Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Monday:
Lihue, Kauai – 79
Honolulu airport, Oahu – 82
Kaneohe, Oahu – 81
Molokai airport – 75
Kahului airport, Maui – 87
Kona airport – 85
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 Monday evening:
Kahului, Maui – 81
Barking Sands, Kauai – 75
Haleakala Crater – 52 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 39 (over 13,500 feet on the Big Island)
Precipitation Totals – The following numbers represent the largest precipitation totals Monday evening:
2.83 Kokee, Kauai
0.29 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.00 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.04 Oheo Gulch, Maui
0.44 Pohakuloa Keamuku, Big Island
Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a 1023 millibar high pressure systems to the northeast of Hawaii…with its associated ridge running southwest ending northeast the islands. Our winds will gradually becoming more generally light easterlies Tuesday into Wednesday…as the ridge moves north of the state.
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 13,500 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 ended November 30th here in the central Pacific…and begins again June 1st.
Aloha Paragraphs
Light trade winds…fair weather
Gradually returning light trade winds…lasting through this week. Glancing at this weather map, we find a 1023 millibar high pressure system to the northeast of our islands…with its associated ridge of high pressure extending into the area northeast of the islands Monday night. As the tail-end of a weak cold front to our west weakens further, allowing our ridge to move northward soon…light to almost moderately strong trade winds will spread from the Big Island end of the island, on up the chain to Oahu and Kauai. The latest computer forecast models are suggesting that our trade winds will remain on the light side of the wind spectrum through most of this week.
Gradually returning trade winds…the following numbers represent the strongest gusts, along with directions early Monday evening:
13 mph Lihue, Kauai – NE
14 Kahuku, Oahu – ESE
09 Molokai – SW
18 Kahoolawe
17 Lipoa, Maui – ENE
10 Lanai Airport – WNW
22 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 Monday night. This large University of Washington satellite image shows a thin area of high clouds stretched over the central islands, with what’s left of a very weak cold front over Kauai. Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we see patches of lower level clouds around the islands…along with some brighter high clouds associated with the northeast to southwest cloud band. We can use this looping satellite image to see thunderstorms far to our west, and far to the southeast. Checking out this looping radar image shows limited light showers falling over the ocean, especially around Kauai.
The winds will remain on the light side…gradually shifting more fully to a more customary easterly trade wind flow. The trough of low pressure on the Kauai side of the Aloha state will keep the trade winds at bay up there temporarily. As this trough, with its associated cloud band dissipates soon, the trade winds will spread westward. As the light wind conditions finally depart, followed by the trade winds, we’ll see our windward coasts and slopes picking up a few showers. Today was a transition day, as we gradually leave the light winded convective weather pattern behind, and shift into a more normal trade wind weather pattern into Tuesday. The trade winds will hold sway through the rest of this week.
~~~ Here in Kihei, Maui, at 530pm Monday evening, skies were clear to partly cloudy, with cloudy conditions on the slopes of the Haleakala Crater. There were some thin cirrus clouds around, although mostly sunny conditions prevailed over most beaches areas as we head towards sunset. Showers were at a bare minimum here on Maui, and in many areas of the Aloha state. As mentioned above, the most focused shower areas were up on the Kauai end of the island chain. I expect the clouds over the mountains to mostly evaporate after dark, leading to a clear to partly cloudy night, into Tuesday morning. I notice that Kahului had another hot day today, reaching 87F degrees, after an 88 on Sunday. Once again I looked into the record book to see if this tied or broke the record for the date. Nope, close but no cigar, the record high temperature for April 18th was 89 degrees…back in 1951. ~~~ Looking even further ahead, I don't see any problems in terms of weather well into the future. I'll be back early Tuesday morning with your next new weather narrative from paradise, and I do mean paradise. I hope you have a great Monday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting: Brazilians are world leaders in using biofuels for gasoline. About a quarter of their automobile fuel consumption comes from sugarcane, which significantly reduces carbon dioxide emissions that otherwise would be emitted from using gasoline. Now scientists from the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology have found that sugarcane has a double benefit. Expansion of the crop in areas previously occupied by other Brazilian crops cools the local climate.
It does so by reflecting sunlight back into space and by lowering the temperature of the surrounding air as the plants "exhale" cooler water. The study is published in the 2nd issue of Nature Climate Change, posted on-line April 17.
The research team, led by Carnegie's Scott Loarie, is the first to quantify the direct effects on the climate from sugarcane expansion in areas of existing crop and pastureland of the cerrado, in central Brazil. The researchers used data from hundreds of satellite images over 733,000 square miles — an area larger than the state of Alaska.
They measured temperature, reflectivity (also called albedo), and evapotranspiration — the water loss from the soil and from plants as they exhale water vapor. As Loarie explained: "We found that shifting from natural vegetation to crops or pasture results in local warming because the plants give off less beneficial water.
But the bamboo-like sugarcane is more reflective and gives off more water — much like the natural vegetation. It's a potential win-win for the climate — using sugarcane to power vehicles reduces carbon emissions, while growing it lowers the local air temperature."
The scientists found that converting from natural vegetation to crop/pasture on average warmed the cerrado by 2.79 °F, but that subsequent conversion to sugarcane, on average, cooled the surrounding air by 1.67 °F. The researchers emphasize that the beneficial effects are contingent on the fact sugarcane is grown on areas previously occupied by crops or pastureland, and not in areas converted from natural vegetation.
It is also important that other crops and pastureland do not move to natural vegetation areas, which would contribute to deforestation. So far most of the thinking about ecosystem effects on climate considers only impacts from greenhouse gas emissions.
But according to coauthor Greg Asner, "It's becoming increasingly clear that direct climate effects on local climate from land-use decisions constitute significant impacts that need to be considered core elements of human-caused climate change."
Interesting2: The massive subduction zone earthquake in Japan caused a significant level of soil "liquefaction" that has surprised researchers with its widespread severity, a new analysis shows. The findings also raise questions about whether existing building codes and engineering technologies are adequately accounting for this phenomenon in other vulnerable locations, which in the U.S. include Portland, Ore., parts of the Willamette Valley and other areas of Oregon, Washington and California.
A preliminary report about some of the damage in Japan has just been concluded by the Geotechnical Extreme Events Reconnaissance, or GEER advance team, in work supported by the National Science Foundation. The broad geographic extent of the liquefaction over hundreds of miles was daunting to experienced engineers who are accustomed to seeing disaster sites, including the recent earthquakes in Chile and New Zealand.
"We've seen localized examples of soil liquefaction as extreme as this before, but the distance and extent of damage in Japan were unusually severe," said Scott Ashford, a professor of geotechnical engineering at Oregon State University and a member of this research team. "Entire structures were tilted and sinking into the sediments, even while they remained intact," Ashford said.
"The shifts in soil destroyed water, sewer and gas pipelines, crippling the utilities and infrastructure these communities need to function. We saw some places that sank as much as four feet." Some degree of soil liquefaction is common in almost any major earthquake.
It's a phenomenon in which saturated soils, particularly recent sediments, sand, gravel or fill, can lose much of their strength and flow during an earthquake. This can allow structures to shift or sink and significantly magnify the structural damage produced by the shaking itself.
But most earthquakes are much shorter than the recent event in Japan, Ashford said. The length of the Japanese earthquake, as much as five minutes, may force researchers to reconsider the extent of liquefaction damage possible in situations such as this.
"With such a long-lasting earthquake, we saw how structures that might have been okay after 30 seconds just continued to sink and tilt as the shaking continued for several more minutes," he said. "And it was clear that younger sediments, and especially areas built on recently filled ground, are much more vulnerable."
The data provided by analyzing the Japanese earthquake, researchers said, should make it possible to improve the understanding of this soil phenomenon and better prepare for it in the future. Ashford said it was critical for the team to collect the information quickly, before damage was removed in the recovery efforts.
"There's no doubt that we'll learn things from what happened in Japan that will help us to mitigate risks in other similar events," Ashford said. "Future construction in some places may make more use of techniques known to reduce liquefaction, such as better compaction to make soils dense, or use of reinforcing stone columns."
The massive subduction zone earthquakes capable of this type of shaking, which are the most powerful in the world, don't happen everywhere, even in other regions such as Southern California that face seismic risks. But an event almost exactly like that is expected in the Pacific Northwest from the Cascadia Subduction Zone, and the new findings make it clear that liquefaction will be a critical issue there.
Many parts of that region, from northern California to British Columbia, have younger soils vulnerable to liquefaction — on the coast, near river deposits or in areas with filled ground. The "young" sediments, in geologic terms, may be those deposited within the past 10,000 years or more.
In Oregon, for instance, that describes much of downtown Portland, the Portland International Airport, nearby industrial facilities and other cities and parts of the Willamette Valley. Anything near a river and old flood plains is a suspect, and the Oregon Department of Transportation has already concluded that 1,100 bridges in the state are at risk from an earthquake on the Cascadia Subduction Zone.
Fewer than 15 percent of them have been retrofitted to prevent collapse. "Buildings that are built on soils vulnerable to liquefaction not only tend to sink or tilt during an earthquake, but slide downhill if there's any slope, like towards a nearby river," Ashford said.
"This is called lateral spreading. In Portland we might expect this sideways sliding of more than four feet in some cases, more than enough to tear apart buildings and buried pipelines." Some damage may be reduced or prevented by different construction techniques or retrofitting, Ashford said.
But another reasonable goal is to at least anticipate the damage — to know what will probably be destroyed, make contingency plans for what will be needed to implement repairs, and design ways to help protect and care for residents until services can be restored. Small armies of utility crews are already at work in Japan on such tasks, Ashford said. There have been estimates of $300 billion in damage.
The recent survey in Japan identified areas as far away as Tokyo Bay that had liquefaction-induced ground failures. The magnitude of settlement and tilt was "larger than previously observed for such light structures," the researchers wrote in their report.
Impacts and deformation were erratic, often varying significantly from one street to the next. Port facilities along the coast faced major liquefaction damage. Strong Japanese construction standards helped prevent many buildings from collapse — even as they tilted and sank into the ground.
Interesting3: Japanese nuclear power plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) hopes it will be able to achieve cold shutdown of its crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant within six to nine months, the company said on Sunday. The firm said the first step would be cooling the reactors and spent fuel to a stable level within three months, then bringing the reactors to cold shutdown in six to nine months.
That would make the plant safe and stable and end the immediate crisis, now rated on a par with the world's worst nuclear accident, the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. TEPCO, founded 60 years ago, added it later plans to cover the reactor buildings, damaged by a massive earthquake and tsunami that struck on March 11.
The latest data shows much more radiation leaked from the Daiichi plant in the early days of the crisis than first thought, prompting officials to rate it on a par with Chernobyl, although experts were quick to point out Japan's crisis was vastly different from Chernobyl in terms of radiation contamination.
TEPCO Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata said he was considering resigning over the accident, but that he couldn't say when. "This is the biggest crisis since the founding of our company," Katsumata told a news conference at which the timetable was unveiled.
"Getting the nuclear plant under control, and the financial problems associated with that… How we can overcome these problems is a difficult matter." The toll from Japan's triple catastrophe is rising. More than 13,000 people have been confirmed dead, and on Wednesday the government cut its outlook for the economy, in deflation for almost 15 years, for the first time in six months.
TEPCO and the government are under pressure to clarify when those who have had to evacuate the area around the damaged plant will be able to go home. Prime Minister Naoto Kan faced heavy criticism over comments, which he later denied making, suggesting the evacuees might not be able to return for 10 or 20 years.
"We would like to present objective facts to help the government make judgment and outlook on when those who have evacuated can come back home," TEPCO Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata told a news conference at which the timeframe was unveiled.
Interesting4: Jamie Simon worked on a barge in the oily waters for six months following the BP spill last year, cooking for the cleanup workers, washing their clothes and tidying up after them. One year later, the 32 year old said she still suffers from a range of debilitating health problems, including racing heartbeat, vomiting, dizziness, ear infections, swollen throat, poor sight in one eye and memory loss.
She blames toxic elements in the crude oil and the dispersants sprayed to dissolve it after the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico about 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana on April 20, 2010. "I was exposed to those chemicals, which I questioned, and they told me it was just as safe as Dawn dishwashing liquid and there was nothing for me to worry about," she said of the BP bosses at the job site.
The local doctor, Mike Robichaux, said he has seen as many as 60 patients like Simon in recent weeks, as this small southern town of 10,000 bordered by swamp land and sugar cane fields grapples with a mysterious sickness that some believe is all BP's fault.
Andy LaBoeuf, 51, said he was paid $1,500 per day to use his boat to go out on the water and lay boom to contain some of the 4.9 million barrels of oil that spewed from the bottom of the ocean after the BP well ruptured.
But four months of that job left him ill and unable to work, and he said he recently had to refinance his home loan because he could not pay his taxes. "I have just been sick for a long time. I just got sick and I couldn't get better," LaBoeuf said, describing memory problems and a sore throat that has nagged him for a year.
Robichaux, an ear, nose and throat specialist whose office an hour's drive southwest of New Orleans is nestled on a roadside marked with handwritten signs advertising turtle meat for sale, says he is treating many of the local patients in their homes.
"Their work ethic is so strong, they are so stoic, they don't want people to know when they're sick," he said. "Ninety percent of them are getting worse… Nobody has a clue as to what it is."
Interesting5: Rapidly warming ocean temperatures in some parts of the world could be pushing some fish species to the limit, stunting their growth, increasing stress and raising the risk of death, a study shows. An Australian study, published on Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, focused on the long-lived fish species called the banded morwong in the Tasman Sea, between Australia and New Zealand.
Scientists, using long-term and current data, found that the morwong's growth in some areas has been slowed by a jump in sea surface temperatures of nearly 2 degrees Celsius over the past 60 years in the Tasman Sea, one of the most rapid increases in the southern hemisphere's oceans.
The results have implications for other fish species, including commercial fisheries, as seas heat up and become more acidic, affecting coral reefs and multi-billion dollar fisheries dependent on them. Generally, cold-blooded animals respond to warming conditions by boosting growth rates as temperatures rise, said marine ecologist Ron Thresher of Australia's state-backed research body the CSIRO. But there was a limit.
"By examining growth across a range that species inhabit, we found evidence of both slowing growth and increased physiological stress as higher temperatures impose a higher metabolic cost on fish at the warm edge of the range," Thresher told Reuters from Hobart, Tasmania.
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