Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha paragraphs / March 12-13, 2012

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

Lihue, Kauai –                     78  
Honolulu airport, Oahu –      79   
Kaneohe, Oahu –                 M
Molokai airport –                 75
Kahului airport, Maui –          73
Kona airport –                  81
Hilo airport, Hawaii –           78

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

Barking Sands, Kauai – 79
Kapalua, Maui – 70

Haleakala Crater –  48 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea –         39 (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…although this webcam is often not working correctly.

 Aloha Paragraphs

   
Windward showers at times, windy…
high cirrus clouds 

>> Hawaii doesn't have Daylight Savings Time, so we are now 3
hours behind the west coast…and 6 hours behind east coast time

As this weather map shows, we have a strong near 1033 millibar high pressure system to the northwest of the islands. At the same time we have a trough of low pressure far to the west of the state…moving away. Our winds will be locally strong and gusty trades….easing up a little Tuesday into Wednesday. 

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

31                 Port Allen, Kauai – NE
42                 Kuaokala, Oahu – NE
32                 Molokai – NE
39                 Kahoolawe – NE
30                 Kahului, Maui – NE
38                 Lanai – NE
39                 PTA Keamuku, 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 high and middle level clouds surrounding the islands to the southwest and west of the state…being carried our way on the upper winds. We can use this looping satellite image to see low clouds coming into the state, carried by the trade winds. Checking out this looping radar image we see a few showers falling generally over the ocean, with some being carried over the islands on the strong and gusty trade winds…mostly over the windward coasts and slopes. 

Here are the 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Monday evening:
 
2.62               Kilohana, Kauai
1.77               Manoa Lyon Arboretum, Oahu
0.30               Molokai
0.01               Kahoolawe
3.83               Puu Kukui, Maui
1.48               Kawainui Stream, Big Island  

Sunset Commentary:  Satellite imagery shows clouds over the ocean in most directions, with radar images showing that the showers that came through the state this morning and into the day, associated with an old frontal cloud band…will stick around into Tuesday. Besides these passing showers, the primary weather influence will continue to be the gusty trade winds. These gusty trades will keep showers falling along our windward coasts and slopes. The leeward sides will find a few showers being carried there by the gusty trade wind flow too, although will be drier compared to the north and east sides of the islands. Looking further ahead, the trade winds will continue, while conditions will turn drier in general through much of this week…starting by about mid-week.

Here in Kula, Maui at 520pm HST, we had calm winds, with partly cloudy and foggy skies…and an air temperature of 67.1F degrees. As I mentioned above, we saw quite a few showers last night, that continued into the day, particularly along the windward sides. The winds were strong enough, that some of these showers were transported over into the leeward sides on the smaller islands. Then, by Wednesday, our weather will turn drier, perhaps much drier, providing very pleasant weather for the rest of the week. ~~~ I'll be back again early Tuesday morning with your next new sunrise commentary, I hope you have a great Monday night either here in the islands, or elsewhere! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Extra: Sometimes I have to brag a little, not often, other than those slips about my fast walks an all, but this time I'm impressed about something!  I've been looking at the number of page views of this website so far this month, and continue to be amazed…as it now shows 347,528! This growing number has surpassed 1/3 of a million hits! There have been 3,189 google ad clicks at the same time, which is good, as that's partly how I earn a few bucks for my time and effort at keeping Hawaii Weather Today updated each day, actually…many many times each day. 

I couldn't help sharing these numbers with you, as again, we're only 12 days into the month. By the way, last month this website had a total of 388,252 page views, with 3,065 google ad clicks.  It's more than the numbers though, its that "I write and you read", that's the real beauty of this weather relationship that we have going on here! It's that you are interested in the weather too, just as I am, and we get the job done together so well. Thank you, thank you very much for making this website…at least one of your weather information sources! Aloha, Glenn.

Interesting: It's not too late to catch the spectacular Venus and Jupiter show. On Monday and Tuesday evenings, Venus and Jupiter will appear just 3 degrees apart in the western sky. The gap has been narrowing since last month. The two planets are visible every night at twilight.

Venus is the brighter of the two because of its relative closeness, compared with super-far-away Jupiter. Even though the gap will widen, the planets will appear remarkably close all week and be easily visible the rest of this month.

Grab a small telescope, and you can also catch Jupiter's four largest moons. Astronomers say it's the best evening tag-up of Venus and Jupiter in years. In July, early-risers will be treated to a similar spectacle, in the eastern sky at daybreak.

Interesting2: Coal is one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the world. The good news is that coal's share of monthly power generation in the U.S. decreased to below 40 percent in November and December 2011, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The last time coal's share of total generation fell below 40 percent for a monthly total was March 1978. The EIA attributes the decrease in coal to the increasing competitiveness of natural gas. Natural gas prices dropped "significantly" this winter.

However, there is another contributing factor: over a hundred, 106 to be exact, coal plants closed between January 2010 and February 2012. The latest coal plants to close are in Chicago, the Fisk Plant and the Crawford Plant. The number of coal plants closed represents 162 million tons of carbon a year (nine percent of the U.S. vehicle fleet).

There is more good news. Renewable energy generation is increasing, EIA data also shows. The EIA forecasts that renewable energy will account for 33 percent of the overall growth in electricity generation from 2010 to 2035. Wind power, according to the EIA, has been the fastest growing sources of new electric power generation for several years.

In 2010, wind power generation increased 28.1 percent over 2009. Previous years also saw major gains: 2008 had 33.4 percent gains, 2008 had 60.7 percent gains and 2006 had 49.3 percent gains. The Renewables 2011 Global Status Report revealed that renewable energy production increased in the U.S. in 2010.

The U.S. became one of the top five countries for non-hydro renewable power capacity by the end of 2010, and in 2010, renewable energy accounted for an estimated 25 percent of electric capacity additions in the U.S. By the end of the year, renewable energy accounted for 11.6 percent of existing electric capacity.

Renewables accounted for 10.9 percent of U.S. energy production in 2010, an increase of 5.6 percent in 2009. Consider that nuclear accounted for 11.3 percent. The U.S. is one of the top five countries for hydropower capacity, and leads the world in total biomass power generation.

The U.S. had significant increases in biomass use for power production in 2010. The U.S. also has the third largest photovoltaic (PV) market, after Europe and Japan. Clearly things are moving in the right direction if we want to keep temperature increases to two percent Celsius, which is recommended by climate experts.

NOAA / NWS Space Weather Prediction Center:

2012-03-12 12:50 UTC  Geomagnetic Storm Underway. Geomagnetic storming reaching the G2 (Moderate) level is underway.  Continued geomagnetic activity reaching the G3 (Strong) level is likely between now and the end of March 13 as the parade of recent coronal mass ejections affect Earth. 

Meanwhile, the Solar Radiation Storm continues its decay and is currently at the S1 (Minor) level.  Region 1429 remains complex, but is showing signs of weakening. 

No significant Radio Blackout events have been observed in the last 24 hours, so no further significant activity is currently expected after March 13.  That said, continued activity is possible and any subsequent events would change that outlook.