April 29-30 2008

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

Lihue, Kauai – 80
Honolulu, Oahu – 86
Kaneohe, Oahu – 80
Kahului, Maui – 86
Hilo, Hawaii – 78
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii – 80

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level at 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon:

Barking Sands, Kauai  – 83F
Molokai airport – 75   

Precipitation Totals – The following numbers represent the largest precipitation totals (inches) during the last 24 hours on each of the major islands, as of Tuesday afternoon: 

0.52  MOUNT WAIALEALE, KAUAI
0.07 MANOA VALLEY, OAHU
0.01 MOLOKAI
0.00 LANAI
0.00 KAHOOLAWE
0.17 WEST WAILUAIKI, MAUI
0.20 KAMUELA UPPER, BIG ISLAND

Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a 1033 millibar high pressure center far to the NNE of the state. This high will keep moderately strong trade winds blowing across our islands through Thursday…stronger and gusty in those windiest spots on Maui and the Big Island.

Satellite and Radar Images: To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with the 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…out from the islands. 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 cloud conditions.

Aloha Paragraphs

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Large surf breaking along Hawaii’s leeward beaches

The trade winds will be on the blustery side for the time being, tapering off some Friday into the weekend. We’ll see moderately strong trade winds blowing across the entire state now, with those usual windiest areas finding considerably stronger and gustier conditions. A small craft wind advisory has now been expanded to include all the windward areas, plus the major channels between the islands. The computer forecast models show that the trade winds will continue through the rest of the week.

There will be showers arriving over the islands at times, carried our way by the trade winds. These showers will be focused most intently along the windward coasts and slopes through most of this week. The leeward sides will remain on the dry side, although the fast paced trade winds may carry a few stray showers over into those areas on the smaller islands. High cirrus clouds will keep island skies quite cloudy for the time being…dimming and filtering our sunshine during the days.

The Hawaiian islands are having a difficult time breaking back into sunny weather. Last week, and through this past weekend, it was the thick volcanic haze, which muted our famous sunshine considerably. Now, as this looping satellite image shows, we have abundant high level cirrus clouds streaming across our skies…moving along in the high level winds aloft. This canopy of high clouds makes it difficult to see what kinds of lower level, shower bearing clouds, are being carried our way in the brisk trade wind flow. Looking at this looping radar image, it appears that the most generous of those are taking aim on the windward side of the Big Island…and Maui too.

Meanwhile, the south facing leeward beaches will continue to see large surf breaking. This surf was generated more than a week ago, down near New Zealand, in the southern hemisphere. This surf is large enough, that a high surf advisory has been issued by the NWS forecast office in Honolulu. These waves will be long lasting, continuing through most of the rest of this week…to the delight our local surfing community! Folks who aren’t used to breaking waves, along our resort filled leeward beaches, should use caution when going into the ocean.

It’s Tuesday evening as I begin writing this last section of today’s narrative.Tuesday wasn’t a banner day for sunshine, which is actually an understatement as it turns out! A serious layer of high clouds kept the sun under wraps all day. There may have been a few sneaky rays that snuck this this canopy of cirrus clouds, but they didn’t last long. Most areas saw dry weather, although if you had a chance to check out that looping radar image above, you saw that there was a line of showers moving through the Big Island and Maui end of the island chain. It will be touch and go in terms of the sunset this evening, in regards to whether the high clouds will be too thick to provide much of a colorful sunset?  We may have a better chance of a pink or orange sunrise Wednesday morning. I’ll be back online with your next new weather narrative very early Wednesday. I hope you have a great Tuesday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting: The world food crisis is hurting a lot of people, but global agribusiness firms, traders and speculators are raking in huge profits. Much of the news coverage of the world food crisis has focussed on riots in low-income countries, where workers and others cannot cope with skyrocketing costs of staple foods. But there is another side to the story: the big profits that are being made by huge food corporations and investors. Cargill, the world’s biggest grain trader, achieved an 86% increase in profits from commodity trading in the first quarter of this year. Bunge, another huge food trader, had a 77% increase in profits during the last quarter of last year. ADM, the second largest grain trader in the world, registered a 67% per cent increase in profits in 2007. Nor are retail giants taking the strain: profits at Tesco, the UK supermarket giant, rose by a record 11.8% last year. Other major retailers, such as France’s Carrefour and Wal-Mart of the US, say that food sales are the main sector sustaining their profit increases. Investment funds, running away from sliding stock markets and the credit crunch, are having a heyday on the commodity markets, driving prices out of reach for food importers like Bangladesh and the Philippines.

Interesting2: For most people the word "vacation" conjures images of relaxing in a tropical paradise, but for some animal lovers, their precious time off isn’t spent sipping margaritas. Fueled by a desire to make a difference, they’re using all, or part, of their vacation time to help improve the lives of homeless pets here and abroad. One of those people is Crystal Hall, an administrative assistant who lives in Calgary, Alberta. Hall’s last five vacations were spent at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah, where she happily works eight-hour days filling food bowls, washing litter boxes and grooming cats. “I think I have a bit of a cat addiction,” she says with a laugh. “I just love them and can’t get enough of them. It just makes me happy to see them happy.” Hall isn’t alone. Each year, almost 5,000 volunteers make the journey to Best Friends, the nation’s largest no-kill shelter caring for abused and abandoned animals. Located in the heart of the Golden Circle of national parks, the refuge is a short drive to the Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon and Lake Powell. Some people help for a few hours; others stay few days, said Barbara Williamson, a spokesperson for Best Friends. “Some even end up moving here permanently so they can contribute their labor of love to the sanctuary on a regular basis,” she said.