Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha paragraphs / February 20-21, 2013

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

Lihue, Kauai –                        77  
Honolulu airport, Oahu –         81  
Molokai airport –                    77
Kahului airport, Maui –           79 
Kona airport     –                 82   
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 530am Thursday morning:

Kaneohe, Oahu – 72
Barking Sands, Kauai – 66

Haleakala Summit –   34     (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 25      (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

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

High Surf Advisory along east facing shores
of Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Maui and the Big Island

Wind Advisory for leeward Kohala, Kamuela to
Waikoloa…winds 25-35 mph – gusts 40-50+ mph

Winter Weather Advisory for the Big Island
summits / Mauna Kea webcam

Windward showers, many at times this week,
drifting into the leeward sections here and there

~~~543am HST Thursday morning: mostly clear,
  near calm…at my upcountry Kula, Maui weather
tower: 50.9F degrees~~~

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

30       Waimea Heights, Kauai – NE
58       Kuaokala – NE
43       Molokai – NE
38       Kahoolawe – NE
40       Kapalua – NE
43       Kohala Ranch, Big Island – NE 

Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Wednesday evening:
 
2.94     Kilohana, Kauai
1.78     Waiawa, Oahu
0.08     Molokai
0.00     Lanai
0.00     Kahoolawe
3.99     Puu Kukui, Maui
4.98     Island Dairy, 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 continue to be strong and gusty, especially around the Big Island and parts of Maui County…reaching 30-50+ mph in gusts locally at times. Here's a weather chart showing a broad, east-west area of high pressure, anchored by a strong 1035 millibar high pressure cell to the northeast of Hawaii. At the same time, we see many deep storm and gale low pressure system systems far to the north and northwest. Our trade wind weather pattern will prevail, with the winds continuing to be stronger than normal into the weekend. The longer range outlook now shows that our strong and gusty trade winds, will finally drop back down in the more normal realms early next week.

Satellite imagery shows just a few low clouds along our windward sides in places, with additional moisture upstream…which will bring showers as it arrives along our windward sides tonight into Thursday morning. As the trades remain gusty over the next 2-3 days, they will bring us periodic windward biased showers. The leeward sides will see some clouds too, with a few showers flying over into those areas here and there. An upper level trough of low pressure will enhance our incoming showers at times, especially as we get into Friday afternoon…through the Saturday morning time frame.

These long lasting, and rather intense winds, at least locally at times…will finally falter after this coming weekend.  This will be quite a relief, especially for those that venture out into the ocean for fishing, and visitor tours in particular. As we know, these stiff trade winds have gusted up as high as the middle 60 mph range at their peak, with lots of 40-50+ mph gusts in many areas. Rainfall has come and gone, with some heavy downpours, giving way to totally clear periods too. At the time of this writing, around sunset Wednesday, most of the island chain, even our windward sides, were near cloud free. As this satellite picture shows however, there are more clouds to our east and northeast…which the trade winds will carry in our direction, at least some of them.

This windy, and sometimes showery reality isn't quite done with us, and will keep its onslaught going for a few more days, through the weekend likely. Thereafter, as I was mentioning above, we should return to something that resembles normal, in terms of windiness and passing showers. ~~~ I'll be back with more updates this evening, and then with a new weather narrative early Thursday morning. I hope you have a great Wednesday night wherever you happen to be 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:  Tropical depression 02W remains active in the southern Philippines…located approximately 380 NM south-southwest of Puerto Pincesa, Philippines. Sustained winds are 25 knots, with gusts to 35 knots (29-40 mph). Here's the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) graphical track map, and a satellite image. – Final Warning

South Pacific Ocean:  There are no active tropical cyclones

North and South Indian Oceans:  Tropical cyclone 16S (Haruna) remains active in the Madagascar Channel…located approximately 350 NM southwest of Antananarivo, Madagascar. Sustained winds are 100 knots, with gusts to 125 knots (115-132 mph). Here's the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) graphical track map, and a satellite image.

Interesting:  A team of researchers at Ohio State University (OSU) spent the past 2 years developing a clean way of harnessing the power of coal and have recently found great success in their research scale combustion system. The team is now able to harness clean coal energy chemically without combustion with air, while capturing 99% of the carbon dioxide produced from the reaction. With the next stage in testing on the horizon, could this possibly be the future of coal?

Combustion is the main mechanism used to harness energy from coal. All existing coal burning processes consume oxygen to produce heat. The downside, however, is that it also produces a large amount of pollutants, such as nitrogen and sulfur oxides, which are difficult to contain and are harmful to the environment.

OSU researchers found a way to harness the energy from coal through what they call Coal-Direct Chemical Looping (CDCL). CDCL mixes tiny iron oxide beads to carry oxygen to spur the chemical reaction with coal, which is grounded into a fine powder. This mixture is then heated to high temperatures, where the materials react with each other.

Carbon from the coal binds with the oxygen from the iron oxide to produce heat and almost pure carbon dioxide that rises to the top of the chamber where it is then captured. The excess heat harvested in this process produces water vapor to power steam-turbines to generate electricity.

Researchers reported that each unit can produce about 25 thermal kilowatts. Pure carbon dioxide is separated and recycled, the iron beads are exposed to air inside the reactor becoming re-oxidized, allowing the beads to be re-generated almost indefinitely and the coal ash is removed and disposed of safely.

Coal-Direct Chemical Looping exceeds all the goals that the Department of Energy (DOE) has set in place for the development of clean energy from coal. Based on current tests the team at Ohio State University is confident that they will continue to exceed the requirements set by the DOE.

OSU is preparing for their larger-scale pilot plant which is under construction at the U.S department of Energy's National Carbon Capture Center in Wilsonville, AL. Set to begin operations in late 2013, the plant will produce up to 250 kilowatts using CDCL.