Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Sunday:
Lihue, Kauai – 78
Honolulu airport, Oahu – 82
Kaneohe, Oahu – 78
Molokai airport – 78
Kahului airport, Maui 80
Kona airport 88
Hilo airport, Hawaii – 79
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops…as of 5pm Sunday evening:
Barking Sands, Kauai – 80
Molokai airport – 73
Haleakala Crater – 46 (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 evening:
0.35 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.26 Makaha Ridge, Oahu
0.30 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
2.56 Puu Kukui, Maui
3.63 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 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
Still windy Sunday night…rough and choppy ocean –
dry weather will continue…with easing winds soon
As this weather map shows, we find a 1033 millibar high pressure system located to the northeast of the Hawaiian Islands…which will provide strong and gusty northeast winds overnight…gradually easing up into the new week. At the same time, the weak cold front has moved south of the state. Our local winds will remain strong and gusty behind this front for the time being, easing up quite a bit through the upcoming mid-week time frame.
The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph), along with directions Sunday evening:
33 Waimea Heights, Kauai – NE
36 Honolulu, Oahu – NE
40 Molokai – NE
43 Kahoolawe – NE
37 Kapalua, Maui – NE
49 Lanai – NE
49 Pali 2, 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 night. Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we find a swath of high and middle level cloudiness located just to the south of the state, near the Big Island. At the same time, we see lots of stable low clouds to the north through east…over the ocean. We can use this looping satellite image to see low clouds being carried towards the islands on the gusty wind flow, although they seem to be dissipating as they reach our islands, at least at the time of this writing. At the same time, we find a weak cold front now to the south of the Big Island. Checking out this looping radar image we see generally dry conditions around the state, and offshore.
Sunset Commentary: The gusty northeast winds continue to blow across our islands, although will begin to ease up as we get into Monday. The small craft wind advisories over all of our local coasts and channels remains in place…although the gale warning is now restricted to just the Alenuihaha Channel between Maui and the Big Island. This hasn't your ordinary strong and gusty wind event, which happens quite often here in the Aloha state. This has been one of the stronger blows we've seen in a while. Winds have ranged between 25-35 mph in general, with some gusts topping 40 to near 50 mph in a few places this weekend.
Meanwhile, we had a cold front push through the island chain during the last 24 hours. It brought generally light showers, although there were a few exceptions. Several rain gauges around the state picked up 1-2" rainfall totals, with one accumulation on the Big Island topping out at just over 3.00". The air mass flooding into the state in the wake of the recent cold front is very dry and stable. This has brought back our cherished sunny skies, although the winds will still be up. We'll see gradually lighter winds through the middle of the new work week. The computer models are showing a new cold front approaching the state around Thursday, which may trigger wetter weather and strong winds again then into the weekend…as yet another cold front approaches then.
This past Friday evening I went into Kahului for a quick dinner, before walking over to the theater and seeing a new film. This one was called Twilight Saga, The Breaking Dawn, starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner…among many others. The synopsis: Bella and Edward, plus those they love, must deal with the chain of consequences brought on by a marriage, honeymoon, and the tumultuous birth of a child… which brings an unforeseen and shocking development for Jacob Black. I went to rotten tomatoes, a film rating website, and found that they were rating this film 23 out of 100. They are rough graders, nonetheless, they weren't that impressed with Breaking Dawn. I went to Yahoo and found that viewers are giving it a much higher B+ grade. I've seen the other films in this series, and have enjoyed these vampire flicks. This film was being shown in one of the largest theaters in this complex, and it was packed, like every seat taken! I haven't seen this kind of crowd for any film in a long time. I found it engaging, and fun to see all the white faced vampires. These are played by very attractive young men and women of course, which adds to the thrill. There are these very intimidating men that turn into wolves too, which are at odds with the vampires. So, I liked it quite a bit, and for what it was, I thought it was very successful. I'll give it a very solid B grade, which could be stretched to a B+ I suppose. It isn't for your average citizen that's for sure, but if you don't mind a little blood and biting, and enjoy drama, this is one worth seeing. Here's a trailer just in case you have any interest in seeing what I sat through last evening.
Here in Kula, Maui at around 530pm Sunday evening, skies are clear and a bit hazy, with an air temperature of 63.7F degrees. The winds have been up and down across the state, or at least here in Kula. I woke up last night again to strong and gusty winds, and then again at times to near calm conditions. The winds are definitely still crankin' out there in those windier locations, near 50 mph at both Lanai and on the Big Island as we move into the evening hours…with lots of 30-40+ mph readings! There will be a fairly significant easing up of these stronger than normal winds later Monday and Tuesday. ~~~ Meanwhile, there's been a large north swell that's breaking, and along with the wind swell being created by the gusty winds, is keeping our local ocean on the north and east shores rough and choppy. There's a high surf advisory that's active along our north and east facing shores now. ~~~ Today was one of those pristine days, as long as you were out of the blustery winds that is. Here in Kula, which has been mostly blocked from those winds, although not totally, the breezes were slightly cool, while the sun was warm…which felt so good! I expect Monday and Tuesday to continue this roll of nice late autumn weather. As I was mentioning above, towards the second half of the new week we will likely see some changes, as approaching cold fronts shift our winds around, and likely bring showers. ~~~ I just got through making a nice pasta sauce, starting off with organic red onion, mushrooms, okra, and eggplant, and then adding a small can of wild sardines. I added a large can of organic diced tomatoes, and some fresh picked basil leaves out of our garden. I'll boil pasta each evening from Monday through Thursday, adding the sauce, then grating on some hard cheese, and capers for my workday dinners. I'm sipping on a really nice glass of pinot noir red wine now, that I got from Londer vineyards in Anderson Valley, which is in the Mendocino County of northern California. It's quite young, with a 2009 date on the label, although tasty. ~~~ Ok, this is the last narrative update for this Thanksgiving holiday week, which has been just great. By the way, if you live here in the islands, and reside someplace outside of the major wind flow, its going to be chilly tonight. Case in point, here in Kula at 815pm, the air temperature is already down to 56.5F degrees, perhaps on its way down to near 50 or even 49 by the time I get up around 415am Monday morning. Best to put that extra blanket on the bed tonight, if its already starting to feel cool before bedding down for the night. I'll be back early Monday morning with your next new weather report from the islands. I hope you have a great Sunday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting: Australia moved to set up the world's biggest marine park on Friday to protect vast areas of the Coral Sea off the country's northeast coast and the site of fierce naval battles during World War II. Environment Minister Tony Burke said the park would cover almost 1 million square km — an area the size of France and Germany combined — and would help protect fish, pristine coral reefs and nesting sites for sea birds and the green turtle.
"The environmental significance of the Coral Sea lies in its diverse array of coral reefs, sandy cays, deep sea plains and canyons," Burke said. "It contains more than 20 outstanding examples of isolated tropical reefs, sandy cays and islands."
The new park would also cover ships sunk in the Battle of the Coral Sea, a series of naval engagements between Japanese, American and Australian forces in 1942, considered the world's first aircraft carrier battle. Three U.S. ships were known to have sunk in the northeastern area of the Coral Sea, the USS Lexington, the USS Sims and the USS Neosho, Burke said.
The government will finalize what limits will be imposed on the Coral Sea marine park, which will be within Australia's economic zone, in 90 days.
Interesting2: Air pollution caused more than 100 billion euros ($134.95 billion) in health and environmental damage, highlighting the need for more renewables sources of energy, a report published on Thursday by the European Environment Agency found. Europe's 10,000 largest factories and energy facilities resulted in 102-169 billion euros in health issues, such as respiratory and cardiovascular problems, and environmental costs because of air pollution in 2009, the most recent available data.
Per citizen, the cost was between 200-300 euros. "This analysis shows the significant impact of fossil-fueled power stations and the very high costs they impose on people's health and the environment, making the case for introducing cleaner types of energy even more urgent," European Environment Agency Executive Director Jacqueline McGlade said in a statement.
The power generation sector was the biggest contributor of damage costs, with 66-112 billion euros, the study showed. It covered the EU 27 member states as well as Norway and Switzerland. A small number of facilities, 622 or 6 percent of the total number, represented 75 percent of the total damage costs resulting from air pollutants, such as heavy metals, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide greenhouse gases.
To tackle this problem, the EU plans to review EU air quality legislation in 2013, but resistance from the bloc's member states is expected. Germany, France, Italy, Poland, and the United Kingdom, which have the largest number of facilities, were identified as contributing the most in terms of total damage costs. Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland and Romania were also responsible for a significant level of damage relative to their overall emissions levels.
Two British power stations, Drax and Longannet, were ranked five and 19 respectively out of the top 20 in terms of generating the highest pollution damage costs.
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