Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Wednesday:
Lihue, Kauai – 80
Honolulu airport, Oahu – 83 (Record high temperature for Wednesday / 89 – 1979)
Kaneohe, Oahu – 82
Molokai airport – 79
Kahului airport, Maui – 83 (Record high temperature for Wednesday / 92 – 1953)
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 Wednesday evening:
Barking Sands, Kauai – 83
Kapalua, Maui – 75
Haleakala Crater – 45 (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 not always working correctly.
Aloha Paragraphs
Gusty trades – windward showers at times…
with generally dry leeward areas
Active surf leeward beaches
As this weather map shows, we have a near 1036 millibar high pressure system located to the northeast of the Hawaiian Islands…moving eastward. Our local winds will remain moderately strong, although stronger at times through Thursday…then gradually become lighter through the rest of the week into Monday.
The following numbers represent the most recent wind gusts (mph), along with directions as of Wednesday evening:
33 Lihue, Kauai – NE
39 Kuaokala, Oahu – N
31 Molokai – NE
33 Kahoolawe – E
30 Kahului, Maui – NE
35 Lanai – NE
31 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. Here's the latest NOAA satellite picture – the latest looping satellite image…and finally the latest looping radar image for the Hawaiian Islands.
Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Wednesday evening:
0.61 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.08 Mililani, Oahu
0.05 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.28 Puu Kukui, Maui
1.61 Kaloko-Honaunau, Big Island
Sunset Commentary: A strong high pressure to our northeast will keep the trade winds blowing Wednesday night into Thursday. These trades will blow in the moderately strong realms, although there will be gusts that reach 35+ mph at times in those windiest locations locally into Thursday. A small craft wind advisory continues until 6am Thursday morning. The trade wind speeds will begin fall into the light to moderately strong category by Friday …then even lighter during the upcoming weekend into next Monday. The trade winds should rebound beginning Tuesday, and likely last well into the future from there.
The latest forecast continues to show a trough of low pressure with an associated cold front approaching the Hawaiian Islands this weekend into early next week. This could cause our local winds to become more easterly or even southeast…and falter in strength quite a bit too. The latest thought, and it has been changing on a daily basis…is that this low pressure system would remain to the north of our islands, although perhaps close enough to send its cold front southward towards the islands. If this were to occur, and there still is some question, it would trigger some showers by Sunday into the first part of next week…especially over the Big Island and Maui. As we move into the mid-point of next week, the trade winds will strengthen, bringing back more normal windward biased showers…along with lots of warm sunshine for the south and west facing leeward beaches.
Here in Kula, Maui at 525pm, skies were partly cloudy with light winds, and an air temperature of 75F degrees. As this satellite image shows, we have patches of lower level clouds…which will bring passing light showers to the windward sides of Maui this evening. It will take until tonight for these showers to reach Oahu and Kauai…while the Big Island will be the least showery of the bunch. As noted above, our trade winds will persist, remaining quite gusty into Thursday. These trades will taper off quite a bit starting Friday, and remain lighter into the weekend and next Monday. The models point out an area of low pressure edging this way Saturday and Sunday into early next week. It looks like lighter winds and afternoon showers will occur over the interior parts of the island chain for the weekend into early next week…particularly over the eastern islands. It will take until later next Tuesday into Wednesday for our trade winds to kick-in again, bringing back windward biased showers, and generally more normal weather our way. ~~~ I'll be back early Thursday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Wednesday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting: The United States government has issued recommendations on the proper amount of exercise required for adults to stay healthy. The recommendations were created by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP). They say that adults between ages 18 and 64 should get about four hours of physical activity each week. Of this, one hour and fifteen minutes should consist of vigorous activity such as running or muscle strengthening.
The other 2.5 hours could be moderate exercise such as walking. A new study from researchers at Penn State and University of Maryland suggests Americans fall short of these recommendations, spending only about two hours per week on fitness activities.
According to Geoffrey Godbey, professor emeritus at Penn State, "The United States is the fattest country in the world. The amount of exercise Americans get has become a major concern." Working with Prof. John Robinson of the University of Maryland, the team analyzed data from the US Census Bureau's most recent study of over 100,000 respondents.
They found that the most popular exercise is walking, engaged in by about five percent of Americans for an average 53 minutes per walker. Of the more physically active sports, the most popular is basketball, followed by football, soccer, baseball, volleyball, and hockey. "Baseball may be our national pastime and football our main spectator sport, but the daily time spent on basketball is higher than both of them combined," said Robinson.
"This is particularly true among teenagers, who spend about seven times more time than older adults playing basketball, as well as other team sports." Teenagers are much more prone to fitness activites than adults. Teens spend an average 41 minutes per day exercise versus a mere 17 minutes for adults and 13 minutes for seniors.
The researchers try to explain why Americans do not exercise as much as they should. Reasons include:
– The automobile culture. Four out of every five miles Americans spend moving are in an automobile.
– Electronic entertainment. Americans are "addicted" to television and computers. Adults spend half of their free time each week staring at a screen.
– Aging society. 13 percent of Americans are over age 65.
– Costs of exercising. Many activities like hockey and tennis can be expensive to participate in due to the required gear, travel to the courts, and memberships they might require.
– Fear of crime. Many are afraid to leave their homes and walk or run around the neighborhood.
Although two hours per week is not much, the researchers say it is still better than what American adults were getting 50 years ago. The recent survey results were three times higher than a US national survey conducted in 1965.
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