Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha paragraphs / February 14-15, 2013

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

Lihue, Kauai –                        75  
Honolulu airport, Oahu –     80  
Molokai airport –                    75
Kahului airport, Maui –       80 
Kona airport     –                 80   
Hilo airport, Hawaii –              77

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops around the state…as of 730pm Thursday evening:

Kailua Kona – 75
Hana airport, Maui – 66

Haleakala Summit –   43     (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 28      (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.

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

Happy Valentine's Day!

Small Craft Advisory for gusty trade winds for all marine
zones across the Hawaiian Islands…through Saturday

High Surf Advisory tonight into Saturday – along north and
west shores of Niihau, Kauai and Molokai, and along north
shores of Oahu and Maui…and west shores of the Big Island

Just a few windward showers, with generally
dry conditions leeward

~~~815pm HST Thursday evening: partly cloudy, calm…at my
upcountry Kula, Maui weather tower: 58.8F degrees~~~

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

24       Port Allen, Kauai – ENE
28       Kuaokala, Oahu – NE
23        Molokai – NE 
33       Kahoolawe – NE
30       Kahului, Maui – NE
30       Waikoloa, Big Island – NNE 

Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Thursday evening:
 
0.36     Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.02     Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.00     Molokai
0.00     Lanai
0.00     Kahoolawe
0.10     Kahakuloa, Maui
0.46     Kawainui Stream, 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 trade winds will remain active through this week into next week, with fairly minor variations in strength on a day to day basis. Here's a weather chart showing a large near 1037 millibar high pressure system located far to the northeast of Hawaii. At the same time, we see a surface trough of low pressure to our east…with deep storm low pressure systems far north and northwest. Our trade wind weather pattern will continue, generally in the moderately strong category. These winds are expected to begin increasing again later Friday into the weekend. The extended outlook calls for blustery trade wind weather to continue right on into next week, which may require wind advisories over the islands, and gale warnings in a few select channels around Maui and the Big Island…later this weekend into the new week as well. 

Satellite imagery shows scattered low clouds along our windward sides…with just a few cloudy conditions along our leeward sides in places. As the trades hold steady in the moderately strong category for the most part, they will be bring us a few light windward biased showers, although not many. The leeward sides will see some of these clouds in places too, although generally dry conditions should prevail. Here's a larger view of the clouds, showing a swath of high clouds just to the north of the islands…and to the northwest of Hawaii as well. Windward sides should see a decent sunset this evening. 

The current trade weather pattern will continue to bring us generally fair weather tonight into Friday…with significantly stronger trade winds later this weekend into the early part of next week. We'll see the beginning of this windier episode later Friday, which will increase further Saturday. As we push into Sunday, and into early next week, we'll see the trade winds increase yet another notch. If you're thinking that this sounds like a pretty windy period ahead…you have that right. We see small craft wind advisories stretching across the entire state now.

As we punch into the windiest part of this episode, later this weekend into early next week, we may see wind advisory flags going up over some parts of the islands. The windiest channel waters could see gale warnings going up too. We'll be battening down the hatches later this weekend, into the first couple of days of next week. As for rainfall, it won't be such a big deal, although there will be some passing showers around in places…a few might be locally quite generous at times Friday night into Saturday morning. ~~~ I'll be back early Friday morning with your next new weather narrative. I hope you have a great Valentine's night wherever you happen to be spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Let's set the record straight here ladies, if you're wondering if you have a Valentine's Day guy on this special holiday, and this includes you Mom, you do…that's me! Love, Glenn

Valentine's Day:  A Medley of love songs by Whitney Houston – full screen

Fun Dancin' on Valentine's Day!   / Why not another  / Can't have too much dancin'

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:  There are no active tropical cyclones

North and South Indian Oceans:  Tropical cyclone 15S (Gino) remains active in the south Indian Ocean…located approximately 1275 NM south-southeast of Diego Garcia. Sustained winds are 50 knots, with gusts to 65 knots (58-75 mph). Here's the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) graphical track map, and a satellite image.

Interesting:   It seems like new, innovative technologies to reduce our carbon footprint are always 10 years away. It's hard to imagine there won't be another amazing technology just around the corner. In this case, NASA has developed a manufacturing method for wing-shaped aircraft. When combined with an uber-efficient jet engine called an "ultra-high bypass ratio engine", this new design promises to cut fuel consumptions by half.

Scientists have long known the benefits of a wing-shaped aircraft compared to the conventional tube and wing design of virtually all existing aircraft. The flying wing design hit mainstream awareness with the B2 Stealth Bomber although the patent for a "tailless plane" was filed in 1910 by Hugo Junkers.

The benefits of such a design are namely reduced structural material resulting in significantly lower overall aircraft weight, and more lift generated by more dramatic wing surface and curvature. The challenge of such a design thus far has been aircraft control during lower speeds.

In addition, the flatter design has proven to be more challenging to support a pressurized cabin. Conventional tubular designs are easier to manufacture to support extreme temperature differences. The scientific advancement by NASA is really in the manufacturing process, potentially opening the door to commercial manufacture in eight to ten years: "NASA's manufacturing process starts with preformed carbon composite rods.

The rods are covered with carbon fiber fabric and stitched into place. Fabric is then stitched over foam strips to create cross members. The fabric is impregnated with an epoxy to create a rigid composite structure." Tech Review.

In addition to strength and reduced weight, the carbon fiber stitching process appears to prevent more catastrophic events in flight. When pressured to the degree of breakage, the stitching prevented cracks from spreading. With recent failures in the most expensive aircraft ever built, the Boeing 787 "Dreamliner", a safer design will be welcomed by consumers.

That being said, this new design is a result of a $300 million partnership between NASA, Pratt & Whitney and Boeing. Providing Boeing doesn't convince the powers that be to include a lithium ion battery in the design, everything should work out. The new engine design developed in 2010, will be used in the first commercial manufacturing process next year.

It promises to dramatically reduce CO2, NOx emission and manufacture cost. If not in the entire flying wing package, the ultra-high bypass ratio engine promises to change transportation emissions significantly as it makes its way into the commercial airline fleet.