Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Tuesday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 80
Honolulu airport, Oahu – 83
Kaneohe, Oahu – 77
Molokai airport – 79
Kahului airport, Maui – 84
Kona airport – 83
Hilo airport, Hawaii – 81
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops…as of 5pm Tuesday evening:
Port Allen, Kauai – 82F
Kaneohe, Oahu – 75
Haleakala Crater – missing (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 32 (under 14,000 feet on the Big Island)
Precipitation Totals – The following numbers represent the largest precipitation totals Tuesday evening:
2.58 Wainiha, Kauai
1.03 Moanalua RG, Oahu
0.07 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.08 Kahoolawe
0.82 Oheo Gulch, Maui
1.24 Waiakea Uka, Big Island
Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing trade wind producing high pressure systems to the northeast and northwest. Our trade winds will increase Wednesday into Thursday…locally strong and gusty.
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 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 web cam 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 web cams 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. Of course, as we know, our hurricane season ends November 30th here in the central Pacific.
Aloha Paragraphs
Gusty trade winds, localized showers…
Small craft wind advisory most coastal
and channel waters
Anastasia Art Gallery
Increasingly strong trade winds through Thursday…then softening slightly into the weekend and beyond. According to this weather map, we see high pressure systems positioned to the northeast and northwest of Hawaii Tuesday night. The trades will strengthen Wednesday for a few days…and then ease back down into the moderately strong category Saturday and Sunday into early next week. At this point…there's no end point in our trade wind flow.
Breezy trade winds…the following numbers represent the strongest gusts, along with directions early Tuesday evening:
22 mph Port Allen, Kauai – ENE
22 Waianae, Oahu – NE
23 Molokai – NNE
18 Kahoolawe – E
28 Kapalua, Maui – NE
21 Lanai Airport – NE
27 South Point, Big Island – NE
We can use the following links to see what’s going on in our area of the north central Pacific Ocean Tuesday night. This large University of Washington satellite image shows fairly minor areas of high clouds in several directions. Looking at this NOAA satellite picture, we see scattered lower level clouds around the state, which extends southwest and northeast of the islands. We can use this looping satellite image to see an area of cirrus clouds approaching the Kauai end of the state, with lower level clouds being carried our way on the northeast breezes. Checking out this looping radar image, we can see light to moderately heavy showers generally over the ocean, although most of these showers were being carried towards Oahu and Molokai at the time of this writing.
A mix of clouds and showers will prevail overnight, along with the breezy trade winds too. We find ourselves in a fairly typical trade wind weather pattern, with just the usual windward biased showers…falling most generously during the cooler night and early morning hours. The radar loops do however show that some of these showers are a bit heavier than normal. Looking a bit further ahead, we'll find a weak cold front, as it whizzes by to our north, providing moisture for somewhat of an increase in shower activity over the next couple of days. At the same time we’ll find an increase in trade wind speeds. This episode of blustery weather with additional passing showers will last into Thursday. As we move into later Friday will find a gradual shift into slightly lighter trade winds and drier weather…taking us through a fair weather weekend.
~~~ Here in Kihei, Maui, at around 530pm, the trade winds are the primary moving force. These trades are carrying some pretty good looking shower clouds through the islands…the most significant of these is taking aim on Oahu at the time of this writing. The other islands have a few showers, although nothing out of the ordinary. We could easily call this period late winter, as we have the beginning of spring in our sights now. This occurs on the 20th of March, which is not too far out on the horizon. Therefore, its not surprising to be seeing such a well established trade wind weather pattern. As I was mentioning above, I see no definite end in this trade wind weather pattern at the moment. I'll be back early Wednesday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Tuesday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting: A hurricane-like superstorm expected to hit California once every 200 years would cause devastation to the state's businesses unheard of even in the Great Recession, a USC economist warns. Researchers estimate the total property damage and business interruption costs of the massive rainstorm would be nearly $1 trillion.
USC research professor Adam Rose calculated that the lost production of goods and services alone would be $627 billion of the total over five years. Rose, a professor with the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development, also is the coordinator for economics at the Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE) at USC.
That number would make the severe storm scenario "the costliest disaster in the history of the United States?, Rose said, more than six times greater than the 2001 World Trade Center attacks and Hurricane Katrina, which each caused $100 billion in business interruption.
The storm simulation U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists termed "ARkStorm — or "atmospheric river storm" — is patterned after the U.S. West Coast storms that devastated California in 1861-62.
The storms lasted for 45 days, forming lakes in the Mojave Desert and the Los Angeles Basin. California was left bankrupt after the storms wiped out nearly a third of the state's taxable land, according to the USGS.
But those storms were no freak event, said USGS scientists, who called the ARkStorm model "plausible, perhaps inevitable."
The ARkStorm areas include Orange County, Los Angeles County, San Diego and the San Francisco Bay area. The megastorm likely would require the evacuation of 1.5 million people.
According to the USGS, the ARkStorm would:
* create hurricane-force winds of up to 125 miles per hour in some areas and flood thousands of square miles of urban and agricultural land to depths of 10 to 20 feet.
* set off hundreds of landslides that would damage roads, highways and homes.
* disrupt lifelines such as power, water and sewers that would take weeks or months to repair.
Rose estimated the ARkStorm would cause the state's unemployment rate to jump six percentage points in the first year, a further blow to the California economy that currently has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation at 12.4 percent.
Rose called the severe storm scenario "much more imaginable" after Los Angeles was hit with 9.42 inches of rain in December. It was the wettest December in downtown Los Angeles in more than a century.
Climate scientists said global warming is a major factor behind the increasingly destructive power of hurricanes and other storms.
The sea level is rising as oceans warm and glaciers melt, which can create higher storm surges and more disastrous flooding in coastal areas.
"Climate change affects how the whole ecosystem works," said Mark Bernstein, managing director of The USC Energy Institute.
"Storms form based on how warm the oceans are and how the jet stream changes," Bernstein said. "The consequence is [the rain] will come in shorter and more intense bursts."
Businesses and local governments can minimize the long-term impacts of such a disaster, Rose said, by creating emergency plans, increasing inventories of critical materials, backing up information systems, and diversifying supply chains and routes.
Interesting2: A plant more commonly known for its role in the production of the alcoholic drink tequila has been overlooked as a source of biofuel that would not compete with food crops, say experts. Agave plants can sustain high yields while enduring extreme temperatures, droughts and CO2 increases, with little need for irrigation, according to a series of papers in a special issue of Global Change Biology Bioenergy published last month (February).
With around 20 per cent of the world semi-arid, and some 200 agave species growing worldwide, the plant could help usher in an energy revolution, experts say.
Field trials of the biofuel potential of some common Mexican varieties have begun in Australia and "there are vast areas of abandoned agave plantations in Africa [once used for sisal fibre production, but abandoned after synthetic fibre production came along] that might be re-established [for biofuel use] without incurring economic and environmental costs of indirect land use change", according to one of the papers.
Two varieties — Agave mapisaga and Agave salmiana — produce, under intensive management, yields that far exceed corn, soybean, sorghum, and wheat productivities; and even without irrigation they still maintain high yields, argues another paper.
Interesting3: Countries bordering the North Pacific Ocean have struck a deal that environmentalists said on Monday will help protect 16.1 million square miles of ocean floor from a destructive technique called bottom trawl fishing. The agreement calls for the creation of an organization to manage sea bottom fisheries in the North Pacific, and puts an immediate cap on expansion of bottom trawl fishing in international waters stretching from Hawaii to Alaska.
The deal was reached last week in Vancouver by the United States, Japan, Canada, China, South Korea, Russia and Taiwan after nearly five years of negotiations. Environmentalists have long complained about the damage done to sensitive ecosystems and marine life on the ocean floor by boats that use weighted nets and other fishing gear that drag along the seabed.
Drag fishing can damage to seamounts, or undersea mountain ranges, that attract fish and are home to cold-water corals, deep-sea sponges and a wide range of other marine life, the United Nations warned in 2006 report. "What it does is freeze the footprint of where they are fishing now," said Ben Enticknap of Oceana, one of the environmental organizations that participated in the negotiations.
The interim measure covering the Northeastern Pacific will allow scientists time to study fish stocks and to develop a long-term management plan. "The idea is that we can develop a more sustainable fishery," Enticknap said. An interim cap was already in place for the Northwest Pacific, and there was concern about the remaining region being left unprotected, according to a copy of the agreement provided to Reuters.
Scientists say fishing fleets have increasingly turned to the high seas, including the North Pacific, as coastal fish stocks have been depleted and technology to locate the fish has improved. There are already agreements managing individual fish species such as tuna, but fish living around seamounts have "fallen through the cracks," said Daniel Pauly, a fisheries scientist at the University of British Columbia.
Interesting4: Scientists are reporting the first evidence that consumption of a healthful antioxidant substance in apples extends the average lifespan of test animals, and does so by 10 percent. The new results, obtained with fruit flies — stand-ins for humans in hundreds of research projects each year — bolster similar findings on apple antioxidants in other animal tests. The study appears in ACS's Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Zhen-Yu Chen and colleagues note that damaging substances generated in the body, termed free radicals, cause undesirable changes believed to be involved in the aging process and some diseases. Substances known as antioxidants can combat this damage. Fruits and vegetables in the diet, especially brightly colored foods like tomatoes, broccoli, blueberries, and apples are excellent sources of antioxidants.
A previous study with other test animals hinted that an apple antioxidant could extend average lifespan. In the current report, the researchers studied whether different apple antioxidants, known as polyphenols, could do the same thing in fruit flies.
The researchers found that apple polyphenols not only prolonged the average lifespan of fruit flies but helped preserve their ability to walk, climb and move about. In addition, apple polyphenols reversed the levels of various biochemical substances found in older fruit flies and used as markers for age-related deterioration and approaching death.
Chen and colleagues note that the results support those from other studies, including one in which women who often ate apples had a 13-22 percent decrease in the risk of heart disease, and polish the apple's popular culture image as a healthy food.
Email Glenn James: 