Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha paragraphs / November 18-19, 2011

Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Friday:  

Lihue, Kauai –                   78
Honolulu airport, Oahu –     84  
Kaneohe, Oahu –               81
Molokai airport –                81
Kahului airport, Maui          90  (record high for the date – 90 in 1995) – Tied the record for today!  
Kona airport                      82
Hilo airport, Hawaii –          80

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops…as of 5pm Friday evening:

Kahului, Maui – 85
Princeville, Kauai – 73

Haleakala Crater – M (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Loa – 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:

2.41     Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.65     Kahana, Oahu
0.01     Molokai
0.00     Lanai
0.00     Kahoolawe
0.15     Puu Kukui, Maui
0.49     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 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. The Haleakala Crater webcam on Maui just came back online, after being on the blink for several weeks.

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

  Partly to mostly cloudy, strengthening
trade winds – windward showers

As this weather map shows, we find a 1033 millibar high pressure system located to the northeast of the Hawaiian Islands Friday night.  Our trade winds will remain stronger and gusty through the weekend…remaining active well into the new week.

The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph), along with directions Friday evening:

24                 Port Allen, Kauai – NE
25                 Kahuku, Oahu – NE
23                 Molokai – NNE
29                 Kahoolawe – E
23                 Kahului, Maui – NE
09                 Lanai – NE
31                    South 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 still can't see any lower level clouds, due to the remarkable amount of high and middle level cloudiness being carried overhead from the west and southwest. We can use this looping satellite image to see a counterclockwise rotating low pressure system well west of Kauai. This low continues to carry considerable amounts of high and middle level clouds over our island chain. Checking out this looping radar image we see showers falling locally over the ocean, most of which are light to moderately heavy, although a few are heavier to the southwest of all the islands. Most of this precipitation remains offshore, although some is bringing showers to the islands in places too.

Sunset Commentary:   As has been the case for the last several days, our skies have been over run by clouds, the most prominent of which consist of those that arrive in the high and middle levels of the atmosphere. As I mentioned yesterday, these are called cirrostratus and altocumulus. These clouds are known for their sun filtering, and also their ability to light up the sky colorfully during sunrise and sunsets at times. An upper level low pressure system to our west, which is now in the process of departing, has helped to transport these two types of clouds over us…from the deep tropics south and southwest of our chain of islands.

There have been some showers falling, not from the clouds mentioned above, but from lower level clouds, those rain bearing cumulus and stratoform clouds lower in the air mass. This precipitation hasn’t been all that impressive, although a few places on Kauai and the Big Island have seen some locally generous rainfall totals. There’s been the chance of some light snow atop those two tall summits on the Big Island as well, although at this point, according to this webcam, nothing white is sticking on Mauna Kea yet (viewable during the daylight hours). The chance for some snow up high, and rain down low remains in our weather picture as we move into the upcoming weekend…and beyond.

The trade winds continue to blow, and as a matter of fact, are becoming quite strong and gusty now. This has been anticipated, thus the continuance of the small craft wind advisory over those windiest coastal and channel waters around Maui County and the Big Island. There were several gusts over 30 mph this afternoon, with the top gust reaching 36 mph on the small island of Kahoolawe. We’ll continue to see these rather strong gusts right on into the weekend, perhaps trying to stretch up to near 40 mph in our windiest areas. The trade wind will continue right on into the new Thanksgiving holiday weekend ahead.

Since its Friday evening, and I don't have any pressing social plans, I guess I'll just go see a film. There are several that look interesting, although I've decided to go see the one called J. Edgar, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lea Coco, Naomi Watts and Judi Dench…among many others. Synopsis: based on the life of J. Edgar Hoover, the man often credited with making the FBI what it is today: an efficient, crime-fighting organization shrouded in secrecy. Hoover founded the organization in 1935 and remained director until his death in 1972. The critics are giving this film a B grade, while the viewers have given it the same. By the way, Clint Eastwood is the director of this film. I'm looking forward to seeing it, and will give you my frank opinion Saturday morning. Here's a trailer for this film.

Here in Kihei, Maui at around 530pm Friday evening, there were still lots of those clouds masking our famous Hawaiian blue skies! Cloudy weather prevails, and I'm quite sure that many of you are just about ready to have it go away. Those of you, especially those that like to soak in the rays at our lovely beaches, are likely getting really bored with the ongoing cloudy spell. Showers haven't been all that intrusive at least, although they continue to lurk not too far offshore to our southwest, as this looping radar image shows. As we push into the weekend, the bulk of whatever showers that are around should concentrate their efforts most effectively along our windward coasts and slopes. There will be some occasional partly cloudy periods this weekend, although we'll have to wait until the new week ahead for a more thorough clearing. ~~~ I'll be back early Saturday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Friday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting:  It might not be the shrewdest observation made by a journalist, but snail poo stinks. Of course you can't smell it when one of them goes to the toilet in your pansy beds but in large quantities, the stuff reeks. My visit to Dorset Escargot, a commercial snail farm near Wimborne, was certainly an aromatic experience.

Owned by Tony Walker, he has the unenviable job of hosing out the excrement created by the tens of thousands of snails he breeds on the farm – a chore he was finishing when I arrived. Tony started the business in 2006. Celebrity chef, Anthony Worrall Thompson, was his first customer and since then Dorset Escargot has been doing a roaring trade.

'They're becoming so popular we can't keep up with demand,' beams Tony, who supplies some of London's top restaurants, including Claridges. 'We're hoping to farm 10,000 snails per week by the end of the year.' Britain's steadily growing taste for snails has been a long time coming.

They might be de rigeur on dinner plates across the Channel but we have been slow, even by a snail's standards, to embrace these Marmite molluscs (you either love them or hate them).

But chefs and diners across the country are finally discovering the delights of snail meat and some of Tony's clients, which have also included Gary Rhodes, are producing all manner of exciting escargot dishes; The Waldorf Hilton in London serves them with black pudding, wild garlic and boar bacon, The Bridge House Hotel in Beaminster, Dorset offers them as part of an all day breakfast, while Club Gascon in London has taken it one step further, having just introduced snail caviar to their Michelin star menu.

'I've been experimenting with snails for two or three years, I'm coming up with new dishes all the time,' says Steve Pielesz, head chef at Dorset's Bridge House Hotel. 'On the dinner menu at the moment we've got a mini snail pasty with chips, baked bean puree and homemade ketchup.'

Dishes like these might sound like a gimmick and, to a certain extent, they probably are. But there are many nutritional benefits to be had from eating these gastropods; snail meat is packed with protein and is fat free. I'm also told they are a great vehicle for flavour.

'They work really well in Asian dishes,' claims Tony, who eats snail several times a week. But why stop at snails? Not only are most insects good for you, they're also good for the planet because farming them requires a fraction of the energy needed to produce other meat.

What's more, according to the UN, insects, which are eaten in many countries around the world, are an better source of protein than the usual cows, pigs and sheep. On top of that, there's no need to chop down rainforests for grazing because leafy forests and woodland provides precisely the sort of conditions in which insects thrive.

'The environmental footprint of insects as food is far smaller than other meat-producing animals,' says Patrick Durst, who works for the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). 'Insects are approximately six times more efficient than cattle and more than twice as efficient as pigs or poultry in converting the feed they eat into insect tissue suitable for human consumption.

They also emit fewer greenhouse gases in growing (and in processing) than other livestock.' Historically, a considerable portion of the world's population has dined out on insects and it's only in western culture where the practice has died out.

'The FAO has documented insect consumption by humans in nearly 100 countries around the world,' says Patrick. 'Most commonly in Africa, Asia and Oceania, but also some in Latin America.'

More than 1,600 species of insects are eaten by humans – the most common being beetles, ants, grasshoppers, crickets, wasps and silk worms.

To many, the idea of guzzling such creepy crawlies is disgusting and indeed it can be: the scorpion I ate to research this article was comfortably the most unpleasant 'food' I have ever tasted, although the deep-fried crickets were delicious — slightly nutty and perfect with lager.

But with the global population booming and many already going hungry; could eating bugs help to ease the world's food shortages?