Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs / June 11-12, 2011

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

Lihue, Kauai –                    81                  
Honolulu airport, Oahu –     84 (record for Saturday – 92 in 1996)   
Kaneohe, Oahu –                79
Molokai airport –                 82
Kahului airport, Maui –          84  (record for Saturday – 93 in 1996)
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 Saturday evening:

Barking Sands, Kauai – 83
Hilo, Hawaii – 75

Haleakala Crater –     52 (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 Saturday evening: 

1.43     Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.74     Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.04     Molokai
0.00     Lanai
0.00     Kahoolawe
1.21     West Wailuaiki, Maui
1.18     Kawainui Stream, Big Island

Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a 1028 millibar high pressure system…far to the northeast of our islands. Our local winds will be slightly lighter Sunday and 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 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

Breezy trade winds…frequent windward showers Monday

The trade winds will begin a gradual reduction in strength through about Tuesday…they are forecast to increase again around the middle of the new week ahead. Glancing at this weather map, we find a 1028 millibar high pressure system located far to our northeast.  This high pressure cell has an elongated ridge of high pressure draping southwest, putting it to the north of our islands. The placement of this high and its ridge will keep our trade winds around. These trade wind breezes remain strong enough to keep the small craft wind advisory alive around Maui County and the Big Island. The computer forecast models suggest that by the second half of the new week ahead…the trade winds will increase once again through the rest of the week.

Our trade winds will continue to blow…the following numbers represent the strongest gusts, along with directions Saturday evening: 

30                 Port Allen, Kauai – NE  
25                 Honolulu, Oahu – NE 
25                 Molokai – NE
35                 Kahoolawe – ESE   
33                 Kahului, Maui – NE
05                 Lanai – SE    
36                    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 Saturday night.  Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we see a considerable amount of high and middle level clouds to the east of the state, associated with the upper level low pressure system. We can use this looping satellite image to see considerable high and middle level clouds to our southwest through southeast…with those areas of higher level clouds shifting northward to the east of the Big Island. We can also see scattered lower level cumulus clouds to our east, being carried in our direction on the trade wind flow. Checking out this looping radar image we see showers being carried along in the trade wind flow…a few of which will be a bit heavier than the rest tonight.

This past Thursday evening I went to see a new film called X-Men: First Class, starring James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender…among many others. This is a story of young professor X and Magneto, who use their extraordinary abilities to prevent nuclear armageddon. The critics are giving this action film a B grade, while the users are upping the anty to an A- rating. I was in the mood to totally change my mind set, after such a long and intense work week, which this film was certainly able to do for me. I actually ended up liking this film quite a bit, and would give it somewhere between a solid B and a B+ grade. The films pace remained up throughout, and there was certainly plenty of action to keep my attention. This played in a large theater, and I saw it at 715pm, which I consider prime time. I was a bit surprised that more folks weren't attending it however, as it just opened last weekend. I honestly don't know how these big entertainment companies can make these big movies, and not have them be more successful. I must say that I greatly appreciate film companies continuing to pump them out year after year! Here's the trailer if you have any desire to take a quick look.

Sunset Commentary:  The trade winds remain active, which will carry showers to our windward sides in an off and on manner through the rest of this weekend. It appears that one particular area of showers will arrive tonight into early Sunday morning. These trades will very gradually ease up in strength through about Tuesday. The computer forecast models then show them increasing again around mid-week. They will continue blowing well out into the future, despite these fairly minor fluctuations along the way.

The showers along the windward sides range between light and moderate in intensity. There may be a couple of locally heavier downpours, although they won't be all that common for the time being. A pool of cold air aloft, associated with an upper level low pressure system over the state, may enhance whatever showers that around Monday and Tuesday. There's even been some thought that we could see a couple of thunderstorms during that short time frame…especially along the upper slopes on the leeward side of the Big Island. 

Here in Kula, Maui at 530pm Saturday evening, skies were were partly cloudy. Those cirrus clouds that have been around lately, are now mostly around the Big Island, with a smaller amount up near Kauai too. We should see somewhat of an increase in windward showers tonight, which will likely stretch into Sunday morning. The smaller islands of Kauai and Oahu may see a few of these flying over into the leeward sides at times too. As this new low pressure system edges more fully over the state Monday and Tuesday, with its cold air aloft, there will likely be some shower enhancing going on then. This could start as early as Sunday afternoon or evening on the leeward side of the Big Island. The fact that we may see a slim chance of a thunderstorm during the first two days of the new work week, qualifies as being unusual once again! ~~~ I'm looking forward to getting out on my lounge chair, on my weather deck soon, to enjoy the sunset. I hope you have a good Saturday night! I'll meet you here again on Sunday morning, when I'll have your next weather narrative waiting for you. Aloha for now…Glenn.

Extra: There's still a little snow atop Mauna Kea on the Big Island Saturday evening…although its melting fast!

Interesting: Dog owners often attest to their canine companion's seeming ability to read their minds. How do dogs they learn to beg for food or behave badly primarily when we're not looking? According to Monique Udell and her team, from the University of Florida in the US, the way that dogs come to respond to the level of people's attentiveness tells us something about the ways dogs think and learn about human behavior.

Their research, published online in Springer's journal Learning & Behavior, suggests it is down to a combination of specific cues, context and previous experience. Recent work has identified a remarkable range of human-like social behaviors in the domestic dog, including their ability to respond to human body language, verbal commands, and to attentional states.

The question is, how do they do it? Do dogs infer humans' mental states by observing their appearance and behavior under various circumstances and then respond accordingly? Or do they learn from experience by responding to environmental cues, the presence or absence of certain stimuli, or even human behavioral cues?

Udell and colleagues' work sheds some light on these questions. Udell and team carried out two experiments comparing the performance of pet domestic dogs, shelter dogs and wolves given the opportunity to beg for food, from either an attentive person or from a person unable to see the animal.

They wanted to know whether the rearing and living environment of the animal (shelter or human home), or the species itself (dog or wolf), had the greater impact on the animal's performance. They showed, for the first time that wolves, like domestic dogs, are capable of begging successfully for food by approaching the attentive human.

This demonstrates that both species — domesticated and non-domesticated — have the capacity to behave in accordance with a human's attentional state. In addition, both wolves and pet dogs were able to rapidly improve their performance with practice. The authors also found that dogs were not sensitive to all visual cues of a human's attention in the same way.

In particular, dogs from a home environment rather than a shelter were more sensitive to stimuli predicting attentive humans. Those dogs with less regular exposure to humans performed badly on the begging task.

According to the researchers, "These results suggest that dogs' ability to follow human actions stems from a willingness to accept humans as social companions, combined with conditioning to follow the limbs and actions of humans to acquire reinforcement. The type of attentional cues, the context in which the command is presented, and previous experience are all important."

Interesting2: The hottest summer day you remember from childhood could be the norm in a few decades; in fact it looks like the heat has already been cranked up. "When scientists talk about global warming causing more heat waves, people often ask if that means that the hottest temperatures will become 'the new normal,'" said Noah Diffenbaugh, an assistant professor of environmental Earth system science at Stanford, in a press release.

"That got us thinking —- at what point can we expect the coolest seasonal temperatures to always be hotter than the historically highest temperatures for that season?" wondered Diffenbaugh. Diffenbaugh is lead author of a study to be published later this month in the journal Climate Change.

Stanford research assistant Martin Scherer co-authored the study. "According to our projections, large areas of the globe are likely to warm up so quickly that, by the middle of this century, even the coolest summers will be hotter than the hottest summers of the past 50 years," said Diffenbaugh.

Within the next 20 to 60 years, if greenhouse gas levels continue to rise, summer temperatures are likely to rise irreversibly around the globe, with the tropics feeling the heat first, and parts of Africa, Asia and the Americas suffering unprecedented summer heat within the next two decades, according to Diffenbaugh's study. The middle latitudes, including Europe, China and the United States, will feel the heat within 60 years, they report.

Interesting3: The nation's first tidal energy power plant may take shape in New York’s East River, under a pilot project recommended for approval last month by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ("FERC"). In December 2010, Verdant Power applied for a license to install 30 underwater turbines between Roosevelt Island and Queens, which would enable tidal power to be sold over the national electric grid for the first time ever.

Tidal power represents an often-overlooked but growing renewable energy source, more predicable than wind or solar power, but often encumbered by high start-up costs. The strong, fluctuating currents in the East River — which is actually a tidal strait between the New York Harbor and the Long Island Sound — make this water body an ideal location for the generation of tidal energy.

Verdant previously tested six tidal turbines in the proposed project location; they were used to power a Gristedes supermarket and a parking garage on Roosevelt Island. The need for FERC licensing and other federal approvals triggered the National Environmental Policy Act ("NEPA"), requiring an analysis of the project’s significant, adverse environmental impacts. On May 3, FERC released an Environmental Assessment reporting no such impacts, thereby allowing the project to move forward without a more intensive Environmental Impact Statement.