Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha Paragraphs / August 9-10, 2014

Lighter winds now through Monday, as hurricane Julio interrupts the trade winds. Here’s the latest weather map, showing the Hawaiian Islands, and the rest of the North Pacific Ocean, along with a real-time wind profile of the central Pacific…focused on the Hawaiian Islands. We have moderately strong high pressure systems located to the northwest and northeast of the state, with a ridge of high pressure extending between the two…to the north of Hawaii. Our  trade winds will slip away again into Monday, with the passage of Julio offshore to our north.

Satellite imagery shows considerable clouds over and around the islands, with former Iselle to the southwest of Kauai…and hurricane Julio out to our east-northeast! Looking at this larger looping satellite image, it shows the spinning low level clouds associated with former Iselle, after having passed by to the south of the islands last night. Then of course, there’s dynamic hurricane Julio out to our east-northeast. Here’s the looping radar, showing showers falling locally, mostly over the ocean…some of which are moderately heavy. 

Hurricane Julio will pass by to the north of our islands into Monday. This hurricane has recently been downgraded to a category 1 storm. The latest CPHC forecast continues to show Julio staying offshore to the north and northeast of our windward sides. It looks like we’ll miss all, or at least most of the heavy weather associated with this hurricane, including the rain and winds. The most dangerous part of a hurricane in the northern hemisphere, is the northeast quadrant, which in this case will keep the worst conditions well away from our islands. This doesn’t mean we won’t see some windward biased showers, from cloud elements that extend south from the passing storm. As this hurricane moves by between Hawaii and a trade wind producing high pressure system, far to the northeast…it will help to shut down our trade winds again. Our winds may come in generally from the northerly direction, although not any of the dreaded strong stuff. We may very well see afternoon clouds, and up slope showers Sunday into Monday. The trade winds will return Tuesday across most of the state…bringing back normal August weather conditions.  I’ll return with more updates on all of the above and below, I hope you have a great Saturday night wherever you happen to be spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

By the way, if you go to the very bottom of this page, you’ll find some interesting comments that folks have written to me, and the replies that I given back to each of them…be sure to click: View All

 *** One more thing, I thought I’d share some statistics, since so many of you were involved in these numbers. During the last seven days, there have been 280,027 hits on this website…I consider that a lot! As for the number of times that folks have clicked on the google ads, which is part of the way that I make money on this site, there have been 2,173 clicks.  ~~~ There have been so many of you who have thanked me for what I do, and now its my turn to thank you! Thanks so much for choosing my website for your weather interests…out of the many others that are available online.

~~~ Hurricane Julio: will be moving northwestward on a path that will take the center several hundred miles offshore to our north. The latest Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC) forecast estimates the sustained winds are near 98 mph near the center, with stronger gusts to near 121 mph at the time of this writing. 

Friday Evening Film: I was finally able to break away from my computer, as Iselle was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone! As was the case last Friday, there were many films that looked good to me, and I had to pick just one. This time it was one called Get On Up, starring Chadwick Boseman, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Nelsan Ellis, Lennie James, Tika Sumpter…among many others. The synopsis:  In his follow-up to the four-time Academy Award (R)-nominated blockbuster The Help, Tate Taylor directs 42’s Chadwick Boseman as James Brown in Get on Up. Based on the incredible life story of the Godfather of Soul, the film gives a fearless look inside the music, moves and moods of Brown, taking audiences on the journey from his impoverished childhood to his evolution into one of the most influential figures of the 20th century.

I went to see this film with my neighbor Jeff, and neither of us were sure what to expect. However, we both came away liking it very much, much more than we thought we might! This was a magnificent performance, bringing the heart and soul of the music…directly into my whole body. My feet were especially moving, as the music wanted me to stand up and dance right in the isle. Chadwick Boseman was excellent, with his explosive energy carrying the film from start to finish. James Brown is the soul brother of our age, the king of funk…there’s no doubt about it! It’s been great, the last two films have been anything but action thrillers…a very nice change of pace. Here’s the trailer for this great film, another A grade film in my opinion…Jeff gave it an A rating too.

Central Pacific:  Hurricane 10E (Julio) remains active at the category 1 level, here in the central Pacific Ocean, located about 330 miles north-northeast of Hilo, Hawaii. Here’s the CPHC graphical track map…along with a satellite image – stay tuned.

Here’s a link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)

Northwest Pacific Ocean: Typhoon 07E (Genevieve) remains active in the western Pacific, as a category 2 tropical cyclone…here’s the JTWC graphical track map…along with a satellite image

South Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones

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

Here’s a link to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC)


Interesting:  What happens immediately after an oil spill? – The fate of oil during the first day after an accidental oil spill is still poorly understood, with researchers often arriving on the scene only after several days. New findings from a field experiment carried out in the North Sea provide valuable insight.

It is well known that oil and water don’t mix. Less well known is the fact that when petroleum is spilt onto a water surface, a fraction of the oil immediately begins to evaporate into the air or dissolve into the seawater. These dissolved toxic hydrocarbons can threaten aquatic species, while evaporated compounds may pose a risk to rescue workers or populations downwind of an accident site. Publishing in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, a team of European and American researchers report on a unique study focused on the fate of hydrocarbons during the 24 hours that follow an oil spill.

Following a spill, oil suddenly finds itself in a radically new environment — exposed to light, air, and the water surface after millions of years underground. “In its new environment, the oil immediately begins to change its composition, and much of that change happens on the first day,” explains Samuel Arey, a researcher at EPFL and Eawag in Switzerland and corresponding author of the study. Oil is a complex mixture of many hydrocarbon compounds. Certain volatile compounds evaporate within hours, contaminating the overlying atmosphere. Others, such as toxic naphthalene, simultaneously dissolve into the seawater, posing a threat to aquatic life.

Especially since the Exxon Valdez catastrophe in 1990, which released over 40,000 cubic meters of oil into the ocean, researchers have sought to evaluate to what extent marine species in the vicinity of an oil spill are exposed to toxic hydrocarbons. But this question has largely remained debated, because many of the hydrocarbons are dispersed into the water or the overlying air well before scientists arrive at the site.

In order to collect data on the immediate aftermath of an oil spill, the researchers collaborated with emergency response specialists of the Dutch Rijkswaterstaat to recreate a four cubic meter oil spill in the North Sea, in a shipping zone already burdened by pollutants, 200 kilometers off the coast of the Netherlands. By studying this relatively small oil release, they were able to gain a better understanding of what goes on in much larger spills, with findings that could be useful to assess the risks to underwater life, as well as to emergency response team workers at the sea surface.

No two oil spills are alike. Aside from the sheer volume of oil released onto the sea surface, the environmental impact of an oil spill depends on external factors, such as the wind, waves, and the temperature of the air and the water. The North Sea experiment, for instance, was carried out on a summer day with two-meter high waves. Within just over a day, the surface oil slick had almost dissipated. On a cooler day with less wind and smaller waves, the slick would have likely persisted longer.

Thanks to a computer model that was tested against the data collected in the North Sea, the researchers are now able to extrapolate their findings to larger spills and other environmental conditions. Results from the study will provide the researchers with tools to better assess the immediate impact of future disasters on humans and on the environment, as well as to plan the emergency response, even in settings that differ strongly from those encountered in the North Sea.