March 19-20, 2010
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Friday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 74
Honolulu, Oahu – 77
Kaneohe, Oahu – 76
Kaunakakai, Molokai – 73
Kahului, Maui – 77
Hilo, Hawaii – 74
Kailua-kona – 83
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level around the state – and on the highest mountains…at 9pm Friday evening:
Kailua-kona – 74F
Princeville, Kauai – 64
Haleakala Crater – 37 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 30 (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 Friday evening:
1.06 Mount Waialaele, Kauai
0.20 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.01 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.85 West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.61 Honokaa, Big Island
Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a 1028 millibar high pressure system to the north-northwest, moving eastward. The tail-end of a dissipating cold front is located just to the east of the Big Island. The trade winds will gradually becoming lighter east-southeast to southeast breezes winds Saturday-Monday.
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
Trade winds, high clouds, a few windward showers
The old cold front is located just to the southeast of the Big Island…leaving us in a trade wind weather pattern Friday. There are still lots clouds residing over the state today, in the wake of the frontal passage. This IR satellite image shows the rather considerable cloudiness over and around the islands. If we narrow our focus, using this closer view, we can see the residual clouds over our local skies, along with those brighter and whiter high cirrus clouds…coming in from the southwest aloft. In order to take a look at where the showers are falling at this time, we can switch our view to this looping radar image. This shows that our local winds are still coming in from the northeast, with still some generally light showers falling along windward coasts and slopes. We may see a few showers being carried over into the leeward sides at times too.
A high pressure system to the northwest of Hawaii, is keeping these northeasterly winds blowing…keeping a slightly cooler than normal aspect to our weather for the moment. This moderately strong high pressure cell is following in the wake of the cold front. It’s eastern edge came right in as the front was passing down through the island chain. Wind directions were coming in from the north initially, although they’ve veered around to the northeast now. Winds from this compass point bring cooler than normal air into the Aloha state, with their late winter slight chill. As this high pressure cell migrates further eastward, the winds will gradually swing around to the east-northeast, and then clock around to the more typical easterly trade wind direction this weekend. As this happens, our local air temperatures will return to their more customary warm reality.
The computer forecast models are showing another cold front approaching the state around the middle of the new week ahead. The first influence here will be the slacking-off of the trade winds after the weekend, as they rotate around to the east-southeast, and southeast. This will likely bring up another round of volcanic haze (vog) from the
It’s Friday as I begin writing the last section of this narrative.
As noted above, we have lots of lower level clouds around on this last day of the work week. At the same time, we have streaks of high cirrus clouds flying overhead, carried our way from the southwest on the upper winds aloft. The atmosphere is generally stable now, so that whatever showers fall, shouldn’t be heavy ones. I anticipate that our weather will be fairly decent today, and continue that way through both Saturday and Sunday. A convective weather pattern will unfold as we move into the new work week ahead, with potentially rainy afternoons, at least in the upcountry areas both Monday and Tuesday. Winds will be light, with perhaps quite a bit of volcanic haze around then too. We will likely find a cold front pushing in our direction, or perhaps arriving by mid-week, more about that over the next day or two.
~~~ My visiting friend Bob from California is beginning to feel better now. He got a cold a couple of days ago, unfortunately. At any rate, I’m taking off work today, and we’ll probably taking a nice drive out along the Hana coast of east Maui. This will be a fun trip, as we’re both geographers, and weathermen too. We’ll have lots to talk about along the way, as we drive through some of the most beautiful tropical scenery in the islands. I’m not exactly sure when I’ll be back at this computer, and it may not be until Saturday? I hope you have a great Friday wherever you happen to be spending the day! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting: A new assessment of the Arctic’s biodiversity reports a 26 per cent decline in species populations in the high Arctic. Populations of lemmings, caribou and red knot are some of the species that have experienced declines over the past 34 years, according to the first report from The Arctic Species Trend Index (ASTI), which provides crucial information on how the Arctic’s ecosystems and wildlife are responding to environmental change.
While some of these declines may be part of a natural cycle, there is concern that pressures such as climate change may be exacerbating natural cyclic declines. In contrast, population levels of species living in the sub-Arctic and low Arctic are relatively stable and in some cases, increasing. Populations of marine mammals, including bowhead whales found in the low Arctic, may have benefited from the recent tightening of hunting laws.
Some fish species have also experienced population increases in response to rising sea temperatures. "Rapid changes to the Arctic’s ecosystems will have consequences for the Arctic that will be felt globally. The Arctic is host to abundant and diverse wildlife populations, many of which migrate annually from all regions of the globe. This region acts as a critical component in the Earth’s physical, chemical, and biological regulatory system," says lead-author Louise McRae from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).
Data collected on migratory Arctic shorebirds show that their numbers have also decreased. Further research is now needed to determine whether this is the result of changes in the Arctic or at other stopover sites on their migration. Louise McRae adds: "Migratory Arctic species such as brent goose, dunlin and turnstone are regular visitors to the UK’s shores. We need to sit up and take notice of what’s happening in other parts of the world if we want to continue to experience a diversity of wildlife on our own doorstep."
The ASTI includes almost 1,000 datasets on Arctic species population trends, including representation from 35 per cent of all known vertebrate species found in the Arctic. Co-author Christoph Zöckler from the UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre says: "The establishment of these results comes at a crucial time for finding accurate indicators to monitor global biodiversity as governments strive to meet their targets of reducing biodiversity loss."
Interesting2: In a world first an international team of researchers have successfully extracted ancient DNA from the eggshells of various species of extinct birds. The research, published in scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, shows that fossil eggshell is a previously unrecognized source of ancient DNA and can provide exceptional long-term preservation of DNA in warmer climates.
The findings will boost research in archaeology and biology where species identifications can add significantly to our understanding of biodiversity, evolutionary processes, past environmental change and dispersal of animal and human populations. The research, published in scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, shows that fossil eggshell is a previously unrecognized source of ancient DNA and can provide exceptional long-term preservation of DNA in warmer climates.
The findings will boost research in archaeology and biology where species identifications can add significantly to our understanding of biodiversity, evolutionary processes, past environmental change and dispersal of animal and human populations. The study includes samples of Aepyornis sp, the giant Madagascan elephant bird collected by Dr Jean-Luc Schwenninger, a Quaternary geochronologist based at the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art (RLAHA) at Oxford University.
The bird looked like an outsized ostrich, standing about three meters high and weighing in excess of half a ton. It was the heaviest bird to have ever existed and produced eggs with a capacity of 11L (equivalent to over two hundred chicken eggs or seven ostrich eggs). Its eggs are the largest eggs ever known. Since 1991, Schwenninger and a team from Sheffield University, the University of Colorado, and Antananarivo’s National Museum of Art and Archaeology in Madagascar have conducted large scale archaeological surveys of the Southern region of Madagascar and studied the timing of extinction of these giant flightless birds.
Whilst scouring the coastal dunes of Southern Madagascar they have found evidence of many of the bird’s former nesting sites from concentrations of eggshell debris. They have also excavated archaeological sites which document the rise and fall of a lost civilization with long-distance trade contacts to Africa’s Swahili coast, the Persian Gulf and China.
Dr Schwenninger and his colleague Professor Michael Parker Pearson, from the University of Sheffield, believe that by the time this civilization flourished, from the 11th to the 13th century, the population of elephant birds was in serious decline. The precise cause of extinction is not yet fully understood but it is probably linked to the arrival of humans.
Interesting3: Tropical Cyclone Ului has continued to slowly weaken over the open Coral Sea on Thursday as it makes ready for a late-week landfall upon northeastern Australia. As of Thursday morning, EDT, the storm held highest sustained winds of about 90 mph, or those of a strong Category 1 hurricane, as it drifted over open seas well south of the western Solomon Islands. After drifting slowly through Thursday, Ului will accelerate towards the southwest and the west on Friday.
Landfall is now forecast to happen on Saturday or Saturday night, EDT, between Mackay and Cairns, Queensland, Australia, possibly at the city of Townsville. Flooding rain along and near the direct path of Ului will rank as the greatest threat to life and property. Damaging winds will also be a threat.
Ulia formed one week ago and quickly became a severe, potentially catastrophic Category 5 during the weekend. At that time, highest sustained winds were reckoned by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center to be at least 160 mph, or above the 156-mph threshold for Category 5 status. Luckily, the storm’s severe wind and rain steered clear of land.
Interesting4: Do we really need all the regulatory programs at the federal and state levels of government? Do they really work to improve the quality of our air and water? Are they worth their cost in terms of regulatory burden and costs of compliance? In short, yes! To some extent, our regulatory programs are a trial and error affair. We can’t always know the ultimate effectiveness of a new program nor its ultimate costs.
We can’t always predict the economic benefits of new regulations either since they invariably lead to innovation and generate new inventions and jobs. The US has been monitoring the quality of our air and water for decades, so we can track the effectiveness of our programs. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is making the most recent data available. Air pollution impacts public health, the environment, and the Earth’s climate, and understanding these impacts are important priorities for the agency.
EPA regulatory actions and voluntary efforts have led to cleaner cars, industries and consumer products, that in turn have contributed to improvements in the nation’s air. They have also led to developments of new pollution control systems for power plants and other major sources such as Selective Catalytic Reduction, a technology that removes Nitrogen Oxides from emissions by converting it to Nitrogen and water. Since 1990, nationwide air quality has improved significantly for the six common air pollutants: ground-level ozone, particle pollution, lead, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide.
Emissions of toxic air pollutants, such as benzene, have declined about 40 percent nationwide between 1990 and 2005. These reductions are helping to improve public health by decreasing the number of emergency room visits, respiratory illnesses, and premature deaths. Positive impacts can also be seen in the environment, with regional haze decreasing. Despite this progress, about 127 million Americans live in counties violating at least one of the national air quality standards.
The agency has taken recent actions to tighten air quality standards to help ensure improvements in air quality for everyone. EPA’s most recent evaluation of air pollution, Our Nation’s Air, Status and Trends Through 2008, presents trends in air quality measurements, analyzes national emissions from key industrial sectors and takes a look at the relationship between air quality and climate change.
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john Says:
glen, can you tell me what caused the ice to melt 10k years ago. do you know the earth cools and warms in cycles with an axis tilt of 1 degree and the natural cycle of the sun. there have been thousands of ice ages and warming periods in the past. do you realize that one sugarcane burn here on maui puts more crap into the air than all the vehicles in the state do in one year. you might be brainwashed im not sure. dont buy into the global warming crap its just another way for the people in power to have control over you~~~Hi John, just putting the news items on the page, if you notice…I put both sides of the debate. The earth is heating, and my take on this situation is…lets try and make the situation more clean, it will be better for kids now, and their kids, and their kids, onwards for a long long time. Thanks for your comments, I appreciate hearing from everyone about everything. Aloha, Glenn