Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha paragraphs / February 27-28, 2012

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

Lihue, Kauai –                     79  
Honolulu airport, Oahu –       79   
Kaneohe, Oahu –                 79
Molokai airport –                  81
Kahului airport, Maui –          83 (record high for the date – 89 – 1951)
Kona airport –                     81
Hilo airport, Hawaii –            76 

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
Kapalua, Maui – 72

Haleakala Crater –  48 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea –         34 (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

  Locally strong and gusty winds – windward showers…
a few elsewhere on the smaller islands – rough
surf along our east facing beaches through
Thursday…very small to near flat south shores 
 

As this weather map shows, we have high pressure systems to the north and northeast of the islands. At the same time we have a weak low pressure system, with its associated trough of low pressure to the west of Kauai…moving away. Our winds will gradually become stronger from the trade wind direction over the next several days.

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

18                 Princeville, Kauai – E 
24                 Bellows, Oahu – NE
24                 Molokai – NE   
44                    Kahoolawe – E  
31                 Lipoa, Maui – SE  
13                 Lanai – SW 
30                 Upolu 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 Monday evening.  Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we see low, middle and high level clouds over the ocean, stretching over the islands in places…with a few thunderstorms well to the west and northwest of Kauai. We can use this looping satellite image to see the counterclockwise rotating low pressure system far to the northwest of Kauai, with those diminishing thunderstorms to the west of the state. Checking out this looping radar image we see light to moderate showers, moving into the windward sides locally at the time of this writing.

Here are the 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Monday evening:
 
1.35                 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
1.31               Palehua, Oahu
0.00               Molokai
0.00               Kahoolawe
0.19               Puu Kukui, Maui
0.80               Glenwood, Big Island  

Sunset Commentary:   The threat of heavy showers has now passed, as strengthening trade winds take over. These winds will carry showers our way at times through the rest of this work week.  These will generally fall upon the windward coasts and slopes, with a few making it over into the leeward sides on the smaller islands. Looking further ahead, our trade winds will once again give way to southeast to perhaps even south winds, ahead of a cold front approaching, or even arriving later Sunday…early early next week. The trade winds will follow in the wake of this next cold front.

Here in Kula, Maui at 515pm HST, we had calm winds, partly cloudy skies…and an air temperature of 62.6F degrees. Looking down across the Central Valley, towards the West Maui Mountains, I can still see quite a bit of volcanic haze, although it should clear soon. The trade winds will take over now, becoming quite strong and gusty through Thursday or Friday. These of course will carry showers to our windward sides at times. The leeward sides will be in better shape, although some of these clouds may travel over from the windward sides on the smaller islands at times too. We saw one such band of showery clouds moving across the state today, which continues to bring some showers to Oahu…and then will move onto Kauai later. Here in Kula, it got darker and darker through the afternoon hours, which lead to a period of very light showers. ~~~ I'll return early Tuesday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Monday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting:  Ancient manuscripts written by Arabic scholars can provide valuable meteorological information to help modern scientists reconstruct the climate of the past, a new study has revealed. The research, published in Weather, analyses the writings of scholars, historians and diarists in Iraq during the Islamic Golden Age between 816-1009 AD for evidence of abnormal weather patterns.

Reconstructing climates from the past provides historical comparison to modern weather events and valuable context for climate change. In the natural world trees, ice cores and coral provide evidence of past weather, but from human sources scientists are limited by the historical information available.

Until now researchers have relied on official records detailing weather patterns including air force reports during WW2 and 18th century ship's logs. Now a team of Spanish scientists from the Universidad de Extremadura have turned to Arabic documentary sources from the 9th and 10th centuries (3rd and 4th in the Islamic calendar).

The sources, from historians and political commentators of the era, focus on the social and religious events of the time, but do refer to abnormal weather events. "Climate information recovered from these ancient sources mainly refers to extreme events which impacted wider society such as droughts and floods," said lead author Dr Fernando Domínguez-Castro.

"However, they also document conditions which were rarely experienced in ancient Baghdad such as hailstorms, the freezing of rivers or even cases of snow." Baghdad was a center for trade, commerce and science in the ancient Islamic world. In 891 AD Berber geographer al-Ya'qubi wrote that the city had no rival in the world, with hot summers and cold winters, climatic conditions which favored strong agriculture.

While Baghdad was a cultural and scientific hub many ancient documents have been lost to a history of invasions and civil strife. However, from the surviving works of writers including al-Tabari (913 AD), Ibn al-Athir (1233 AD) and al-Suyuti (1505 AD) some meteorological information can be rescued.

When collated and analysed the manuscripts revealed an increase of cold events in the first half of the 10th century. This included a significant drop of temperatures during July 920 AD and three separate recordings of snowfall in 908, 944 and 1007. In comparison the only record of snow in modern Baghdad was in 2008, a unique experience in the living memories of Iraqis.

"These signs of a sudden cold period confirm suggestions of a temperature drop during the tenth century, immediately before the Medieval Warm Period," said Domínguez-Castro. "We believe the drop in July 920 AD may have been linked to a great volcanic eruption but more work would be necessary to confirm this idea."

The team believes the sources show Iraq to have experienced a greater frequency of significant climate events and severe cold weather than today. While this study focused on Iraq it demonstrates the wider potential for reconstructing the climate from an era before meteorological instruments and formal records.

"Ancient Arabic documentary sources are a very useful tool for finding eye witness descriptions which support the theories made by climate models," said Domínguez-Castro. "The ability to reconstruct past climates provides us with useful historical context for understanding our own climate. We hope this potential will encourage Arabic historians and climatologists to work together to increase the climate data rescued from across the Islamic world."