Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Tuesday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 77
Honolulu airport, Oahu – 81
Molokai airport – 77
Kahului airport, Maui – 79
Kona airport – M
Hilo airport, Hawaii – 79
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops around the state…as of 430am Wednesday morning:
Lihue, Kauai – 71
Barking Sands, Kauai – 66
Haleakala Summit – 45 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Loa Summit – 43 (13,000+ 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…if it's available.
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. The 2012 hurricane season is over in the eastern and central Pacific…resuming on May 15th and June 1st 2013.
Aloha Paragraphs
Artist Credit…Anastasia art gallery
Small Craft Advisory ~ for strong gusty winds in
coastal and channel waters around
Maui County and the Big Island
Gusty northeast to east-northeast breezes…generally
dry weather for the time being
~~~Air temperature at 537am HST Wednesday morning,
clear skies, calm…at my upcountry Kula, Maui
weather tower: 48.9F degrees~~~
The following numbers represent the most recent top wind gusts (mph), along with directions as of Tuesday evening:
20 Port Allen, Kauai – E
31 Kuaokala, Oahu – NE
25 Molokai – NE
29 Kahoolawe – ENE
31 Kahuluii, Maui – NE
36 Pali 2, Big Island – NNE
Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Tuesday evening:
0.02 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.12 Manoa Lyon Arboretum, Oahu
0.00 Molokai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Maui
0.01 Kealakekua, Big Island
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.
~~~ Hawaii Weather Commentary ~~~
Our winds will be of a more classic trade wind nature over the next couple of days. Here's a weather chart showing a near 1025 millibar high pressure center located not far to the northeast of Hawaii…moving slowly eastward. At the same time, we see a weak low pressure system well offshore to the east, and a much stronger low to our north-northwest…with an associated cold front draping down to our northwest and far west. Our winds will blow from the east-northeast and east through the next several days. This trade wind flow will be locally quite strong and gusty, making for rough and choppy ocean conditions.
Rainfall will be limited for the time being, although will pick up some along our windward coasts and slopes by later Wednesday or Thursday. The models then show our next cold front approaching the state later Friday into the weekend, turning our winds to the south and southeast. This will bring us back into a convective weather pattern, with clear cool mornings, giving way to afternoon clouds and some shower activity over the interior sections locally through Sunday.
Here's a satellite image, showing lots of low level, and stable clouds moving over some parts of the state…with large clear areas along our leeward sides too. A dry and stable air mass continues to move over the state from the northeast through east-northeast. These breezes will blow in the moderately strong category, although locally stronger and gusty. As I was mentioning above, the trade winds will give way to light south to southeast breezes later Thursday into the weekend. This may bring volcanic haze (vog) our way then, at least locally.
We could use some rain, and the way it looks from here…we may see some arriving later this weekend into early next week. This potentially widespread precipitation would be brought our way via the next cold front. Likely, we would see another dose of cool north to northeasterly breezes flooding into the state in the wake of this next frontal passage…called a fropa in the weather business. ~~~ I'll be back with your next new weather narrative early Wednesday morning, I hope you have a great Tuesday night wherever you're spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.
World-wide tropical cyclone activity:
Atlantic Ocean/Caribbean Sea: There are no active tropical cyclones
Gulf of Mexico: There are no active tropical cyclones
Eastern Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones
Central Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones
Western Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones
South Pacific Ocean: Tropical cyclone 10P (Garry) remains active in the southwest Pacific, located approximately 145 NM east-northeast of Pago Pago, American Samoa. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) shows this cyclone with 45 knot sustained winds, with gusts to 55 knots. 10P will be steadily increasing in strength, reaching between 65 knots in 48 hours. Here's the graphical track map, along with a satellite image.
North and South Indian Oceans: Tropical cyclone 12S (Peta) is dissipating inland over northwest Australia, located approximately 180 NM east of Learmonth, Australia. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) shows this cyclone with 35 knot sustained winds, with gusts to 45 knots. 12S will be decreasing in strength, finishing its life cycle over land within the next 12 hours or so. Here's the graphical track map, along with a satellite image. Final Warning
Interesting: Every major global issue requires spearheading by influential individuals. Global warming had Al Gore and the famine in Ethiopia in the 80s had the fundraising supergroup Band Aid. At long last, the issue of overpopulation is being raised by someone with good exposure in the media. Alexandra Paul, host of the PBS documentary JAMPACKED and star of over 75 films and televisions shows, including the series Baywatch, gave a speech on overpopulation to the TEDX event in Topanga, California (click here for video link.
Alexandra explains correctly that modern man first showed up on earth 200,000 years ago. By 1830 there were 1 billion people on the planet. Therefore, it took 200,000 years for humans to put the first billion humans on earth. The second billion we added in just 100 years. Now, we add 1 billion people every 12 years.
And in 2011, the human population reached 7 billion people. To give you an example of how fast the population grows, Bangladesh had a hurricane that catastrophically killed 139,000 people. As a point for comparison, the population growth in Bangladesh is 139,000 new births every 2 ½ weeks! In her talk, Alexandra says "forcing people to have fewer children doesn't work.
The fastest, most efficient way to stabilize the human population is to send girls to school and Empower women. And give everyone access to, and education on, birth control." Our economic system will suffer as the population lowers, but it will be less dramatic now, than if we have 10 billion people on the planet in 40 years, as the UN projects.
She then asks, "And at some point we'll have to stop the growth, so why not do it now instead of wishing for technologies that don't yet exist and might not even work". The talk concludes with Alexandra encouraging everyone not be afraid to talk about the overpopulation issue: "It is not about taking rights away, it is about giving opportunities to women, children and future generations".
The viewers may disagree with what number of children we should have, or if we need only to stabilize the global population, or to go further and reverse it. However, all viewers will agree that her talk is a positive beginning for this important topic, and that it is presented in a thought provoking manner.
Email Glenn James: 
Priscilla Says:
Hello Glen,
Thank you for mentioning global overpopulation. My two cents worth:
Producing the next generation for economic reasons echoes of the traditional society we hoped to have left behind. One where the value of sons was in their labour and as cannon fodder. Where a daughter’s purpose was to provide domestic labour and babies.
Children were desired because they served. The child’s duty to care for their aged parents was entrenched. Today we hear babbling about the coming problem of age demographics. Sounds ominous.
Hopefully we aim to live in a more civilized world where children are nurtured to lead self fulfilled, happy lives and create a better world.
The idea that woman can choose a vocation other than motherhood and that motherhood is an exacting art, not a biological function, is basic to ensuring that children are respected as valuable individuals and become them.
Thank you for your great blog.
Priscilla ~~~Hi Priscilla, thanks for your positive feedback. I know that this is a controversial subject, although it seems like something that needs to be considered. I appreciate your giving your point of view on this matter, I enjoyed hearing what you had to say. Aloha, Glenn