Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha paragraphs / September 20-21, 2011

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

Lihue, Kauai –                   86           
Honolulu airport, Oahu –     89   
Kaneohe, Oahu –               83
Molokai airport –                84
Kahului airport, Maui –       90  (record for Tuesday – 92 in 1953) 
Kona airport                      88  
Hilo airport, Hawaii –          85

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

Port Allen, Kauai – 86
Princeville, Kauai – 79

Haleakala Crater –     50 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 41 (over 13,500 feet on the Big Island)

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

0.45     Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.57     Honouliuli, Oahu
0.00     Molokai
0.00     Lanai
0.00     Kahoolawe
0.07     Puu Kukui, Maui
0.17     Kawainui Stream, 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 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. This web cam is 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.  Here's a tropical cyclone tracking map for the eastern and central Pacific.

 Aloha Paragraphs


Trade winds…a few showers at times –
rising surf Wednesday on north shores
 
 

The trade winds will remain active, although becoming softer as we get into the upcoming weekend…into early next week.  Glancing at this weather map, it shows a near 1023 millibar high pressure system to the northeast of our islands, with a ridge of high pressure extending southwest…to the north of our islands. Our local trade winds will be light to moderately strong through Thursday, locally a bit stronger during the afternoon hours.

Our trade winds will remain active…the following numbers represent the strongest gusts (mph), along with directions Tuesday evening: 

29                Port Allen, Kauai – NE 
25                Honolulu, Oahu – NE
24                Molokai – NE
24                Kahoolawe – ESE
32                   Kahului, Maui – NE
21                Lanai – NE 
25                Upolu 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 Tuesday evening. Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we find just a few low clouds offshore in most directions. There are some clouds over and around the islands too.  We can use this looping satellite image to see the low clouds moving along in the trade wind flow, impacting our islands locally. At the same time, there are lots of thunderstorms, with their associated high cirrus clouds far to our southwest. Checking out this looping radar image we see very few showers around, most of which are falling over the ocean at the time of this writing, although a few are coming into our windward coasts and slopes…especially around Maui and the Big Island.

Sunset Commentary:  Looking at our local Hawaiian Island weather picture through a climatological lens, it looks pretty normal for this time of year…these last couple of days of summer 2011. The trade winds continue in the light to moderately strong realms, with a few windward showers…and a few interior afternoon showers here and there. Little change is expected through Friday. Showers will likely be at a minimum, they certainly were today, which may dry out further Thursday or Friday into the weekend. As an early season cold front approaches the state during the weekend, it will push our trade wind producing high pressure ridge down close to Hawaii. This typically means lighter winds, perhaps even grading into daytime sea breezes, with offshore land breezes during the nights. 

As the weekend arrives, this cold front will be pushing southward into the subtropics to our north. As mentioned above, the weekend should be on the dry side in general. Later in the day Sunday or by Monday perhaps, this cold front might be able to sneak down as far as Kauai. This is early in the season for such an occurrence, although not that much precipitation is expected from it anyway…if any. We could wonder if this early cold front could be a sign that we’ll see many more of them during our upcoming rainy season. The prospect of that looks at least somewhat promising, as the La Nina phase of the ENSO cycle is expected to be active. La Nina can bring more than the normal amount of rainfall to our islands, mirroring what we saw last winter. It’s just a thought at this point, time will tell of course.

Here in Kihei, Maui at around 530pm HST Tuesday evening, skies were partly cloudy, with a mix of both high cirrus and lower level cumulus clouds. These high clouds will likely add some color to our sunset, and again early Wednesday morning too, if they're still around then. The main thing during the next couple of days will be the rising surf along our north shores, it will likely be just barely below high surf advisory levels. This means in no uncertain terms, folks need to use caution when they get near the ocean along those beaches. The rest of our beaches, away from the north shores, will be considerably smaller, and safer too. I'll be back early in the morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Tuesday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting: When Hurricane Irene tore through the Northeast last month, it caused severe flooding and damage to homes, trees and power lines. But it also left behind something rather delicate: mushrooms. Foragers say they've seen more fungi in the past few weeks than ever before.

On a recent weekday morning in Northampton, Mass., three 50-something adults wander into the woods. The oak leaves fall alongside the pine needles, and the tall maple trees are just starting to show color. Pat McDonagh often takes friends out to forage for mushrooms and teaches them which species are edible.

"It does not have gills like a store mushroom," she says. "It has spongy tubes. It's very distinctive. It has these black flaky scales on top. You can usually see if they're wormy, because there'll be little worm holes. This one's nice and clean. It can go in my basket."

Even though it hasn't rained in days, there's still a damp feeling in the air. It smells brisk and slightly musky. McDonagh has been taking to the woods almost daily. In her 40 years of foraging, she's never seen a harvest like this one. She often brings her friend Paul Redstone.

"This is like treasure hunting," Redstone says. "I walk through the woods with her and it's like, 'Oh, look there, there's a little lump of gold.' " There are more than 1,000 mushroom varieties in these woods, McDonagh says, but she eats only about 24 of them.

She recommends taking a course on edible fungi before foraging alone. McDonagh gets down on her hands and knees to pick black trumpets. "They smell a little bit fruity, like apricot," she says.

Interesting2: Global energy intensity increased 1.35 percent in 2010, reversing a broader trend of decline over the last 30 years, according to a new Vital Signs Online article. Energy intensity, defined as total energy consumption divided by gross world product, has been growing faster than the global economy for the past two years, even though energy intensity overall has declined over the past decade.

The article highlights reasons for these changes in emerging economies and industrialized countries, including China and the United States, and predicts that global energy intensity will return to an overall decline over the long term as economies opt for more sustainable development. Between 1981 and 2010, global energy intensity decreased by about 20.5 percent, or 0.8 percent annually.

"During this period of decline, most developed countries restructured their economies and energy-intensive heavy industries accounted for a shrinking share of production," said Haibing Ma, Manager of Worldwatch’s China Program, who conducted the research. "New technologies applied to energy production and consumption significantly improved efficiency in almost every aspect of the economy," says Ma.

Particularly during the surge of the knowledge-based economy (a term describing the rise of computer and digital technology and a shift away from producing items like cars and furniture to “knowledge” in the form of software and design innovations) from 1991 to 2000, global economic productivity increased without parallel increases in energy use. The report notes that worldwide energy efficiency had been increasing steadily until recently.

Between 2004 and 2008, global energy intensity experienced its sharpest decline in 30 years, with an average annual rate of decrease of 1.87 percent. Starting in 2008—09, however, energy intensity rose again, experiencing the first rise in three decades.

"Increases in economic energy intensity are especially discouraging, even when temporary," said Worldwatch Executive Director Robert Engelman. "With both population and consumption growing worldwide, the capacity of the world's economy to require less energy for each unit of output has been a rare positive trend for the environment. We need to find less energy-intensive ways to put people back to work and improve economic conditions."

In addition to technological advances, price developments play a key role in determining overall energy usage. World crude oil prices more than tripled between 2004 and 2008—the fastest rise since the oil crisis of the late 1970s—contributing to the sharp decline in energy intensity during that period. But after the second half of 2008, when international oil prices dropped 75 percent, global energy intensity started rising.