Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Monday:
Lihue, Kauai – 84
Honolulu airport, Oahu – 86 (record for Monday – 92 in 1995)
Kaneohe, Oahu – 83
Molokai airport – 84
Kahului airport, Maui – 84
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 6pm Monday evening:
Honolulu, Oahu – 83
Princeville, Kauai – 77
Haleakala Crater – 52 (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 Monday evening:
0.74 Kilohana, Kauai
0.00 Oahu
0.00 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.01 West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.01 Kawainui Stream, 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
Locally light winds, strongest near Maui County and the
Big Island…increasing later Wednesday onwards overall
Our winds will be quite light during the first half of this week…then increasing. Glancing at this weather map, it shows a weak high pressure system, near 1021 millibars to the east-northeast, with its ridge extending west to a point northeast of the islands. At the same time, we have a weakening cold front near Kauai. Our local winds will remain light Tuesday, although stronger over the eastern Islands...increasing generally later Wednesday. The trade winds will rebound for several days, becoming strong enough to require small craft wind advisories over those windiest spots in Maui County and the Big Island with time.
Our trade winds will continuing blowing over the eastern islands, lighter elsewhere…the following numbers represent the strongest gusts (mph), along with directions Monday evening:
09 Princeville, Kauai – N
17 Honolulu, Oahu – NE
24 Molokai
24 Kahoolawe – ESE
31 Kahului, Maui – NE
00 Lanai
27 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 Monday evening. Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we find just a few low clouds generally offshore of the islands, with the ragged frontal cloud having reached Kauai Monday around mid-day. We can use this looping satellite image to see the low clouds moving along in the wind flow. We can also see the aforementioned frontal cloud band having finally reached the north shore of Kauai. There's also an area of high cirrus clouds to the east through southeast of the Big Island. At the same time, there are a few showery looking clouds to the east of Maui and the Big Island as well. Checking out this looping radar image we see a few showers falling near Kauai.
Sunset Commentary: The cold front that we’ve been watching since last week, finally reached Kauai today. This animated satellite image shows this frontal cloud band brushing both Niihau and Kauai. At the same time, we can see some clouds that are south of the front, taking aim on Maui and the Big Island perhaps too. Finally, we see streaks of high cirrus clouds being carried northward on the upper winds aloft…to the east and southeast of the Big Island. We can confirm that despite these clouds, there aren’t all that many showers around, by glancing at this looping radar image.
The overlying atmosphere is quite dry and stable, and as such, hardly a drop of rain has fell anywhere in the state during the last 24-36 hours, except Kauai that is. There will be a few more showers for Kauai associated with the frontal band, and then a few more coming in for the windward sides of Maui and the Big Island perhaps during the night. Most rain gauges will remain dry for the time being, with no drastic changes expected through Tuesday or early Wednesday.
Looking a bit further ahead, the trade winds are expected to surge a bit later this week, likely by later Wednesday into Thursday. These trade winds could become rather strong and gusty, especially around those windiest coastal and channel waters over the eastern islands. We may see small craft wind advisories going up over those areas during the last half of the week. It’s still too far into the future to be referring to next week, although odds look good for the trades to continue into the first day or two of next week.
These strengthening trades are expected to carry some clouds into our windward sides, so that there may begin to be some increase in showers starting Wednesday evening. The computer models are showing our next cold front being carried our way later Thursday or Friday. This might be the next chance for somewhat more significant showers, which could always carry on into the upcoming weekend. Interesting that cold fronts have all the sudden worked their way into our Hawaiian Islands weather picture…just in time for the beginning of our autumn season.
Here in Kihei, Maui at around 530pm HST Monday evening, skies were clear to partly cloudy, with the trade winds blowing pretty well for this time of day. Despite those showers on Kauai…we'll find generally dry weather elsewhere. At the same time, our winds will be on the light side through mid-week, at least on Kauai and Oahu. The returning trade winds will surge into stronger realms Thursday into the weekend, with a corresponding increase in windward showers. ~~~ I'll be back again early Tuesday morning with your next new weather narrative. I hope you have a great Monday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting: Two years ago, America was importing about two thirds of its oil. Today, according to the Energy Information Administration, it imports less than half. And by 2017, investment bank Goldman Sachs predicts the US could be poised to pass Saudi Arabia and overtake Russia as the world's largest oil producer.
Places like Williston, North Dakota are the reason why. "For many years, they knew that there was oil in that area, but the technology wasn't available to get it out," the town's mayor, Ward Koeser, tells weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz.
But in the last few years, advances in such technologies as "fracking" and horizontal drilling have made, by some estimates, as much as 11 billion barrels of oil available in the Bakken formation under North Dakota and Montana. "There's oil companies coming from all over the country now." Koeser says.
Williston has skipped the recession entirely. Unemployment there is less than 2 percent. The population, the mayor estimates, has grown from 12,000 to 20,000 in the last four years. "We actually have probably between 2,000 and 3,000 job openings in Williston right now," Koeser says.
Oil workers like Jake Featheringill are fueling Williston's population growth. He's working as a shophand for Baker Hughes, making enough to support his wife and three children. But with such a sudden population increase, Williston's infrastructure can't keep up.
"When we came up here, we were told housing was tough but not impossible," Featheringill says. He and his wife got lucky and borrowed an RV from a family friend. "We got lucky again and got to park the RV in a place where we were rent-free. Most of the RV spots around here run $1,000 to $1,200."
That's $1,000 a month, just for a parking space. "Is that not amazing?" Featheringill says.
"And that's in a 70-mile radius. Just to park your RV."
Interesting2: Farmer Brian Schaumburg has planted corn for five straight years in some of the thousands of acres he tends in central Illinois. Farmers who eschew crop rotations that help to replenish the soil with nutrients take a risk that yields will decline. But corn prices soared to a record earlier this year, making so-called corn-on-corn crops a worthwhile bet for many farmers in Illinois, the No. 2 U.S. corn state after Iowa.
"Last year and this year, we're seeing a little yield drag but, even so, corn pays," Schaumberg said from the air-conditioned cab of his crop-cutting combine as he mowed down tall corn stalks, gathering kernels of the yellow grain.
Schaumburg was in the early stages of harvest and so far was averaging roughly 180 bushels per acre in fields that grew corn last year, and about 200 bpa in corn fields that were planted with soybeans last year, with both yields in line with his averages during the previous few years.
"Corn on corn hurts in some places but there's places it's awful good," he said. Down the road, farmer Dave Eyer was not faring as well. One field that was planted with corn last year yielded roughly 125 bpa, down 30 to 40 bushels from a year ago, after scorching weather in July stressed the crop as it pollinated.
"The plant knew there was something wrong and it only put out so many kernels to be pollinated," Eyer said. Another field planted for seed corn was expected to yield nothing and Eyer said he would claim insurance for it. "It was so hot, it killed the pollen," Eyer said. "It's not perfect every year.
Weather is still the major factor." Research firm AgResource Co on Friday cut its yield estimate 2 percent to 145.1 bpa, citing disappointing results from the early harvest. The forecast was below the latest U.S. Department of Agriculture estimate of 148.1 bpa. Late planting, a lack of rain and hot temperatures have all been blamed for the lower yields.
Dry weather can have more of a negative effect on corn-on-corn fields than corn that followed soybeans, said Emerson Nafziger, an extension agronomist at the University of Illinois.
Interesting3: Research at the University of Liverpool has found that periods of rapid fluctuation in temperature coincided with the emergence of the first distant relatives of human beings and the appearance and spread of stone tools. Dr. Matt Grove from the School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology reconstructed likely responses of human ancestors to the climate of the past five million years using genetic modeling techniques.
When results were mapped against the timeline of human evolution, Dr. Grove found that key events coincided with periods of high variability in recorded temperatures. Dr. Grove said: "The study confirmed that a major human adaptive radiation — a pattern whereby the number of coexisting species increases rapidly before crashing again to near previous levels — coincided with an extended period of climatic fluctuation.
Following the onset of high climatic variability around 2.7 million years ago a number of new species appear in the fossil record, with most disappearing by 1.5 million years ago. The first stone tools appear at around 2.6 million years ago, and doubtless assisted some of these species in responding to the rapidly changing climatic conditions. "By 1.5 million years ago we are left with a single human ancestor — Homo erectus.
The key to the survival of Homo erectus appears to be its behavioral flexibility — it is the most geographically widespread species of the period, and endures for over one and a half million years. Whilst other species may have specialized in environments that subsequently disappeared — causing their extinction — Homo erectus appears to have been a generalist, able to deal with many climatic and environmental contingencies."
Dr. Grove's research is the first to explicitly model 'Variability Selection', an evolutionary process proposed by Professor Rick Potts in the late 1990s, and supports the pervasive influence of this process during human evolution.
Variability selection suggests that evolution, when faced with rapid climatic fluctuation, should respond to the range of habitats encountered rather than to each individual habitat in turn; the timeline of variability selection established by Dr. Grove suggests that Homo erectus could be a product of exactly this process.
Linking climatic fluctuation to the evolutionary process has implications for the current global climate change debate. Dr. Grove said: "Though often discussed under the banner term of 'global warming', what we see in many areas of the world today is in fact an increased annual range of temperatures and conditions; this means in particular that third world human populations, many living in what are already marginal environments, will face ever more difficult situations.
The current pattern of human-induced climate change is unlike anything we have seen before, and is disproportionately affecting areas whose inhabitants do not have the technology required to deal with it."
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