Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha Paragraphs / September 19-20, 2013

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

86  Lihue, Kauai
88  Honolulu, Oahu
85  Molokai
89  Kahului, Maui
88  Kona, Hawaii
85  Hilo, Hawaii

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops on Maui and the Big Island…as of 743pm Thursday evening:

Kailua Kona – 82
Hana airport, Maui – 77

Haleakala Summit –   50 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 37 (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 working.

Aloha Paragraphs

Our trade winds will remain active well into the future…with
passing windward showers at times

Good sunset colors this evening…along with that just past
full moon tonight

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

28  Port Allen, Kauai – NE
28  Kahuku Trng, Oahu – ESE
28  Molokai -NE
29  Lanai – NE
33  Kahoolawe – E
35  Kahului, Maui – NE
29  Pali 2, Big Island – NNE

Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Thursday evening:

0.51  Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.32  Moanalua, Oahu
0.00  Molokai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.00  Lanai
0.11  Puu Kukui, Maui
0.07  Waiakea Uka, 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 Narrative ~~~

The trade winds will continue, blowing generally in the moderately strong category…although locally stronger at times into next week. Here’s a weather chart showing a large near 1027 millibar high pressure center far to the north of the state, with a second near 1018 millibar high pressure system far to the east-northeast. At the same time we see a deep storm low far to the northeast, with its associated cold front draping southwest…to the north of Hawaii. The trade winds are forecast to last well into the future…through the rest of this week into next week. There will be day to day variations, although 10-30+ mph wind speeds should catch the edges generally.

There will be a few windward showers at times…a couple elsewhere. Satellite imagery shows a few lower level clouds upstream of the islands to the northeast and east…along with some high clouds just offshore to the southwest. These cirrus ice crystals will light up nicely during our sunset hour. Here’s the looping radar image, showing a few light showers moving by, mostly over the offshore waters…although some coming into our windward sides in places too. I foresee little change in our rather meager shower activity for the time being, and most of that will occur during the night and early morning hours.

Two more full days of summer, with the Autumn Equinox occurring Sunday morning: The gusty late summer trade winds will prevail, providing good weather, with no major changes on tap. The trades today were gusting up into the 30+ mph zone locally, which are called moderately strong in most areas of the state. I don’t see any showers of consequence heading our way, riding towards us on those trades. I do see some high clouds approaching from the southwest, as shown on this looping satellite picture – the bright ones.  These will make for what should be a nice colorful sunset this evening, and perhaps again Friday morning for sunrise.

By the way, despite the fact that the full moon occurred last night, tonight will be only slightly less full…something most of us won’t notice in the least. Finally, as you might notice down below, there’s an unusual super typhoon, with top wind gusts near 200 mph, in the Philippine Sea…which is going to move between Luzon Island in the Philippines, and the southern part of Taiwan. Here’s a looping satellite picture of this extremely dangerous storm – check out that eyewall! I’ll be back again early Friday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Thursday night wherever you’re spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

>>Here’s a great satellite image of the Pacific, with the Hawaiian Islands in the lower left corner, an early season cold front to our north and northeast.

World-wide tropical cyclone activity:

Atlantic Ocean:  There are no active tropical cyclones

DISORGANIZED CLOUDINESS AND SHOWERS LOCATED A FEW HUNDRED MILES
SOUTH OF BERMUDA ARE ASSOCIATED WITH A TROUGH OF LOW PRESSURE.
ALTHOUGH UPPER-LEVEL WINDS DO NOT APPEAR CONDUCIVE FOR SIGNIFICANT
TROPICAL DEVELOPMENT…THIS DISTURBANCE COULD ACQUIRE SOME
SUBTROPICAL CHARACTERISTICS WHILE IT MOVES NORTHEASTWARD AND THEN
NORTHWARD OVER THE WESTERN ATLANTIC THROUGH EARLY NEXT WEEK. THIS
SYSTEM HAS A LOW CHANCE…20 PERCENT…OF BECOMING A SUBTROPICAL
CYCLONE DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS AND A LOW CHANCE…20 PERCENT…OF
BECOMING A SUBTROPICAL CYCLONE DURING THE NEXT 5 DAYS.

Caribbean Sea: There are no active tropical cyclones

Interesting:  FAO Says Food Waste Harms Climate, Water, Land, and Biodiversity – The world wastes 1.3 billion tons of food annually—a third of all the food that’s produced—according to a report published last week by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This waste not only results in major economic loss, but also causes significant harm to the natural resources that we rely on for food production. It also has moral implications, given that an estimated 870 million people go to bed hungry every night.

The report, Food Wastage Footprint: Impacts on Natural Resources, analyzes the impacts of global food waste from an environmental perspective, looking specifically at its consequences for the climate, water and land use, and biodiversity.

According to the report’s authors, food that is produced but not eaten consumes a volume of water three times greater than Lake Geneva and adds 3.3 billion tons of greenhouses gases to the atmosphere every year—more than the entire global shipping industry. Approximately 1.4 billion hectares of land—28 percent of the world’s agricultural area—is used annually to produce this food.

In addition to its environmental impacts, the FAO estimates the direct economic consequences of food waste (excluding fish and seafood) to be $750 billion annually.

“We all—farmers and fishers; food processers and supermarkets; local and national governments; individual consumers—must make changes at every link of the human food chain to prevent food wastage from happening in the first place, and re-use or recycle it when we can’t,” said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva.

Food is wasted at all stages of the food chain. Fifty-four percent occurs “upstream” during production, post-harvest handling, and storage, while 46 percent occurs “downstream” during the processing, distribution, and consumption stages, according to the report. Generally, developing countries suffer more food loss during agricultural production, whereas food waste at the retail and consumer level tends to be higher in middle- and high-income regions.

The FAO proposes several solutions to reduce food waste, including better methods of food harvest, storage, processing, transport, and retailing; better communication among food chain participants; more conscientious consumption, with an emphasis on buying only what is needed and relaxing standards for the cosmetic quality of produce; legislation aimed at lowering food waste; systems that redistribute safe surplus food to those in need; and food waste recycling systems that use anaerobic digestion to break food down into usable fertilizer and biogas.