September 8-9, 2009
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Tuesday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 83
Honolulu, Oahu – 89
Kaneohe, Oahu – 83
Kahului, Maui – 88
Hilo, Hawaii – 83
Kailua-kona – 88
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level around the state – and on the highest mountains…at 5 p.m. Tuesday evening:
Port Allen, Kauai – 86F
Hilo, Hawaii – 78
Haleakala Crater – 61 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 64 (near 14,000 feet on the Big Island)
Precipitation Totals – The following numbers represent the largest precipitation totals (inches) during the last 24 hours on each of the major islands, as of Tuesday afternoon:
0.49 Mount Waialaele, Kauai
1.12 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.18 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.01 Kahoolawe
1.45 West Wailuaiki, Maui
1.12 Mountain View, Big Island
Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing high pressure systems to the north and northeast of the islands. Trade winds will be active…generally in the light to moderately strong realms through Wednesday.
Satellite and Radar Images: To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with this Infrared Satellite Image of the islands to see all the clouds around the state during the day and night. This next image is one that gives close images of the islands only during the daytime hours, and is referred to as a Close-up visible image. This next image shows a larger view of the Pacific…giving perspective to the wider ranging cloud patterns in the Pacific Ocean. Finally, here’s a Looping IR satellite image, making viewable the clouds around the islands 24 hours a day. To help you keep track of where any showers may be around the islands, here’s the latest animated radar image.
Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of near 14,000 foot Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. The tallest peak on the island of Maui is the Haleakala Crater, which is near 10,000 feet in elevation. These two webcams are available during the daylight hours here in the islands…and when there’s a big moon rising just after sunset for an hour or two! Plus, during the nights and early mornings you will be able to see stars, and the sunrise too…depending upon weather conditions.
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. Here’s a tracking map covering both the eastern and central Pacific Ocean. A satellite image, which shows the entire ocean area between Hawaii and the Mexican coast…can be found here.
Aloha Paragraphs
End of another great day
Light to moderately strong trade winds will continue…gradually becoming lighter later this week. We find a rather weak 1022 millibar high pressure system located to the northeast of the islands Tuesday night, as shown on this weather map. The trades will remain locally gusty through Thursday…then relax in strength during Friday into the weekend. The computer forecast models keep the trade winds lighter than normal going into next week.
The windward sides will continue to see some passing shower activity, while the leeward sides will have fair weather. The weather map above shows an unusually deep storm low pressure system to the northwest of Hawaii. This storm will send an early season cold front in our direction, although it won’t reach our islands. It’s approach however will weaken our trade wind producing ridge of high pressure, the reason our local trade winds will falter. Meanwhile, this storm will generate a northwest swell in our direction…arriving later Thursday into Friday.
The more or less favorably inclined trade wind weather pattern will continue. This will keep generally normal weather for this time of year, which we can now definitely call late summer. It’s interesting to see how intense a storm has become to our northwest. The winds revolving around this deep low pressure system, remained at hurricane force…75 mph winds Tuesday evening! It’s pretty early in the season, as it’s still summer, to see such a storm developing in the north Pacific. I would expect to see such a storm more often during the later autumn or winter seasons.
It’s Tuesday evening here in Kihei, Maui, as I begin writing this last section of today’s narrative. Tuesday was generally a good day, that is if you didn’t mind the locally gusty trade winds. Speaking of the gusty nature of the winds now, at 5pm the strongest winds were being reported around Maui County. Lanai was reporting 35 mph, Kahoolawe 36 mph…while Maalaea Bay on Maui was blowing at 37 mph. These numbers are relatively strong for the time of day. I anticipate more gustiness on Wednesday, although winds will gradually be diminishing Friday into the weekend.
~~~ I’m about ready to take the drive back upcountry to Kula. Looking out the window here in Kihei before I leave, it was clear to partly cloudy. It was good to get back to work today, after that long three day holiday weekend…which was so great! I’ll be up very early Wednesday morning, and after my meditation, will prepare your next weather narrative. I hope you have a great Tuesday night from wherever you happen to be spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting article on Climate Change – New Scientist, September 7, 2009
Interesting: Fish farms, once a fledgling industry, now account for 50 percent of the fish consumed globally, according to a new report by an international team of researchers. And while getting more efficient, it is putting strains on marine resources by consuming large amounts of feed made from wild fish harvested from the sea, the authors conclude.
Their findings are published in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Aquaculture is set to reach a landmark in 2009, supplying half of the total fish and shellfish for human consumption," the authors wrote.
Between 1995 and 2007, global production of farmed fish nearly tripled in volume, in part because of rising consumer demand for long-chain omega-3 fatty acids. Oily fish, such as salmon, are a major source of these omega-3s, which are effective in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, according to the National Institutes of Health.
"The huge expansion is being driven by demand," said lead author Rosamond L. Naylor, a professor of environmental Earth system science at Stanford University and director of the Stanford Program on Food Security and the Environment.
"As long as we are a health-conscious population trying to get our most healthy oils from fish, we are going to be demanding more of aquaculture and putting a lot of pressure on marine fisheries to meet that need."
To maximize growth and enhance flavor, aquaculture farms use large quantities of fishmeal and fish oil made from less valuable wild-caught species, including anchoveta and sardine.
"With the production of farmed fish eclipsing that of wild fish, another major transition is also underway: Aquaculture’s share of global fishmeal and fish oil consumption more than doubled over the past decade to 68 percent and 88 percent, respectively," the authors wrote. In 2006, aquaculture production was 51.7 million metric tons, and about 20 million metric tons of wild fish were harvested for the production of fishmeal.
"It can take up to 5 pounds of wild fish to produce 1 pound of salmon, and we eat a lot of salmon," said Naylor, the William Wrigley Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment and Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.
Interesting2: A new study finds that large-scale farming projects can erode the Earth’s surface at rates comparable to those of the world’s largest rivers and glaciers. Published online in the journal Nature Geoscience, the research offers stark evidence of how humans are reshaping the planet.
It also finds that – contrary to previous scholarship – rivers are as powerful as glaciers at eroding landscapes. In some cases, the researchers found large-scale farming eroded lowland agricultural fields at rates comparable to glaciers and rivers in the most tectonically active mountain belts.
"This study shows that humans are playing a significant role in speeding erosion in low lying areas," says Michele Koppes, a professor of geography at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and lead author of the study. "These low-altitude areas do not have the same rate of tectonic uplift, so the land is being denuded at an unsustainable rate."
Contrary to previous scholarship, they found that rivers and glaciers in active mountain ranges are both capable of eroding landscapes by more than one centimeter per year. Studies had previously indicated that glaciers could erode landscapes as much as 10 times faster than rivers, Koppes says.
Interesting3: Out of the city and into the countryside! For many people this idea is associated with a life away from the dangers of the brawly road traffic in the city. For concerned parents, road safety is an important factor in house hunting. They want their children to move freely and healthy outside. Prof. Christian Holz-Rau and PD Joachim Scheiner from the Department of Transport Planning at the Faculty of Spatial Planning at TU Dortmund have been recalculating.
Their surprising result: life in the city is much safer than in the countryside or in the suburbs. With their approach to analyze the data the scientists broke new ground: for Lower Saxony they analyzed the accident data taking account of the victim’s residence.
“The place of the accident alone does not allow for a conclusion to be drawn with regard to the population in this place being more or less endangered,” says Holz-Rau. After all, the inhabitants of the suburban areas do get into the cities: “One only has to think about commuters.“
The results of the analysis show that the risk of fatal accidents is already 40% higher for the population of the populous surrounding districts than for city inhabitants. For inhabitants of the countryside the risk to die in traffic is even twice up to three times as high.
With regard to accidents with severe injuries the situation is similar but not so obvious. Accident statistics regard everybody as severely injured who needs in-patient treatment. In rural districts the risk of severe injuries is 70-100% higher than in cities. For metropolitan residents only the risk of slight injuries is a little bit higher, compared to inhabitants of small communities.
That is what Joachim Scheiner assumes to be the reason for the bad image of cities, because accidents with slight injuries happen many times as often as accidents with severe injuries or even fatalities. The high number of urban accident victims can be attributed to the great number of slightly injured people.
Aquaculture, once a fledgling industry, now accounts for 50 percent of the fish consumed globally, according to a new report by an international team of researchers. And while the industry is more efficient than ever, it is also putting a significant strain on marine resources by consuming large amounts of feed made from wild fish harvested from the sea, the authors conclude. Their findings are published in the Sept. 7 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Interesting 4: More than one in 10 people who binge drinks gets behind the wheel of a car during or just after their binge. Of those who binge and drive afterward, more than half had consumed their liquor in a bar, restaurant or club. “Drinking in bars and clubs is a huge independent factor in binge drinking,” said lead study author Timothy Naimi, M.D.
“This study marks a failure of public health in the U.S., and one that is notable for the lack of will and resources devoted to enforcing even existing laws and alcohol control policies.” These findings come from a study appearing online and in the October issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at data from a CDC telephone survey conducted in 2003 and 2004. More than 14,000 adults reported having more than five drinks during a single drinking session — the definition of a binge — in the previous 30 days.
The study ties drinking patterns to subsequent driving explicitly. “People think of impaired driving as a driving problem when it is as much a drinking problem as a driving problem,” said Naimi, M.D., a physician with the CDC’s Alcohol Team.
Forty-eight states have laws preventing the sale of more alcohol to someone who obviously is intoxicated, Naimi said. Yet the respondents had an average of eight drinks at a time; more than a quarter had 10 or more. “Many of these folks were demonstrably hammered, yet got served more alcohol — at a terrible cost to society,” he said.
“This study highlights alcohol-service activity that is clearly irresponsible and that places law-abiding establishments at a competitive disadvantage.” “This study confirms what others would have predicted, but in a much stronger way than ever before,” said David Jernigan, Ph.D., an associate professor at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.
All states should have strong laws making a licensed establishment that serves liquor to obviously intoxicated patrons liable for their subsequent actions, he said, but not all do. Bartenders and waiters must undergo training to spot intoxication, he added.
Interesting5: Beginning August 26, 2009, and continuing into September 2009, a large wildfire in the Angeles National Forest north of Los Angeles known as the Station Fire burned more than 140,000 acres through September 3. Carbon monoxide in the smoke from this large fire was lofted as high as 8.3 kilometers (27,000 feet) into the atmosphere, where it was observed by JPL’s Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument onboard NASA’s Aqua satellite.
A new movie, created using continuously updated data from NASA’s "Eyes on the Earth 3-D" feature on NASA’s global climate change website, shows three-day running averages of daily AIRS retrievals of the abundance of carbon monoxide present at 5.5 kilometers (18,000 feet).
AIRS is most sensitive to carbon monoxide at this altitude, which is a region conducive to long-range transport of the smoke. As the carbon monoxide is lifted by the fire’s heat and blows downwind, it appears in the August 30 AIRS map north and east of the fire as a yellow to red plume that stretches from Southern California across Nevada and Utah.
The plume is transported eastward on subsequent days, crossing Denver on August 31, southeastward to Texas on September 1, and reaching the Louisiana Gulf Coast on September 2. As the plume moves further east, mixing of carbon monoxide down to Earth’s surface could adversely impact air quality, as it has already done in Salt Lake City and Denver. Previous studies using AIRS data have documented the impact of distant fires on air quality in Houston and other locations.
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