Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha paragraphs / January 10-11, 2012

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

Lihue, Kauai –                    79
Honolulu airport, Oahu –      81
Kaneohe, Oahu –                79
Molokai airport –                 79
Kahului airport, Maui –         83  (Highest temperature for this date was 89 – in 1951)
Kona airport –                    80
Hilo airport, Hawaii –          78   

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops…as of 6pm Tuesday evening:

Barking Sands, Kauai – 78
Princeville, Kauai – 72

Haleakala Crater –  46 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea –         36 (near 13,800 feet on the Big Island)

Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live web cam on the summit of near 13,800 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. Here's the Haleakala Crater webcam on Maui…which is working only sometimes lately.

 Aloha Paragraphs

Lighter trade winds…a few showers
 

As this weather map shows a strong 1036 millibar high pressure system far to the northeast, along with its associated ridge running southwest to the north of the state.  At the same time, we have a long cold front approaching the state from the northwest. The location of this high pressure cell, and its associated ridge will keep light to moderately strong trade winds blowing into mid-week…although gradually becoming lighter into Thursday.

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

16                 Port Allen, Kauai – NE
16                 Kahuku, Oahu – NE
08                 Molokai – NE  
M                  Kahoolawe
18                    Lipoa, Maui – NE
10                 Lanai 
13                 Kawaihae, Big Island – NW

We can use the following links to see what’s going on in our area of the north central Pacific Ocean Tuesday evening.  Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we see scattered low level clouds out over the ocean at the time of this writing, although clouds are also evident over and around the islands in places too. We can use this looping satellite image to see a rather impressive cold front to the northwest of the islands…and a small area of thunderstorms far to the east of the Big Island. Checking out this looping radar image we see a few light to moderately heavy showers over the ocean, impacting the islands locally.

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

0.04               Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.08               Punaluu Stream, Oahu
0.01               Molokai
0.00               Lanai
0.00               Kahoolawe
0.46                 Puu Kukui, Maui
0.35               Kawainui Stream, Big Island

Sunset Commentary:   One primary near 1038 millibar high pressure system remains in place far to the northeast of the Hawaiian Islands Tuesday evening.  An associated high pressure ridge, which runs down to the southwest, to the north of Kauai, will keep the trade winds blowing into Wednesday. A cold front to the northwest will approach the state later this week, and in the process push this ridge down closer to Hawaii. The winds will become lighter Thursday and Friday into the Saturday, before veering to the southeast and south Sunday and Monday…ahead of another cold front.

The state had been very dry, although this began changing somewhat yesterday, with more normal moisture content over the state now. This suggests that there will be a few more showers around now into mid-week. The next chance for more rainfall will wait until Thursday, when a frontal cloud band, and a cold trough of low pressure aloft gets close to the state then into Friday. This interaction between the upper trough, and moisture at the surface associated with the front moving by to our north, will be our best chance of showers this week. The weekend should dry out some, before another cold front brings showers our way during the first couple of days of next week.

Here in Kula, Maui at around 4pm HST, it was partly cloudy, with an air temperature of 67.1F degrees. As noted above, our light to moderately strong trade winds will continue into Wednesday. At the same time, our overlying atmosphere will remain stable, although somewhat more shower prone than it has been recently. The bulk of these showers will fall along our windward sides, with a few over and around the mountains at times too. This trade wind weather pattern will remain in place through Wednesday. As we move into Thursday and Friday, a cold front will move close to the islands, gliding by just to the north. At the same time, an area of unusually cold air will move into place aloft to the northeast of the islands. These two weather features will likely bring some increase in showers Thursday and Friday. There is that chance of a few heavier showers, although widespread rain isn't expected. As the front and upper trough of low pressure move away, we should move into a drier weekend, with more or less nice weather on Saturday. It should be pointed out that a more vigorous cold front will be making its way in our direction later this weekend, bringing possible showers early next week. We haven't had any south or southwesterly kona winds in quite a while, although the computer models are showing just such winds developing ahead of this weekend's approaching cold front on Sunday into Monday. It's a little too early to know just how much rainfall we might get from the cold front Monday and Tuesday, although we could sure use some precipitation. ~~~ I'm doing this sunset commentary a bit early today, as I'm starting a new class here at a friends house in Kula. It's called Hanna Somatic Education, which is a unique learning process utilizing the exploration of movements performed in a specific way to improve muscular control, gain freedom of movement, increase flexibility and improve posture. It's an hour and a half class, which I'm looking forward to doing, now that I have more free time.
~~~ I'll be back after this class and before dinner for a few updates, and then again early Wednesday morning with your next new weather narrative from paradise. I hope you have a great Tuesday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn. 

Interesting:  A mysterious malady has killed off nearly one-fifth of Colorado's aspens. But forest ecologists have struggled to explain the widespread die-off, known as Sudden Aspen Decline. The Aspen Daily News reports that a new study from researchers at Stanford University and the University of Utah may provide a breakthrough in understanding the decline and how it kills trees. The research found that aspens have essentially dehydrated due to a drought that took hold of Colorado from 2000 to 2004.

In a delayed reaction to the drought, the systems that carry water through aspen stands broke down. "If they can't transport water, they're kind of screwed," said Duncan Smith of the University of Utah, who worked on Anderegg's project and co-authored a paper on it released this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Researchers pruned dying aspens and studied them in the lab, and listened to their inner workings with microphones as they died.

"Just as there are a number of ways people can die and you can't always pinpoint it, it's the same with trees," said Stanford Ph.D. candidate William Anderegg, who led the research. Researchers found that in response to drought, the trees were developing embolisms — much like common human blood vessel blockages — which broke down their ability to move water.

In trees affected by the decline, an average of 70 percent of the vascular system was blocked. That's up from an average of 17 percent in healthy aspens. The trees, researchers found, fought against dehydration for a few years after the drought but lost and eventually died.

The researchers concluded that drought caused widespread failure of water transport systems in the trees. Their conclusion is a foreboding sign for Aspen's signature trees in the age of global warming. Anderegg's team studied climate records in 51 different aspen-filled areas in Western Colorado from 1900 to 2009.

The period from 2000 to 2004 marked the most severe drought in the entire period. "For aspens, hot temperatures tend to be really stressful," Anderegg said. "Climate change and global warming will be a real problem for aspen trees anywhere."