Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha paragraphs / July 6-7, 2012

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

Lihue, Kauai –                     82   
Honolulu airport, Oahu –      84
Kaneohe, Oahu –                 81
Molokai airport –                  84
Kahului airport, Maui –     86  (Record high temperature for Friday – 92F / 1981) 
Kona airport –                     85
Hilo airport, Hawaii –            81

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain top around the state…as of 9pm Friday evening:

Kailua-kona – 79
Hilo, Hawaii – 71
 
Haleakala Summit –     M (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit –   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…although this webcam is not always working correctly.

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.  

 Aloha Paragraphs

 
  Locally strong and gusty trade winds, windward
showers at times…a few elsewhere

As this weather map shows, we have a large near 1031 millibar high pressure system to the north-northwest of the islands.  Our local winds will remain active from the trade wind direction through the next week.

The following numbers represent the most recent top wind gusts (mph), along with directions as of Friday evening:

27            Waimea Heights, Kauai – ENE 
35            Kahuku trng, Oahu – ESE
36            Molokai – NE 
42            Kahoolawe – ESE
39            Kahului, Maui – NE 
37            Lanai – NE
33            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.  Here's the latest NOAA satellite picture – the latest looping satellite image…and finally the latest looping radar image for the Hawaiian Islands.

Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Friday evening:
 
0.65               Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.26               Manoa Lyon Arboretum, Oahu
0.30               Molokai
0.01               Lanai
0.00               Kahoolawe
1.38               Puu Kukui, Maui
1.54               Kawainui Stream, Big Island  

Sunset Commentary:  Our trade wind weather pattern will prevail through the weekend…into the new work week ahead. The trade winds remain strong enough to keep small craft wind advisories active across those windiest channels and coastal areas around the state.  These trade winds will carry windward biased showers our way periodically…most generously during the night and morning hours. A few of these showers will be carried over into leeward sides at times locally. There may be a few generally light afternoon showers at times on the slopes in the Kona and Kau districts on the Big Island…and perhaps along the leeward upcountry slopes of the Haleakala Crater on Maui here and there too. 

As this satellite image shows, we have more upstream clouds to the east and northeast of the islands. These low level clouds will continue to drop occasional showers along our windward sides…a few more than that locally. Meanwhile, there continues to be areas of high cirrus clouds over the ocean in several directions, especially to our northwest. The closest ones were located well offshore of Kauai and Oahu, with a few minor wisps south and southeast of the Big Island at the time of this writing. Here's a closer look at our islands using this satellite picture…so we can keep track of whatever clouds are upstream of the islands…as they continue to be carried our way on the gusty trade wind flow.

Well, it was Friday evening, and I figured I'd better adhere to my regular schedule, so I headed down to Kahului for my usual new film viewing. The one I really want to see is called Savages, although it's just opening, so was likely too crowded for comfort. I'm also looking forward to seeing To Rome With Love, with Woody Allen and Penelope Cruz. Then, lets not forget The Amazing Spider-Man! As it turns out, I saw one that I hadn't planned on seeing, although is getting good marks by the critics, called Magic Mike. The stars in this film include Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, Matthew McConaughey, Cody Horn, and Olivia Munn…among many others. The synopsis: set in the world of male strippers, Mike takes a young dancer called The Kid under his wing and schools him in the fine arts of partying, picking up women, and making easy money. I have to admit, this sounded like kind of a fun theme, and I was willing to give it a chance. We'll it happened again, I ended up liking this film quite a bit. I was shocked to see the large theater totally fill up with young women, who took up every seat in the place. I didn't mind of course, and it was actually rather unique to be one of the few guys in there! Now, after seeing the film, I can see why, they liked the performances by all the handsome men in the film. Fortunately for me, there were some good looking women in the in key roles too. At any rate, I'm going to dole out a solid B grade for Magic Mike, it was entertaining. This trailer may be a bit much for some of you, although on the other hand, it's not that violent at least…being called a comedy.

Here in Kula, Maui at 515pm, it was partly cloudy…with an air temperature of 76F degrees. As noted above, our trade winds will continue blowing well into the future. The overall weather picture here in the islands remains rather placid. The three features that catch our attention most directly are the gusty trades, the surf breaking along our leeward showers…and those periodic windward showers. This time of year, these three are part and parcel of our typical weather picture, nothing whatsoever unusual about any of these. Looking further afield, or over the ocean in this case, we have hurricane Daniel very far away to our east…in the eastern Pacific. It will continue churning its way westward, more or less in our direction. Now before anyone gets nervous about this, I want to point out that hurricane Daniel won't bother us here in Hawaii! There's more information about this tropical cyclone just below. ~~~ I'll be back early Saturday morning with your next new weather narrative from paradise. I hope you have a great Friday night wherever you happen to be spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

[World-wide tropical cyclone activity:

Central Pacific Ocean:  There are no active tropical cyclones

Eastern Pacific Ocean:  Hurricane Daniel (4E) is active about 745 miles southwest of the southern tip of Baja California…with 75 mph sustained winds. Here's the official NHC graphical track map. Here's what the hurricane models are doing with this storm. Here's a satellite image of this tropical cyclone, and the area of disturbed weather described in the paragraph below. As you can see, Daniel will continue migrating westward away from Mexico, over open ocean in the eastern Pacific. Hurricane Daniel is forecast to remain at hurricane strength only briefly…remaining at that level for about 24-36 hours. Daniel will then move over cooler sea water, and a more stable environment, both of which will begin taking this system down in strength later this weekend. Thereafter, Daniel will weaken even further into a tropical depression while still in the eastern Pacific. If it continues that far, it is forecast to dissipate into a remnant low pressure system as it moves into the far eastern part of our central Pacific basin…which would be about 1000 miles east of our islands. There's a chance that the leftover clouds and showers, from what will then be retired tropical cyclone Danie…might bring a period of increased rainfall to parts of Maui County and the Big Island next Friday or Saturday.

MEANWHILE, SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS ASSOCIATED WITH A LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM LOCATED ABOUT 500 MILES SOUTH-SOUTHEAST OF ACAPULCO MEXICO HAVE NOT BECOME ANY BETTER ORGANIZED DURING THE PAST SEVERAL HOURS. HOWEVER…THE CIRCULATION OF THE LOW CONTINUES TO BECOME BETTER DEFINED…AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS ARE CONDUCIVE FOR A TROPICAL DEPRESSION TO FORM DURING THE NEXT DAY OR TWO. THIS SYSTEM HAS A HIGH CHANCE…60 PERCENT…OF BECOMING A TROPICAL CYCLONE DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS AS IT MOVES WEST-NORTHWESTWARD NEAR 15 MPH.

Here's where this area of disturbed weather is located, and where it will go if it develops…which is very likely.

Here's what the hurricane models are showing for this strengthening tropical disturbance.

ELSEWHERE…TROPICAL CYCLONE FORMATION IS NOT EXPECTED DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS.

Atlantic Ocean/Gulf of Mexico/Caribbean:  There are no active tropical cyclones

Western Pacific Ocean:  There are no active tropical cyclones

South Pacific Ocean:  There are no active tropical cyclones

South and North Indian Oceans: There are no active tropical cyclones

Interesting:  The open ocean aquaculture industry may have just made a new friend — the soy industry. The Soy Aquaculture Alliance is ever closer to making an agreement to use soy as feed in open ocean fish farming pens in federal waters, a move that would reportedly impact the marine environment as well as the diets of both fish and consumers — and not necessarily in a good way.

According to a new report by Food & Water Watch, an independent public interest organization funded through members, individual donors, and foundation grants, a collaboration between these two industries could be devastating to ocean life and consumer health.

"Our seas are not Roundup ready," said Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch. "Soy is being promoted as a better alternative to feed made from wild fish, but this model will not help the environment, and it will transfer massive industrial farming models into our oceans and further exacerbate the havoc wreaked by the soy industry on land—including massive amounts of dangerous herbicide use and massive deforestation."

The soy industry stands to gain over $200 million each year by aggressively promoting the use of soy to feed farmed fish at a time when more and more consumers are eating seafood sourced from aquaculture or fish farms. Close to half of the seafood consumed globally comes from these factory fish farms.