Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs / May 20-21, 2011

Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Friday:

Lihue, Kauai –                    81
Honolulu airport, Oahu –     86  (record for high Thursday 90 – 1996, 2005)
Kaneohe, Oahu –                80
Molokai airport –                 84
Kahului airport, Maui –             85  
Kona airport –                    82
Hilo airport, Hawaii –          82

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops…as of 5pm Friday evening:

Honolulu, Oahu – 84
Hilo, Hawaii – 77

Haleakala Crater –     48 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 39 (over 13,500 feet on the Big Island)

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

0.35     Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.10     Punaluu Stream, Oahu
0.00     Molokai
0.00     Lanai
0.00     Kahoolawe
0.22     Oheo Gulch, Maui
0.17     Kawainui Stream, Big Island

Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a dissipating frontal boundary to our northeast. At the same time we find high pressure systems to our northeast. Our local winds will become stronger Saturday and Sunday.

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. 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 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.

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. A satellite image, which shows the entire ocean area between Hawaii and the Mexican coast…can be found here. 

 Aloha Paragraphs

Strengthening trade winds…a few windward showers

 

Our local winds will be on the rise from the trade wind direction through the rest of this week. Glancing at this weather map, we find two moderately strong high pressure systems located to our northeast, while the weakening tail-end of an old cold front is dissipating to our northeast. Today, and as we move into the weekend, our local trade winds will become stronger and gusty, with small craft wind advisory flags now up across those windiest areas around Maui County and the Big Island…which could be extended further up the island chain. The winds may become just strong enough to trigger wind advisories over a few of the windiest island locations this weekend too, especially around the Big Island. These winds will be deep enough to send strong and gusty winds all the way up into the highest elevations on both Maui and the Big Island as well.

Our winds will be increasingly strong into the weekend…the following numbers represent the strongest gusts, along with directions late Friday evening:

29                 Port Allen, Kauai – ENE 
24                 Honolulu, Oahu – NE 
29                 Molokai – NE
33                 Kahoolawe – ESE  
32                 Kahului, Maui – NE 
20                 Lanai – ENE  
36                    South Point – NE   

We can use the following links to see what’s going on in our area of the north central Pacific Ocean Friday night.  Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we see clear to partly cloudy skies over and around the islands. There are some high and middle level clouds to our west…with a little thin cirrus overhead at times. We can use this looping satellite image to see a counterclockwise rotating upper level low pressure system far to our west. This weather feature will keep most of its associated cloudiness over the ocean to our west now…including the thunderstorms just to the south and east of its center. Checking out this looping radar image shows showers falling locally…although most of them were falling over the ocean offshore from the islands. The windward sides will collect the most moisture from these passing showers. 

Sunset Commentary:  The strengthening trade winds will be the most noticeable weather feature over the next several days, that, and the potential for limited rainfall. The trade winds will be gusty, very possibly topping the 40 mph mark in those windiest areas. There’s been discussions regarding the need for a wind advisory around the Kohala area on the Big Island in this regard, we’ll see what happens this weekend. This wind flow will be rather deep, so that the upper slopes on both Maui and the Big Island will have locally strong and gusty winds at times over the next few days as well.

As for the precipitation, there will almost always be some showers being carried our way by the gusty trade winds, especially along our windward coasts and slopes. Although working against these showers will be stable high pressure, both aloft and at the surface. This will work against shower production, but as noted, the trade winds have their way of forcing moisture uphill, where showers can fall…called the orographic influence. It wouldn’t be out of the question to see a few stray showers flying over to the leeward sides on the smaller islands at times too…what with the strong trades blowing.

Meanwhile the surf will be coming up along several of our shores during the next week. Currently a north-northwest swell is breaking along our north shores…making those beaches larger than normal for this time of the year. A second NNW swell will arrive later this weekend, bumping the surf up briefly again then. All this wind in a hurry too will generate some rough and choppy surf along our windward east facing shores. Then, if all that wasn’t enough, this is the time of year when we find late autumn storms in the southern hemisphere sending swells our way. One such south-southwest swell will arrive this weekend, with an even larger south swell reaching us around the middle of the new week coming up…flirting with a high surf advisory then.

So far this spring we’ve had the trade winds hitting some speed bumps, perhaps more than ordinary at times. The way it looks from here we’re looking at a long period with these tropical winds blowing, which is finally grading back into the normal realms. We like our normal trade winds, rather those much stronger winds associated with tropical cyclones. Fortunately, the Central Pacific Hurricane Center has forecast less than normal tropical cyclone activity here this year. There’s always that chance that we’ll see some storm coming over from the eastern Pacific this summer…although there’s nothing brewing over that way this early in the season.

This evening I'm going to see a new film here in Kihei for a change, this one is called True Legends, starring Jay Chou and Michelle Yeoh…among many others. This is being billed as an action/adventure and art/foreign film, and will certainly live up to that more than adequately. I'm not too sure exactly what to expect, although I have a pretty good idea from watching the trailer. The synopsis: a general leads a military force to save a prince from a large fortress of enemies in the mountains. I can't find anything about how well or bad the critics are rating this film, although the viewers are giving it an impressive B+ grade. This is an almost two hour film, so I'm sure I'll get my fill, if not somewhat more than that of battle violence and fighting. I'm not exactly in the mood for such action, and would rather see a softer indie film of some sort, although here on Maui the selections are rather limited. I'll be sure to give you my opinion Saturday morning. Here's the trailer if you have any interest in see a little of it.

Here in Kihei before I head out to get something to eat, before the film starts, its mostly clear, with just a very light trade wind breeze blowing. I'll catch up with you Saturday morning, when I'll have your next new weather narrative reading for the reading. I hope you have a great Friday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting: While the pursuit of happiness may seem like a reasonable aim, new research shows that making happiness a personal goal will only stand in the way of your achieving it. The researchers found that women who valued happiness more tended to report being less happy and more depressed than women who didn't place such a high premium on a lasting smile.

"Wanting to be happy can make you less happy," said study researcher Iris Mauss, an assistant professor in psychology at the University of Denver. "If you explicitly and purposely focus on happiness, that appears to have a self-defeating quality."

Stress and happiness

In the first study, researchers surveyed 59 women who reported having a stressful life event in the past six months, such as a divorce, self-injury, injury or death of a close family member, sudden unemployment, or exposure to crime. Women also indicated the value they placed on happiness and their stress levels.

(The researchers studied only women, because past research has shown that women and men typically have similar emotional responses in the lab, but that men are more likely to conceal those responses.)

Among women who reported lower stress levels, those who valued happiness more reported being less happy and had an average of 17 symptoms of depression versus four for low-stress women who valued happiness less. Regardless of the value placed on happiness, the high-stress women showed no significant differences in their happiness levels.

This is important, Mauss explained, because women with higher levels of stress can blame their unhappiness on that stress. So, regardless of the value they place on happiness, the stress is unlikely to leave them the chance to worry about how happy they are.

While this study showed a link between focus on happiness and actual happiness, it didn't show that one was causing the other.

To figure that out, in the second study, researchers randomly assigned 69 female college students to one of two groups. Half of them read about how valuing happiness could benefit social relationships, professional success and personal health, while others read that "making accurate judgments" could lead to those same benefits.

Participants then watched either a happy or sad film clip.

Those who read about the benefits of accurate judgments (and so were primed to not put a high value on happiness) reported higher levels of happiness after viewing the happy clip; women who had read about valuing happiness reported similarly low bliss levels as those who had watched the sad clip. There was little difference in happiness ratings between the two groups after watching the sad clip (neither group reported being very happy).

Why we're not happy

Mauss noted two mechanisms by which happiness-focused women might find themselves in the dumps. 

For one, they might set higher goals for themselves.

"When people want to be happy, they set higher standards by which they're more likely to fall short," Mauss said. "This, in turn, may lead to greater discontent, in turn lowering levels of happiness and well-being."

The second study, she said, provided evidence for this, as the link was the experimental result of a sad, disappointing movie clip.

Second, it might be that an emphasis on personal happiness leads someone to neglect relationships with friends and family.

"It might have negative social effects," Mauss said. "If you want to be happy, you may be more likely to focus on yourself, and so that can have negative effects on your social networks and your social connections."

Jonathan Schooler, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said that while more research is needed to verify the study's findings, it gives more evidence to the idea that setting happiness itself as a goal can be self-defeating.

"One reason why people are vulnerable when they explicitly emphasize the pursuit of happiness is that they set themselves up for disappointment," said Schooler, who was not involved in the study.

A better strategy, he said, might be to set goals that have concrete ends to them — specific attainments, awards or achievements.

If you want to be happy, the happiness itself can be fleeting, Schooler said. "How certain are you that you are really as happy as you hoped you could be? [Happiness] doesn’t have a straightforward marker to let you know you've accomplished it. Because of that, it could be more elusive."

At this point, Schooler said, some follow-up should focus on how to set goals that may result in happiness. "This is really a fledgling area of inquiry," he said. "We really need more studies to nail down … how can you achieve happiness without incurring these negative consequences?"

How to become happy

Mauss explained she is not saying, "Don't try to be happy," but rather that an exaggerated focus on happiness can have downsides. It's certainly not always the case that pursuing happiness is a bad thing. If you give people the right tools to pursue happiness, then they can increase their happiness and well-being.”

She said there were some methods that may ultimately help people achieve happiness without the negative effects that accompany its pursuit.

One way, she said, may be for people to learn to engage their emotions by doing activities they enjoy, while taking the focus off the goal of happiness itself. “One of the most effective ways to actually increase happiness is to engage in activities, which basically entails pursuing happiness in an indirect and non-effortful manner,” Mauss said.

Another is to change the type of happiness one pursues.

"People appear to pursue happiness as a personal, hedonic outcome," she said. "In fact, there are many different definitions of happiness, and some definitions of happiness may avoid the self-defeating effects we documented here."

"For instance, making other people happy might be a good definition of happiness," Mauss said. "We hypothesize that if you don’t have a person-based, hedonic version of happiness, but rather a definition of happiness that is based in altruism or social connections, pursuing that kind of happiness may not have negative, self-defeating effects."

But, Schooler said, the research is not yet far enough along to justify drastic changes in life goals people have already set for themselves.

"Making ourselves happy is a very important issue," Schooler said. "But I think we should be cautious in dramatically changing our goals and aspirations on the basis of it. This is the kind of work that needs to be carefully replicated and pursued in a variety of different ways before we rely too heavily on this and a few other studies to change our behaviors."

The paper, written by researchers at the University of Denver, Boston College, Hebrew University and the University of California, Berkeley, was published online in the journal Emotion and will be detailed in a forthcoming print issue of the journal. The team notes that the study may not apply to all cultures, since Americans may place a higher value on the pursuit of happiness.