Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha paragraphs / February 17-18, 2012

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

Lihue, Kauai –                     79  
Honolulu airport, Oahu –      81   (record high for the date – 85 – 2000)
Kaneohe, Oahu –                 79
Molokai airport –                  78
Kahului airport, Maui –          81 (record high for the date – 88 – 1954, 1997)
Kona airport –                     80
Hilo airport, Hawaii –           75 

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

Kalaeloa, Oahu – 79
Hilo, Hawaii – 73

Haleakala Crater –  37 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea –         30 (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.

 Aloha Paragraphs

Strengthening trades into the weekend, with
strong winds atop the Haleakala Crater on Maui –
   showers increasing, especially on the windward
sides…on the leeward sides locally too –
wintery weather atop the Big Island summits

As this weather map shows, we have storm low pressure systems far to the northeast and northwest of the islands.  At the same time, we have two strong high pressure systems to the northeast of the islands. Our winds will be strengthening into the weekend from the trade wind direction.

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

18                 Lihue, Kauai – NE 
33                 Honolulu, Oahu – NE
33                 Molokai – NE    
47                    Kahoolawe – ENE  
36                 Kahului, Maui – NE  
17                 Lanai – NE  
44                    Kawaihae, 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 evening.  Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we see a narrowing swath of high cirrus clouds over the Big Island…shifting to the east. We can use this looping satellite image to see those high clouds, in addition to lots of lower level clouds being carried our way on the strengthening trades. It appears as if we could have yet another large area of high and middle level clouds approaching from the northwest too. Checking out this looping radar image we see showers being carried into the islands locally…along the windward sides for the most part.

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

0.58                 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.43               Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.00               Molokai
0.01               Kahoolawe
0.11               Puu Kukui, Maui
0.60               Laupahoehoe, Big Island  

Sunset Commentary:  Our winds will strengthen over the next several days. These increasingly strong trade winds will remain active through the weekend. The current models continue to suggest that these trade winds will ease up some, and may even veer back to the southeast during the first part of the new week ahead…in response to an approaching cold front. This frontal cloud band is forecast to stall before arriving into the state however.

Meanwhile, these strong and gusty trades will bring an increase in windward biased showers, with a likely peak slated for this weekend. During the next 2-3 days, we'll find a cold pool of air edging close to the state as well, which will act to enhance whatever showers that are moving under it. The strength of these winter trades will help to carry some of these showers into the leeward sides of the smaller islands at times too. 

Friday evening a couple of friends and I went to see a new film in Kahului. I don't ordinarily see films during the work week, although this film is leaving Maui's theaters now, and I didn't want to miss it. Oh yeah, the name of the film is called Underworld Awakening, starring Kate Beckinsale and Stephen Rea among many others. The synopsis: the vampire Selene escapes imprisonment to find herself in an all-out war between the species. Once again, this is not a film that many of you will need to rush out and see, as are many that I take in as it turns out. The rotten tomatoes film rating website is giving this film a 27 out of 100, not exactly a high score, and as a matter, the lowest of all their current film ratings. As it turned out we all liked the film, although no one was jumping up and down over it. It was one of those very dark films, where there wasn't a smile on the screen anywhere within a million miles. It had all the necessary action and violence that were required of such a film, no doubt about that. There were some monsters in this film too, excuse me for saying so, but they were certainly some bad-ass creatures! As far as a grade, it certainly wasn't as good as Haywire, the film I saw last week, but it deserved a good solid B rating. Here's the trailer, and if you dare to click on this short clip of the film, you'll soon see that it's not a musical, or a comedy…or anything like that!

This evening I'm going to see another film, this one called The Descendants, starring George Clooney and Shailene Woodley among many others. I had been somehow resisting this film for some reason, but I keep hearing such good things about it, that I'm finally breaking down. The synopsis: An indifferent husband and father of two girls is forced to re-examine his past and future when his wife suffers a boating accident. The film rating website rotten tomatoes is giving this film a very high 89 out of a 100 grade. I'll be sure to let you know what I thought about this second film that I'll be seeing in two days…Saturday morning when I return. Here's a trailer for this film, in case you haven't seen it, its absolutely not an action film, with no violence that I know about. 

Here in Kula, Maui at 535pm HST, we had light winds, with partly cloudy skies…and an air temperature of 65.8F degrees. As noted above, the trade winds will become stronger now into the weekend. We'll also see increased windward biased showers arriving as we move into the weekend, as an upper level low pressure system develops near the state, enhancing these frequent showers. The bulk of these showers will occur over the windward sides, although some of these showers will be carried into the leeward sides on the smaller islands. In sum, stronger trade winds with more showers for the windward sides, and elsewhere in places too. ~~~ I'll be back in the morning with your next new weather narrative, plus a new movie review of the film that I'll be seeing this evening too. I hope you have a great Friday night wherever you're spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting:  A new MIT-Princeton University study examining the prospective impacts of extreme storms and storm surges based on a range of climate change scenarios indicates that what were once 100-year and 500-year events would become 3 to 20 and 25 to 240-year events. The study can help coastal planners, who typically design coastal seawalls, buildings and other structures with a 60 to 120-year usable lifespan, according to an MIT News report. The US may be already experiencing these climate change effects.

This past year’s Hurricane Irene took an unusual track, cutting a long and wide path up the US Atlantic coast from mid-Atlantic through New England states, while Winter Storm Alfred battered New England unseasonably early. US state planning agencies and climate researchers, such as those in Vermont, are considering strengthening environmental conservation efforts, along with a host of other measures, to help plan for and mitigate the effects increasing frequency of intense storms, storm surges and floods pose.

Modeling Climate Change, Intense Storms and Storm Surge Floods

Combining four climate models, a specific hurricane model and three different models for predicting regional storm surges — one used by the National Hurricane Center — to study "current climate" (1981-2000) and "future climate" (2081-2100) scenarios, a joint MIT-Princeton University research team compared the results of multiple climate change-hurricane-regional storm surge simulations.

Though the results varied, they all showed that the frequency of intense storms would increase due to climate change. Using Battery Park City at the southern tip of Manhattan in New York City as a reference point, the researchers generated 45,000 storm simulations within a 200-km (~120-mile) radius.

A 100-year storm there today means a flood surge of about two meters. A 500-year storm surge means three-meter high surge floods. Either would easily pass over the top of Manhattan's 1.5-meter (4.95-foot) seawalls, noted MIT postdoctoral researcher Ning Lin, lead author of the study.

Interesting2: While solar energy companies throughout the world are competing for the relatively few vast land areas required to house solar farms, Israeli start up Solaris Synergy has found a new terrain to use. Instead of a land-based solar system, the company decided to develop a water-based technology. In other words: a floating solar power plant.

The company's founders say they realized that the large lands required for thousands of solar panels are nearly impossible to find, especially in a small country like Israel. Solaris Synergy's Business Development Manager, Dr. Elyakim Kassel, tells NoCamels: "In many countries there is a competition between land for construction and land for large solar farms.

Our system comes as a solution to use water surfaces instead of using valuable land." According to Solaris Synergy, any fresh, salt or waste water surface can be turned into a solar energy platform.

Solaris Synergy's flagship product is a floating concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) system — a system that concentrates a large amount of sunlight onto a small area to generate electricity by converting solar radiation into direct current electricity.

The system features a modular design that supports power output ranging from several kilowatts to dozens of megawatts, depending on size. According to the company, their solar-on-water solution dramatically lowers the cost of renewable energy production since the water surface is also used for cooling the solar panels.

This cooling system keeps the silicon elements used as semiconductors at a low temperature and therfore increases their power generation efficiency and extends their lifespan.