Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Sunday:
Lihue, Kauai – 85
Honolulu airport, Oahu – 89 (record for Sunday – 92 in 1985)
Kaneohe, Oahu – 82
Molokai airport – 86
Kahului airport, Maui – 88
Kona airport 85
Hilo airport, Hawaii – 83
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops…as of 5pm Sunday evening:
Port Allen, Kauai – 84
Kaneohe, Oahu – 79
Haleakala Crater – 54 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 39 (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:
1.82 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
1.06 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.00 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.02 Kahoolawe
0.50 Oheo Gulch, Maui
0.48 Laupahoehoe, 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…generally nice weather
The trade winds will remain active…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 light to moderately strong Monday and Tuesday…locally somewhat more gusty during the afternoons.
Our trade winds will remain active…the following numbers represent the strongest gusts (mph), along with directions Sunday evening:
24 Port Allen, Kauai – NE
21 Bellows, Oahu – NE
25 Molokai – NE
31 Kahoolawe – ESE
31 Kahului, Maui – E
12 Lanai – NE
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 Sunday evening. Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we find low clouds offshore in most directions…with clouds stacking up over the mountains locally too. We can use this looping satellite image to see the low clouds moving along in the trade wind flow, impacting our islands locally. Checking out this looping radar image we see a few showers around, most of which are falling over the ocean at the time of this writing…some of which are moderately heavy to the south and west of Kauai.
Sunset Commentary: A few showers will occur, although not many…along the windward sides of the islands generally. This modest shower activity will carry forward into the new week, with drier weather expected during the second half of the week. Our weather, despite these few showers, should be quite nice as we finish our summer season.
Meanwhile, the trade winds will remain light to moderately strong for the time being. As this weather map shows, we have many high pressure systems generally to the northwest through northeast of the islands. These trades will remain active into the new week. The computer models are suggesting that our trade winds will gradually become lighter through the new week…becoming very light or absent by the weekend.
We will remain in a normal trade wind weather pattern through Thursday or so. The winds will take a down turn then into the weekend, as computer models show cold fronts trying to dig southward, pushing our trade wind producing ridge of high pressure down very near our islands. The fronts aren't expected to arrive, as its still a bit too early in the season for such an occurrence. One of these fronts may finally get very close to Kauai about a week from now.
This last 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 Sunday evening, skies were mostly clear to partly cloudy, with an air temperature of 72.7F degrees. It was a very nice Sunday, with lots of sunshine just about everywhere. I expect the new week ahead to continue this trend, with light to moderately strong trade winds blowing, and just a few of the usual windward biased showers. Otherwise, as we push through these last few days of our late summer period, our weather will be near perfect. 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: 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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