Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha paragraphs / November 23-24, 2011

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

Lihue, Kauai –                   78
Honolulu airport, Oahu –     83   (record high for the date – 87 in 1979)
Kaneohe, Oahu –               79
Molokai airport –                78
Kahului airport, Maui          82 
Kona airport                      83
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 Wednesday evening:

Barking Sands, Kauai – 81
Kapalua, Maui – 73

Haleakala Crater – 52 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea –        41 (over 13,500 feet on the Big Island)

Here are the 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Wednesday evening:

0.10     Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.16     Waiawa, Oahu
0.15     Molokai
0.00     Lanai
0.07     Kahoolawe
3.57     Puu Kukui, Maui
1.35     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

  Somewhat less windy, just a few windward
showers at times…otherwise nice Thursday

Happy Thanksgiving!
 

As this weather map shows, we find a 1019 millibar high pressure system located far to the east of the Hawaiian Islands, with a second much closer 1027 millibar high pressure cell  to the northwest Wednesday night.  At the same time, there’s the tail-end of a weak cold front to the northeast of our islands.  Our trade winds will decrease some on Thanksgiving Day into Friday.  We'll find another episode of strong and gusty trade winds riding in again behind a cold front this weekend…into early next week.

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

30                 Lihue, Kauai – NE
31                 Waianae Valley, Oahu – SE
36                 Molokai – NNE
40                 Kahoolawe – E
36                 Kahului, Maui – NE
42                    Lanai – NE
42                    Pali 2, Big Island – NNE

We can use the following links to see what’s going on in our area of the north central Pacific Ocean Wednesday night. Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we find that high and middle level cloudiness is located to the east through west of the state tonight…at least at the time of this writing. We can use this looping satellite image to see very minor low cloud lines being carried into our windward sides on the gusty trade wind flow. At the same time, we find a considerable amount of thunderstorm rainfall over the ocean well west of the Aloha state. Checking out this looping radar image we see just a few light showers falling locally over the ocean, arriving along our windward coasts and slopes here and there.

Sunset Commentary:  The trade winds remained blustery today, especially over parts of Maui County and the Big Island. Kauai and Oahu had gusts over 30 mph all day, although gusts were topping 40 mph further east. The small island of Lanai has been particularly windy the last couple of days, at least at times…with gusts over the 40 mph mark. High pressure to our northwest through northeast is the source of these gusty winds, in contrast to lower pressure in the deeper tropics to our south as well, keeping the pressure gradient tighter than usual over the state. The expectation continues to be that these winds will mellow-out a little over the next few days, through most of Friday.

Things will change however as we get into late Friday, and certainly over the upcoming weekend. A strengthening high pressure cell to the north of the state later Friday into Saturday, will push a weak cold front down into the state during the first part of the weekend. The associated showers accompanying this frontal passage won’t be the main event however. What will be more like headline weather news will be the return of strong and gusty winds into Sunday, and perhaps into next Monday as well. Before we let go of discussing cold fronts, we may see another one arriving about a week from today.

At the moment we have small craft wind advisories active over those windiest coasts and channels around Maui County and the Big Island. They may remain in force through Friday, or may get dropped, depending upon just how much the trade wind speeds relax. However, they will be back fully this weekend, and it wouldn’t be out of the question to see wind advisories over some parts of the islands as well. The flow may be deep enough that the peaks on Maui and the Big Island could require wind advisories too…it’s going to be windy. As we get into next week, the winds will calm down by Tuesday or so, that is if the cold front next week actually makes its way here around Wednesday or Thursday.

Just a brief note on that tropical cyclone over in the eastern Pacific before we sign off. Yesterday’s report about Kenneth showed it to be a category 4 storm! It had dropped to a much weaker category 1 storm last night, and since then has fallen to only a tropical storm today. This is a major change in strength no matter how you look at it, and is as dynamic as how quickly it became so strong over this past weekend into Monday. The way it looks now Kenneth will be in the record books soon, perhaps even over the next couple of days it will have diminished into what we call a remnant low pressure system. As I was mentioning yesterday, it poses no danger to our Hawaiian Islands, and may yet bring a few of its leftover showers our way next week.

Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day, and a day off from work in Kihei, I'm going for dinner with a friend in Kahului, and to see a film. This film is called Margin Call, starring Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Demi Moore…among many others. The synopsis: The key players at an investment firm become entangled during one perilous 24-hour period in the early stages of the 2008 financial crisis. When entry-level analyst Peter Sullivan unlocks information that could prove to be the downfall of the firm, a roller-coaster ride ensues as decisions both financial and moral catapult the lives of all involved to the brink of disaster. The critics are giving this film an impressive B+ grade, while the viewers are giving it that same high mark. I'll be sure to let you know what I think, and here's a trailer in case you are interested.

Here in Kihei, Maui at around 530pm Wednesday evening we have clear to partly cloudy skies, after what turned out to be a good day…after quite a few showers along our windward sides earlier in the morning. I don't really have much more to say at the moment, other than to wish you well tonight, and of course to pass on my Thanksgiving greetings to you and yours for Thursday. I'll be back again in the morning, to at least confirm that Thursday and Friday's weather will be just fine, which is a relief to report considering the holiday. It would be another story to have to report heavy rain or something on Thanksgiving. Ok, I'm outta here, Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting: Global climate talks need to focus on the growing threat from extreme weather and shift away from political squabbles that hobble progress toward a tougher pact to rein in greenhouse gas emissions, the head of the U.N. climate panel said. Negotiators from nearly 200 countries meet in Durban, South Africa, on Monday for two-week talks, with minimal expectations of major progress toward an agreement that will eventually bind all major economies to emissions caps.

Rajendra Pachauri warned the latest round of talks risked being bogged down by "short-term and narrow political considerations." "It is absolutely essential that the negotiators get a continuous and repeated exposure to the science of climate change," Pachauri told Reuters in an interview late on Tuesday.

"If we were to do that it will definitely have an impact on the quality and outcome of the negotiations, after all these are human beings, they have families, they are people also worried about what is going to happen to the next generations." Pachauri heads the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which issued a report for policymakers on Friday saying an increase in heat waves is almost certain, while heavier rain, more floods, stronger cyclones, landslides and more intense droughts are likely across the globe this century.

"I am afraid the way the whole thing is structured loses sight of these realities," Pachauri said of the talks. The report comes after a year of costly weather disasters, from floods in Thailand to a string of multi-billion dollar disasters in the United States that have killed hundreds.

At best Durban is expected to result in modest steps toward a deal to lower emissions from factories, power stations and transport that scientists say are heating up the planet. The negotiations have become a battleground between rich and poor nations on the question of how much cuts in greenhouse gases each should take, with developing countries insisting they should be allowed to emit more to grow out of poverty.

Interesting2: People sleep significantly better and feel more alert during the day if they get at least 150 minutes of exercise a week, a new study concludes. A nationally representative sample of more than 2,600 men and women, ages 18-85, found that 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity a week, which is the national guideline, provided a 65 percent improvement in sleep quality.

People also said they felt less sleepy during the day, compared to those with less physical activity. The study, out in the December issue of the journal Mental Health and Physical Activity, lends more evidence to mounting research showing the importance of exercise to a number of health factors.

Among adults in the United States, about 35 to 40 percent of the population has problems with falling asleep or with daytime sleepiness. "We were using the physical activity guidelines set forth for cardiovascular health, but it appears that those guidelines might have a spillover effect to other areas of health," said Brad Cardinal, a professor of exercise science at Oregon State University and one of the study's authors.

"Increasingly, the scientific evidence is encouraging as regular physical activity may serve as a non-pharmaceutical alternative to improve sleep." After controlling for age, BMI (Body Mass Index), health status, smoking status, and depression, the relative risk of often feeling overly sleepy during the day compared to never feeling overly sleepy during the day decreased by 65 percent for participants meeting physical activity guidelines.

Similar results were also found for having leg cramps while sleeping (68 percent less likely) and having difficulty concentrating when tired (45 percent decrease). Paul Loprinzi, an assistant professor at Bellarmine University is lead author of the study, which was conducted while he was a doctoral student in Cardinal's lab at OSU.

He said it is the first study to examine the relationship between accelerometer-measured physical activity and sleep while utilizing a nationally representative sample of adults of all ages. 'Our findings demonstrate a link between regular physical activity and perceptions of sleepiness during the day, which suggests that participation in physical activity on a regular basis may positively influence an individual's productivity at work, or in the case of a student, influence their ability to pay attention in class," he said.

Cardinal said past studies linking physical activity and sleep used only self-reports of exercise. The danger with this is that many people tend to overestimate the amount of activity they do, he said. He added that the take-away for consumers is to remember that exercise has a number of health benefits, and that can include helping feel alert and awake.

"Physical activity may not just be good for the waistline and heart, but it also can help you sleep," Cardinal said. "There are trade-offs. It may be easier when you are tired to skip the workout and go to sleep, but it may be beneficial for your long-term health to make the hard decision and get your exercise."