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

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

Lihue, Kauai –                   79
Honolulu airport, Oahu –     84  
Kaneohe, Oahu –               78
Molokai airport –                82
Kahului airport, Maui          89  (record high for the date – 90 in 1957)
Kona airport                      83
Hilo airport, Hawaii –          77

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

Kahului, Maui – 83
Hilo, Hawaii – 73

Haleakala Crater – 41 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea –        34 (over 13,500 feet on the Big Island)

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

2.23     Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.83     Nuuanu Upper, Oahu
0.07     Molokai
0.00     Lanai
0.00     Kahoolawe
0.83     Puu Kukui, Maui
1.41     Piihonua, 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 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. The Haleakala Crater webcam on Maui just came back online, after being on the blink for several weeks.

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

  Partly to mostly cloudy, gusty trade
winds – windward showers

As this weather map shows, we find a moderately strong high pressure system located to the north-northeast of the Hawaiian Islands Sunday evening.  Our trade winds will remain locally strong and gusty into the new week.

The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph), along with directions Sunday evening:

27                 Port Allen, Kauai – ENE
27                 Bellows, Oahu – NE
27                 Molokai – NE
36                 Kahoolawe – ESE
36                 Kahului, Maui – NE
09                 Lanai – WSW
38                    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 Sunday evening. Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we find that there is still quite a few high and middle level clouds being carried overhead from the west and southwest…as well as lots of lower level clouds at the time of this writing too. We can use this looping satellite image to see a counterclockwise rotating low pressure system to the west of Kauai. This low continues to carry high and middle level clouds over our islands. At lower levels, the gusty trade winds are bringing showery looking clouds in our direction as well. Checking out this looping radar image we see showers falling locally, especially over the windward sides, a few are heavier over the ocean to the south of the central islands and the Big Island too. 

Sunset Commentary:   As has been the case for the last several days, our skies remain generally cloudy, with a mix of high, middle and the lower levels of the atmosphere. An upper level low pressure system to our west, continues to transport these clouds over us…from the deeper tropics to the south and southwest of our islands. Meanwhile, the gusty trade winds are carrying showery clouds to our windward sides too. This precipitation hasn’t been too impressive, although some favored places have seen some locally generous rainfall. 

The trade winds continue to blow, and are locally quite strong. This has required the continuance of the small craft wind advisory over those windiest coastal and channel waters from the Big Island on up through Maui and Oahu towards Kauai. The trade wind will continue right on into the new Thanksgiving holiday week ahead…gradually slowing down towards the middle of the week for a few days. There are hints now that the trade winds will pick up again next weekend.

This past Friday evening I went to see a new film, one which I'd looking forward to seeing for quite a while. There were several that looked interesting, although I decided to go see the one called J. Edgar, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lea Coco, Naomi Watts and Judi Dench…among many others. Synopsis: based on the life of J. Edgar Hoover, the man often credited with making the FBI what it is today: an efficient, crime-fighting organization shrouded in secrecy. Hoover founded the organization in 1935 and remained director until his death in 1972. The critics are giving this film a B grade, while the viewers have given it the same. By the way, Clint Eastwood is the director of this film. I found it to be be a long rather slow paced film, and actually found myself nodding off a few times at one point. I think this may have been due to the late starting time of the film, and from my just being tired. Nonetheless, the film picked up, or was it just that I forced myself to wake up? It was a rather dark film, and demonstrated the complexity of J. Edgar, with all the various deep relationships he experienced with his close associates. The three major roles other than his, belonged to his Mother, this second in command at the FBI, and his personal secretary. I enjoyed this film, and feel comfortable giving it a B grade. It was a film that I enjoyed quite a bit, and was well worth seeing in my estimation. Here's a trailer for this film, in case you may have some interest.

Here in Kula, Maui at around 5pm Sunday evening we have a rather dark and heavy looking canopy of clouds all over the island. The air temperature was 66.4F degrees, with calm conditions and no showers. The latest thought is that our skies may finally begin to clear around Tuesday or so. Looking even further ahead, Wednesday should be a decent day, with a weak cold front perhaps skimming by not too far to our north around Thanksgiving. It's still a bit too early to know if we'll get any showers from this front. As we move into next weekend, the moisture from another cold front may bring an increase in showers to our windward sides. ~~~ Looking out the windows of my weather tower at the moment, it's really dark as far as the clouds go, definitely dark enough to suggest we could get some showers soon. So far however, it has held off, so that I could wash my clothes and dry them on the line. ~~~ This coming week I'll be having pesto pasta for dinners Monday through Wednesday. I bought a package of Applegate organic fire roasted red pepper chicken and turkey sausages. These are already cooked, so I'll heat one up each evening while I'm boiling the water for pasta. I'll plate the sausage, and the cooked pasta, and then scoop on the fresh pesto sauce…grating some nice hard cheese over it. I bought some avocados, which I'll have with a few crackers on the side of the plate too. I went in with some friends recently and bought a case of Pinot Noir red wine from Andersen Valley, California, up in Mendocino County. I'll pop a bottle Monday after work, and then make it last through Wednesday's dinner. My friend's, who are now in Bali vacationing, suggested we get this case, and highly recommend it. The shipping was free from California, which made it more affordable, so I'll try and remember to let you know what I think. ~~~ I'll be back very early Monday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Sunday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting:  It might not be the shrewdest observation made by a journalist, but snail poo stinks. Of course you can't smell it when one of them goes to the toilet in your pansy beds but in large quantities, the stuff reeks. My visit to Dorset Escargot, a commercial snail farm near Wimborne, was certainly an aromatic experience.

Owned by Tony Walker, he has the unenviable job of hosing out the excrement created by the tens of thousands of snails he breeds on the farm – a chore he was finishing when I arrived. Tony started the business in 2006. Celebrity chef, Anthony Worrall Thompson, was his first customer and since then Dorset Escargot has been doing a roaring trade.

'They're becoming so popular we can't keep up with demand,' beams Tony, who supplies some of London's top restaurants, including Claridges. 'We're hoping to farm 10,000 snails per week by the end of the year.' Britain's steadily growing taste for snails has been a long time coming.

They might be de rigeur on dinner plates across the Channel but we have been slow, even by a snail's standards, to embrace these Marmite molluscs (you either love them or hate them).

But chefs and diners across the country are finally discovering the delights of snail meat and some of Tony's clients, which have also included Gary Rhodes, are producing all manner of exciting escargot dishes; The Waldorf Hilton in London serves them with black pudding, wild garlic and boar bacon, The Bridge House Hotel in Beaminster, Dorset offers them as part of an all day breakfast, while Club Gascon in London has taken it one step further, having just introduced snail caviar to their Michelin star menu.

'I've been experimenting with snails for two or three years, I'm coming up with new dishes all the time,' says Steve Pielesz, head chef at Dorset's Bridge House Hotel. 'On the dinner menu at the moment we've got a mini snail pasty with chips, baked bean puree and homemade ketchup.'

Dishes like these might sound like a gimmick and, to a certain extent, they probably are. But there are many nutritional benefits to be had from eating these gastropods; snail meat is packed with protein and is fat free. I'm also told they are a great vehicle for flavour.

'They work really well in Asian dishes,' claims Tony, who eats snail several times a week. But why stop at snails? Not only are most insects good for you, they're also good for the planet because farming them requires a fraction of the energy needed to produce other meat.

What's more, according to the UN, insects, which are eaten in many countries around the world, are an better source of protein than the usual cows, pigs and sheep. On top of that, there's no need to chop down rainforests for grazing because leafy forests and woodland provides precisely the sort of conditions in which insects thrive.

'The environmental footprint of insects as food is far smaller than other meat-producing animals,' says Patrick Durst, who works for the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). 'Insects are approximately six times more efficient than cattle and more than twice as efficient as pigs or poultry in converting the feed they eat into insect tissue suitable for human consumption.

They also emit fewer greenhouse gases in growing (and in processing) than other livestock.' Historically, a considerable portion of the world's population has dined out on insects and it's only in western culture where the practice has died out.

'The FAO has documented insect consumption by humans in nearly 100 countries around the world,' says Patrick. 'Most commonly in Africa, Asia and Oceania, but also some in Latin America.'

More than 1,600 species of insects are eaten by humans – the most common being beetles, ants, grasshoppers, crickets, wasps and silk worms.

To many, the idea of guzzling such creepy crawlies is disgusting and indeed it can be: the scorpion I ate to research this article was comfortably the most unpleasant 'food' I have ever tasted, although the deep-fried crickets were delicious — slightly nutty and perfect with lager.

But with the global population booming and many already going hungry; could eating bugs help to ease the world's food shortages?