Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Saturday:
Lihue, Kauai – 86
Honolulu airport, Oahu – 87
Kaneohe, Oahu – 82
Molokai airport – 85
Kahului airport, Maui – 88 (record for Saturday – 94 in 1951)
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 4pm Saturday afternoon:
Barking Sands, Kauai – 87
Kahului, Maui – 77
Haleakala Crater – 57 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 41 (over 13,500 feet on the Big Island)
Here are the 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Saturday evening:
0.46 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.57 Manoa Lyons Arboretum, Oahu
0.00 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.47 Puu Kukui, Maui
0.85 Honaunau, 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. This web cam is 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
The trade winds will remain active this weekend…into the new work week ahead. Glancing at this weather map, it shows four near 1025 millibar high pressure systems to the northwest, north, through northeast of our islands. Our local trade winds will remain moderately strong this weekend…locally somewhat more gusty during the afternoons.
Our trade winds will remain active…the following numbers represent the strongest gusts (mph), along with directions Saturday evening:
28 Port Allen, Kauai – ESE
20 Kahuku, Oahu – ENE
32 Molokai – NE
32 Kahoolawe – ESE
31 Kahului, Maui – NE
20 Lanai – NW
31 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 Saturday evening. Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we find low clouds offshore to the east of the state this evening. We can use this looping satellite image to see the low clouds moving along in the trade wind flow, impacting our islands locally. At the same time we see signs of colder air aloft, with some middle level clouds around the islands. Checking out this looping radar image we see showers around, most of which are falling over the ocean at the time of this writing…some of which are moderately heavy. There will be off and on showers Saturday night, generally most active along our windward sides as usual.
Sunset Commentary: Showers will be somewhat more active this weekend than normal, although not excessively so. As usual, the windward sides of the islands will find the most frequent shower activity. There may be some afternoon showers developing along our leeward slopes on both Maui and the Big Island as well. The overlying atmosphere will be somewhat unstable at the same time, thus some of these showers may turn out to be locally quite generous here and there.
Meanwhile, the trade winds have remained rather subdued the last week or even two. This has been due to big early season storms in the Gulf of Alaska, and low pressure troughs in our own area. They finally picked up some Friday afternoon, when there were several gusts topping 30 mph, at least in those windiest areas around the state. As this weather map shows, we have many high pressure systems generally to the northwest through northeast of the islands. These trades will remain rather gusty Sunday into Monday.
Glancing a bit further ahead, we will move back into a more normal trade wind weather pattern Tuesday through Thursday or so. The winds will take a down turn later in the new week, as computer models show cold fronts trying to dig southward, pushing our trade wind producing ridge of high pressure down closer to our islands. The fronts aren't expected to arrive, as its still a bit too early in the season for such an occurrence. As the ridges get closer by Friday into next weekend, we will lose most of the trade wind strength, putting us into a convective weather pattern…with afternoon showers falling over the interior sections, especially on Maui and the Big Island.
Friday evening I went into Kahului after work, to see a new film called Contagion, starring Matt Damon, Marion Cotillard, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne…among others. I was going to skip this film, due to the subject matter, which is a bit intimidating in my estimation. I talked with another film fan there at work though, and he convinced me that it was actually quite a good film. So, I decided to see it anyway, although reluctantly I must admit. The film that I'm really looking forward to seeing is called Driver, although I'm hesitant to go to a films opening night, due to the crowds. At any rate, back to Contagion…its about the worldwide medical community, which races to find a cure and to control the panic, when a lethal airborne virus becomes a global epidemic. The critics are giving this film a B grade, while the viewers have dropped it to a C+. On the other hand, I just checked the rotten tomatoes film review website, and they are giving it an 83% rating, which is high for them. Well, as it turned out, and is often the case, I liked the film, and gave it a B grade due to its entertaining qualities. It kind of freaked me out seeing how people react to this kind of thing, and partly because I could easily see this as happening in the real world. It was disturbing, and I kept asking myself, what would I do under these circumstances? It would not be a fun reality, far from that indeed! Here's the trailer just in case you're curious, which is pretty intense.
Here in Kula, Maui at 5pm HST Saturday evening, skies were mostly cloudy, with an air temperature of 70F degrees. Today I drove over to Paia to shop, and found generally sunny to partly cloudy weather, although without any showers. It was interesting, that once I got home to Kula afterwards, it was cloudy with light showers falling. They didn't last long, although it seems to be trying to work up to a few more at the time of this writing. Besides the rather active trade winds down at the coasts, up here its been very quiet. My neighbor remarked that it was a gloomy day, with lots of gray clouds overhead. ~~~ I don't have any plans for this evening, at least not yet, so I'll likely just continue to mellow out after a long work week. I may get into a few youtube music video's tonight after dark, and if I find a few that I like, I might share them with you. Otherwise, I'll be back at it Sunday morning, preparing your next weather narrative from paradise then. I hope you have a great Saturday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Extra: It's a Beautiful Day…Hot Summer Day youtube video … takes me back
White Bird… way back
Interesting: In the next 20 years, more than 590,000 square miles of land globally — more than twice the size of Texas — will be gobbled up by cities, a trend that shows no signs of stopping and one that could pose threats on several levels, says a Texas A&M University geographer who is part of a national team studying the problem. Burak Güneralp, a research assistant professor in the Department of Geography at Texas A&M, says urban areas are growing faster than urban populations and by 2030, urbanized land worldwide will grow by 590,000 square miles — more than twice the size of Texas, or about the size of Mongolia.
He is part of a team that includes three other researchers from Yale, Stanford and Arizona State and their work is published in the journal PLoS ONE. "This massive urbanization of land is happening worldwide, but India, China and Africa have experienced the highest rates of urban land expansion," Güneralp explains.
"Our study covered the 30 years from 1970 to 2000, and we found that urban growth is occurring at the highest rates in developing countries. However, it is the North America that experienced the largest increase in total urban land."
The United Nations predicts that by 2030 there will be an additional 1.47 billion people living in urban areas. Güneralp says, urban population growth is a significant driver of urban land change, especially in developing regions such in India and Africa.
However, economic growth is also important, particularly in China. He notes that coastal areas are especially vulnerable to urban expansion. "Where cities grow the most seem to be near coastal areas, and this is a very noticeable trend," Güneralp says.
"This makes coastal areas a special area of concern because people and infrastructures are at risk to rising sea levels, flooding, hurricanes, tsunamis and other disasters. All over the world, people like to live by the water, so it's a trend that will likely not change."
Güneralp adds that often urbanization occurs near lands that are environmentally sensitive and in some cases, protected by law. "This will challenge conservation strategies because future urban expansion is expected to be significant in total area extent and also as likely to occur near protected areas as in other regions," he says.
There is a flip side to the urbanization trend, Güneralp points out. "People who live in cities tend to have better access to health care, water and sanitation facilities, and cities are shown to be more efficient with regards to such things as energy consumption compared to rural areas," he notes.
"In cities, people exchange. They exchange ideas, experiences as well as materials. All these spur innovation and create business opportunities. Because of all these interactions, cities are the most likely places to come up with the solutions to the emerging environmental and economic challenges that we face."
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