Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Monday:
Lihue, Kauai – 80
Honolulu airport, Oahu – 82 (Highest temperature for this date was 85 – in 1996)
Kaneohe, Oahu – 79
Molokai airport – 79
Kahului airport, Maui – 81
Kona airport – 80
Hilo airport, Hawaii – 80
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops…as of 5pm Monday evening:
Honolulu, Oahu – 78
Hilo, Hawaii – 72
Haleakala Crater – 46 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea – 36 (near 13,800 feet on the Big Island)
Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live web cam on the summit of near 13,800 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. Here's the Haleakala Crater webcam on Maui…which is working only sometimes lately.
Aloha Paragraphs
Trade winds, generally dry weather
Dolphins in Hawaiian waters
As this weather map shows high pressure systems far to the northeast, along with the tail-end of a cold front to the north…and a second cold front approaching to the northwest. The location of these high pressure cells, and their associated ridges will keep light to moderately strong trade winds blowing into mid-week.
The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph), along with directions Monday evening:
17 Port Allen, Kauai – SE
14 Kahuku, Oahu – NE
20 Molokai – NE
M Kahoolawe
27 Kahului, Maui – NE
12 Lanai – NE
21 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 Monday evening. Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we see just scattered low level clouds out over the ocean at the time of this writing, although clouds have formed over and around the mountains on the larger islands. We can use this looping satellite image to see a cold front to the northwest of the islands…and a small area of thunderstorms far to the east-southeast of the Big Island. Checking out this looping radar image we see a few showers over the ocean, impacting a few windward spots locally.
Here are the 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Monday evening:
0.18 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.08 Waihee Pump, Oahu
0.00 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.07 Ulupalakua, Maui
0.04 Pahoa, Big Island
Sunset Commentary: There are several high pressure systems to the northeast of the Hawaiian Islands Monday morning. An associated high pressure ridge is gradually moving northward now, and will allow the trade winds to increase a bit through Wednesday. A cold front to the northwest will approach the state later this week, and in the process push this ridge down closer to Hawaii. This in turn will cause the trade winds to ease up, and turn more to the north or northeast Thursday and Friday. It looks like the winds will remain on the light side as we move into the weekend.
The state remains very dry, with just a few windward showers expected here and there locally at times. This unusually dry atmosphere will limit showers greatly, keeping us in this dry period through the middle of this new week. The next chance for some increase in rainfall will wait until Thursday, when a frontal cloud band, and a cold trough of low pressure aloft gets close to the state into Friday. This interaction between the upper trough, and moisture at the surface associated with the front, will be our best chance of showers this week. Conditions are expected to dry out quickly by the weekend.
Here in Kula, Maui at around 515pm HST, it was mostly cloudy (although still sunny down in the lowlands)…with an air temperature of 64.4F degrees. As noted above, our light to moderately strong trade winds will continue through mid-week. At the same time, our overlying atmosphere will remain stable, and thus not very shower prone. There may be a few brief showers along our windward sides, although as has been the case for many days now, they will be very limited. This very pleasant trade wind weather pattern will remain in place through Wednesday. As we move into Thursday and Friday, a cold front will move close to the islands, gliding by just to the north. As the same time, an area of cold air will move into place not too far to the north and northeast of the islands. These two weather features will likely bring some increase in showers during the last two days of this work week. There is that potential for a few heavier showers, although widespread rain isn't expected. As the front and upper trough of low pressure move away, we should move into a drier weekend, with more or less nice weather. These breezes coming across the state Thursday into Friday will have a more northerly aspect to them, so we'll likely see the daytime air temperatures drop a couple of degrees. As we move into the weekend, the lighter winds will likely cause afternoon cloudy periods over and around the mountains, with some showers…especially over Maui and the Big Island. Mornings will be clear and cool Saturday and Sunday too. ~~~ I'll be back early Tuesday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Monday night until then. Sunday evenings full moon kept bright conditions over the islands, and with the moon being just past full, there's going to be lots of reflected light around again tonight. One more thing, I just got back from my foggy sunset walk, and got rained on, wasn't when I left, but in getting back home, got wet! Oh well, I didn't really mind, it certainly had me walking fast though. Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting: The Galápagos tortoise or giant tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra) is the largest living species of tortoise, reaching weights of over 880 lb and lengths of over 5.9 feet. With life spans in the wild of over 100 years, it is one of the longest-lived vertebrates. The subspecies that lived on Floriana Island until 1850 had a modest fame as the one of the species that Darwin used in his studies.
A new analysis, published January 9 in the journal Current Biology, suggests that the direct descendants of extinct Chelonoidis elephantopus live on the volcanic slopes of the northern shore of Isabela Island — 200 miles from their ancestral home of Floreana Island, where they disappeared after being hunted to extinction by whalers.
"This is not just an academic exercise," said Gisella Caccone, senior research scientist in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and senior author of the paper. "If we can find these individuals, we can restore them to their island of origin.
This is important as these animals are keystone species playing a crucial role in maintaining the ecological integrity of the island communities." On his historic voyage to the Galapagos in 1835, Charles Darwin observed that the shells of tortoises living on different islands of the chain had different shapes — one of the observations that inspired his theory of natural selection.
For instance, the shells of C. elephantopus on Floreana were saddle-shaped while tortoises on other islands had domed-shaped shells. The exact number of subspecies of these tortoises that have existed in history is still under debate among scientists, but some recognize up to 15.
Only ten subspecies now exist in the wild, one on Santiago, Santa Cruz, San Cristóbal, Pinzón and Española, and five on Isabela, although this number is controversial and may be fewer. An eleventh surviving subspecies, abingdoni from Pinta Island, is considered extinct in the wild and is represented by a single living specimen, "Lonesome George".
The subspecies inhabiting Floreana island (C. n. nigra) is thought to have been hunted to extinction by whalers and local workers. A team of Yale researchers visiting Volcano Wolf on the northern tip of Isabela Island in 2008 took blood samples from more than 1600 tortoises and compared them to a genetic database of living and extinct tortoise species.
An analysis detected the genetic signatures of C. elephantopus in 84 Volcano Wolf tortoises, meaning one of their parents was a purebred member of the missing species. In 30 cases breeding had taken place within the last 15 years. Since the lifespan of tortoises can exceed 100 years, there is a high probability that many purebreds are still alive.
"To our knowledge, this is the first report of the rediscovery of a species by way of tracking the genetic footprints left in the genomes of its hybrid offspring," said former Yale postdoctoral researcher Ryan Garrick, now assistant professor at the University of Mississipi and first author of the paper.
Intensive breeding of hybrids might allow scientists to resuscitate the C. elephantopus species even if sufficient numbers of purebred tortoises can not be found, Garrick said. For further information: On his historic voyage to the Galapagos in 1835, Charles Darwin observed that the shells of tortoises living on different islands of the chain had different shapes — one of the observations that inspired his theory of natural selection.
For instance, the shells of C. elephantopus on Floreana were saddle-shaped while tortoises on other islands had domed-shaped shells. The exact number of subspecies of these tortoises that have existed in history is still under debate among scientists, but some recognize up to 15.
Only ten subspecies now exist in the wild, one on Santiago, Santa Cruz, San Cristóbal, Pinzón and Española, and five on Isabela, although this number is controversial and may be fewer. An eleventh surviving subspecies, abingdoni from Pinta Island, is considered extinct in the wild and is represented by a single living specimen, "Lonesome George".
The subspecies inhabiting Floreana island (C. n. nigra) is thought to have been hunted to extinction by whalers and local workers. A team of Yale researchers visiting Volcano Wolf on the northern tip of Isabela Island in 2008 took blood samples from more than 1600 tortoises and compared them to a genetic database of living and extinct tortoise species.
An analysis detected the genetic signatures of C. elephantopus in 84 Volcano Wolf tortoises, meaning one of their parents was a purebred member of the missing species. In 30 cases breeding had taken place within the last 15 years. Since the lifespan of tortoises can exceed 100 years, there is a high probability that many purebreds are still alive.
"To our knowledge, this is the first report of the rediscovery of a species by way of tracking the genetic footprints left in the genomes of its hybrid offspring," said former Yale postdoctoral researcher Ryan Garrick, now assistant professor at the University of Mississippi and first author of the paper. Intensive breeding of hybrids might allow scientists to resuscitate the C. elephantopus species even if sufficient numbers of purebred tortoises can not be found, Garrick said.
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