Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha paragraphs / January 2-3, 2011

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

Lihue, Kauai –                    81
Honolulu airport, Oahu –     74    
Kaneohe, Oahu –               80
Molokai airport –                80
Kahului airport, Maui –        81 
Kona airport –                    80
Hilo airport, Hawaii –          82    (Record highest temperature on this date – 86 in 2001)

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

Honolulu, Oahu – 78
Princeville, Kauai – 73

Haleakala Crater –  45 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea –         39 (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

Light winds, just a few showers…rising very
  high surf north and west shores later Tuesday into
Wednesday – volcanically hazy on some islands

As this weather map shows a near 1026 millibar high pressure system far to the east-northeast. The location of this high pressure cell and its ridge, which is being pushed southward over the state by an approaching cold front, will make for light breezes Tuesday, becoming more moderately strong by Wednesday.

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

13                 Lihue, Kauai – SW
10                 Honolulu, Oahu – SW
09                 Molokai – NW 
00                 Kahoolawe
09                 Kapalua, Maui – NW
09                 Lanai – NW 
23                    South Point, Big Island – ENE

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 see just a few low level clouds around the islands, mostly remaining offshore at the time of this writing, although having formed over the islands during the afternoon hours.  The leeward sides are mostly clear to partly cloudy, as are the windward sides. We can use this looping satellite image to see high clouds moving away over the ocean far to the east of the islands, and to our to our north as well. At the same time, can see a cold front approaching the islands to the northwest of Kauai. Checking out this looping radar image we see just a few showers over the ocean, coming into the islands from the southeast locally…especially the Big Island at the moment.

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

0.05               Lihue airport, Kauai
0.31                 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.00               Molokai
0.00               Lanai
0.00               Kahoolawe
0.01               Puu Kukui, Maui
0.24               Piihonua, Big Island

Sunset Commentary:  The local winds will remained quite light in most areas again today, strongest on the Big Island end of the chain. These light winds will vary in direction between southwest through southeast. As we get into later Tuesday, and Wednesday we'll find a new trade wind producing high pressure system moving into place. This in turn will bring back our trade winds, lasting through the end of the week…even into early next week perhaps.

As far as rainfall goes, there won’t be much, with a few along the southeast slopes, and a few more perhaps over the slopes during the afternoon hours.  A cold front is trying to make its way down towards Kauai now, which may get close to Kauai. Then, as the trade winds return on Wednesday, we'll likely see the windward shower activity increase a notch into the weekend. 

Here in Kula, Maui at around 6pm HST, it was clear…with an air temperature of 65.7F degrees…along with thick volcanic haze! The ridge of high pressure near Kauai and Oahu kept our trade winds subdued today, although they were felt on the Big Island end of the island chain more fully. As the winds will be quite light, we'll see daytime sea breezes kicking in again Tuesday. These in turn will carry moisture from over the ocean, up the slopes of the mountains during the afternoon hours. This moisture will condense out into clouds, although with just a few light showers falling here and there. Tuesday will find similar conditions that we saw today, including the volcanic haze (vog) over the eastern islands in places. As we push into mid-week, we'll find a fairly normal trade wind weather pattern developing, with more of those windward biased showers, and less cloudiness along our leeward sides. ~~~ The surf will become very large or even giant later in the day Tuesday into Wednesday, with an unusual high surf warning in effect along those north and west facing beaches. This much higher than normal surf will then gradually lower Thursday into the weekend. This will be dangerous surf, and those not used to such large waves, should exercise great caution when getting near those beaches! ~~~ I'll be back early Tuesday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Monday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting:  For the first time in more than 85 years, a gray wolf has been documented in California. The 2 ½-year-old male, known as OR-7, journeyed more than 700 miles from the northeastern corner of Oregon, crossing into California's Siskiyou County on Wednesday, according to the California Department of Fish and Game. OR-7, and any other wolves that wander into California, are federally protected by the Endangered Species Act.

"The thrill of the howl of a lone wolf has returned to California after all these years — what a cause for celebration," said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director for the Center for Biological Diversity. "Studies show that wolves benefit many other wildlife species.

Californians should be proud and excited that this day has finally arrived." Until the 20th century, wolves populated much of California, where they played an important role at the top of the food chain. Following reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park, scientists documented that by forcing elk to move more and to choose different locations, wolves allowed streamside vegetation to grow, benefiting beavers and songbirds.

Northern Rocky Mountains wolves, the very wolves from which OR-7 descends, have also had a dramatic impact on coyote populations, benefitting fox and pronghorn numbers. "The key to restoring wolves in California is going to be tolerance by people, including ranchers," said Greenwald. "Wolves are a very small cause of livestock losses and there are many proven methods for ranchers to avoid losing livestock to wolves."

Interesting2: According to a study conducted in the Department of Communication Disorders at Tel Aviv University, about a quarter of Israeli youth may develop hearing disorders due to prolonged exposure to music players and loud noise. 289 adolescents aged 13-17 participated in the study that examined the habits of music listening through headphones attached to MP3 players, mobile phones and computers.

Eighty percent of participants reported that they listen to personal music players on a regular basis and 41 percent reported daily use. In addition, 83 percent said that they listen to music while driving. The study shows that 49 percent of participants already encounter short term symptoms after listening to loud music.

Twenty-one percent of the respondents reported changes in hearing and 11 percent suffered from "tinnitus", which is the perception of sound within the human ear in the absence of corresponding external sound. The second phase of the study measured the intensity of the music played on music players.

Researchers used miniature microphones which they inserted into the external audio channels in the participant’s ears. Measurement revealed that 26 percent of the adolescents listen to music at an intensity that could cause damage and found that the average volume is 89 decibels.

For a comparison, noise regulations for factories allows workers to be exposed to 85 decibels for eight hours maximum, or 88 decibels for four hours. The measurement also discovered that many participants listened to music at 100 decibels or more.

Professor Hava Mutchnik, a lecturer at the Communication Disorders Department at Tel Aviv University and head of the research team, emphasized that in Israel and the United States, unlike Europe, there is no law which forbids the distribution of music players that enable playing more than 100 decibels.

The research partners were colleagues of Prof. Mutchnik, including Dr. Noam Amir, Dr. Ricki Kaplan-Ne’eman and Ester Shabtay. Other findings of the research are that 79 percent of adolescents are aware of the connection between high volume of music and actual hearing damage, but only 20 percent are concerned about it.