long week of work. I'll catch up with you Saturday morning with your next weather narrative. I hope you have a great Friday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting: In an attempt to hedge against future rising energy prices, Volkswagen announced last week that it will invest up to $1.45 billion in renewable energy. The announcement follows the company's decisions earlier this year to invest in other clean energy projects as well as to launch new electric vehicles. According to the German language edition of the Financial Times, Volkswagen will become a large investor in two offshore wind parks in the North Sea. The investment accomplishes two objectives: to help the car manufacturer meet its renewable energy goals for 2020 as well as give a boost to Germany's flagging wind power sector.
While Germany has been a leader in solar energy the past decade, wind power has been a different story. Ambitious projects to build wind power farms in the North Sea have suffered from the lack of investors who saw the proposed projects as too risky. Volkswagen had been in talks with wind power developers for several years but had hesitated to commit to the industry.
But the moves of other companies, including the American private equity firm Blackstone, helped open the door to increased investment. Blackstone closed a deal on one wind farm last month. Now WV is set to invest in two wind power farms, including one 60 miles north , an island off of Germany's northwestern coast. For Volkswagen, the investment goes beyond scoring a few corporate social responsibility (CSR) points.
True, VW has pledged to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions 40 percent by 2020. But energy security is a concern for European countries, and companies, who have been rattled by volatility in the Middle East and North Africa as well as Russia's shutdown of its gas supplies to Europe two years ago. And with Angela Merkel's promise to phase out nuclear energy by 2022, the time for energy intensive firms like Volkswagen to find different sources of power is now.
Interesting2: Warming streams could spell the end of spring-run Chinook salmon in California by the end of the century, according to a study by scientists at UC Davis, the Stockholm Environment Institute and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. There are options for managing water resources to protect the salmon runs, although they would impact hydroelectric power generation, said Lisa Thompson, director of the Center for Aquatic Biology and Aquaculture at UC Davis.
A paper describing the study is published online by the Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management. "There are things that we can do so that we have the water we need and also have something left for the fish," Thompson said.
Working with Marisa Escobar and David Purkey at SEI's Davis office, Thompson and colleagues at UC Davis used a model of the Butte Creek watershed, taking into account the dams and hydropower installations along the river, combined with a model of the salmon population, to test the effect of different water management strategies on the fish.
They fed in scenarios for climate change out to 2099 from models developed by David Yates at NCAR in Boulder, Colo. In almost all scenarios, the fish died out because streams became too warm for adults to survive the summer to spawn in the fall.
The only option that preserved salmon populations, at least for a few decades, was to reduce diversions for hydropower generation at the warmest time of the year. "If we leave the water in the stream at key times of the year, the stream stays cooler and fish can make it through to the fall," Thompson said.
Summer, of course, is also peak season for energy demand in California. But Thompson noted that it might be possible to generate more power upstream while holding water for salmon at other locations.
Hydropower is often part of renewable energy portfolios designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Purkey said, but it can complicate efforts to adapt water management regimes to a warming world. Yet it need not be all-or-nothing, he said.
"The goal should be to identify regulatory regimes which meet ecosystem objectives with minimal impact on hydropower production," he said. "The kind of work we did in Butte Creek is essential to seeking these outcomes." There are also other options that are yet to be fully tested, Thompson said, such as storing cold water upstream and dumping it into the river during a heat wave. That would both help fish and create a surge of hydropower.
Salmon are already under stress from multiple causes, including pollution, and introduced predators and competitors, Thompson said. Even if those problems were solved, temperature alone would finish off the salmon — but that problem can be fixed, she said. "I swim with these fish, they're magnificent," Thompson said. "We don't want to give up on them."
Email Glenn James: 
