Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs / August 18-19, 2008

August 18-19 2008

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

Lihue, Kauai – 87
Honolulu, Oahu – 89
Kaneohe, Oahu – 84
Kahului, Maui – 87
Hilo, Hawaii – 83
Kailua-kona – 86

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level, and on the taller mountains…at 4 p.m. Monday afternoon:

Port Allen, Kauai – 86F  
Princeville, Kauai – 82

Haleakala Crater- 57 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 41 (near 14,000 feet on the Big Island)

Precipitation Totals – The following numbers represent the largest precipitation totals (inches) during the last 24 hours on each of the major islands, as of Monday afternoon:

0.35 Mount Waialaele, Kauai
0.02 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.00 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.20 West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.17 Kealakekua, Big Island

Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a pair of 1025 millibar high pressure systems located north of Hawaii. Our local trade winds will remain active, blowing generally at the moderately strong level, although locally stronger in those windier areas…a little lighter Wednesday.

Satellite and Radar Images: To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with the Infrared Satellite Image of the islands to see all the clouds around the state during the day and night. This next image is one that gives close images of the islands only during the daytime hours, and is referred to as a Close-up visible image. This next image shows a larger view of the Pacific…giving perspective to the wider ranging cloud patterns in the Pacific Ocean. 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 webcam on the summit of near 14,000 foot Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. The tallest peak on the island of Maui is the Haleakala Crater, which is near 10,000 feet in elevation. These two webcams are available during the daylight hours here in the islands…and when there’s a big moon rising just after sunset for an hour or two! Plus, during the nights and early mornings you will be able to see stars, and the sunrise too…depending upon weather conditions.

Aloha Paragraphs

 The Hamakua coast on the Big island of Hawaii
   Photo Credit: flickr.com

The trade winds, which have been blowing in the moderately strong category…will gradually get slightly lighter over the next couple of days. The winds are still strong enough as we start off this new work week however, that the NWS is keeping the small craft wind advisory active over those windiest areas from Molokai down through Maui, to the Big Island. The computer models show the trade winds continuing through this new week, although coming down in strength a little starting Tuesday onward. This weather map, shows two moderately strong 1025 millibar high pressure systems, pretty much directly north of our islands…the source of our trade winds at this time. The long range computer models don’t show any sign of our islands losing the trade wind flow anytime soon.

We can expect some windward biased showers Monday…perhaps increasing some later Tuesday into Wednesday, and then again Thursday into Friday. The leeward sides will be nice and sunny for the most part, with generally dry conditions prevailing…although the Kona area could see some afternoon showers locally. Looking at satellite pictures, there’s an area of clouds being carried in our direction by the trade winds, generally taking aim on Maui and the Big Island. As this satellite image shows, there’s an another area of potential showers, located to the north and northeast of Hawaii…which may bring some windward biased showers to the state later Tuesday into Wednesday. The Thursday increase (noted in bold above), in showers may occur due to the arrival of a trade wind shower enhancing upper level low pressure trough then.

It’s early Monday evening here in Kihei, Maui, as I begin writing this last paragraph of today’s narrative.  Monday was another good day here in the Aloha state, with abundant, and I might add very warm sunshine, beaming down on us. There were a few showers falling, although most of them exclusively along the windward coasts and slopes. Tuesday will be another beauty, although as noted in the paragraph above, clouds should increase, along with their associated showers later in the day, into early Wednesday. This shower area is what’s left of an old cold front…which is being carried our way on the trade wind flow. I must admit, that Monday was a rather slow day, at least that’s how it felt to me. I attribute this to the deep relaxation that set in during my mini-vacation on the island of Oahu recently. It was a little difficult to get myself amped-up, although my mid-morning espresso definitely helped to some degree. I’ll be back very early Tuesday morning with your next new weather narrative from paradise, and hopefully with a bit more energy after a good nights sleep. I hope you have a great Monday night wherever you happen to be spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting:

New York City’s yellow taxi fleet now will go green at the rate of 300 new hybrid cars a month, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said, citing an agreement with car-makers to supply the fuel-light cabs.  There are already more than 1,300 hybrid taxis in the city, and each one saves its drivers about $6,500 a year, Taxi and Limousine Commission Chairman Matthew Daus said in a joint statement with the mayor. Bloomberg aims to accomplish 127 green initiatives before his second and final four-year term ends in 2010. In December, the Taxi and Limousine Commission voted to require all vehicles that join the taxi fleet to be hybrids by Oct. 1.

The only exception is for cabs specially equipped for the handicapped. Nissan Motor has promised the city to supply up to 200 of its Altima hybrids per month, while General Motors will provide 50 Chevrolet Malibu hybrids and Ford Motor Co promised 50 of its Escape hybrids, the mayor said.  That adds up to 90 more cars per month than the Taxi and Limousine Commission had said were needed to meet its goals, which aim to ensure that by 2012, the entire taxi fleet will be all-hybrid or a mix that includes other cars with similar high mile-per-gallon ratings. Fast-growing demand for hybrids in an era of soaring gasoline prices is one of the brightest markets for automobile companies and New York City is not alone in emphasizing taxis. Ford, for example, says San Francisco put its first Escape hybrid taxi on the streets in 2005, followed by other cities, including Chicago.

Interesting2:

The Dead Sea has been a religious and cultural landmark of the Middle East for thousands of years. Saltier than the oceans, the lake is like none other in the world. But in the past 30 years, the Dead Sea has lost about a third of its surface area. As much as 95 percent of the flow of its main tributary, the Jordan River, has been diverted for agriculture and domestic use. Excessive mineral mining for potash and magnesium chloride is removing water at a rate of 150 million cubic meters per year.

As water levels drop by as much as one meter per year, the combination of diversion and evaporation is threatening both economic development and the natural oases that support the Dead Sea‘s unique ecosystem. In an effort to halt the sea’s rapid disappearance, Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority, with the help of the World Bank, are proposing a project to import water from the Red Sea in the south. While dramatic engineering may be necessary to save this timeless attraction, environmentalists warn that less-risky alternatives are being ignored.

If built, the Red-Dead conduit is expected to cost $15 billion. Projects of this scale are not unprecedented, especially as water demand grows rapidly in many regions of the world.

Interesting3

: Question: Where Does Smog Occur?

Answer: Severe smog and ground-level ozone problems exist in many major cities around the world, from Mexico City to Beijing. In the United States, smog affects much of California, from San Francisco to San Diego, the mid-Atlantic seaboard from Washington, DC, to southern Maine, and major cities in the South and Midwest.

To varying degrees, the majority of U.S. cities with populations of 250,000 or more have experienced problems with smog and ground-level ozone. According to some studies, more than half of all U.S. residents live in areas where the smog is so bad that pollution levels routinely exceed safety standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Interesting4:

A huge comet-like object has been spotted inside the orbit of Neptune. The object, at least 30 miles wide, is on the return leg of a 22,500-year journey around the sun, astronomers announced today.  Catalogued as 2006 SQ372, the interloper is just over two billion miles (3.2 billion km) from Earth, though its elongated trek takes it to a distance of 150 billion miles (241 billion km), or nearly 1,600 times the distance from the Earth to the sun. The only known object with a comparable orbit is Sedna — a distant, Pluto-like dwarf planet discovered in 2003. But 2006 SQ372’s travels take it more than 1.5 times farther from the sun. Its diameter is estimated at 30 to 60 miles (50 to 100 km).

"It’s basically a comet, but it never gets close enough to the sun to develop a long, bright tail of evaporated gas and dust," said Andrew Becker of the University of Washington. Comet tails form when solar energy boils material off a comet.  The object is not a threat to Earth, which is good. A comet that size would cause global devastation. The space rock that contributed to the demise of dinosaurs 65 million years ago was about 6 miles (10 km) wide. The comet Hale-Bopp, which put on a spectacular display in the late 1990s, is about 31 miles (50 km) in diameter. Yet many comets are just a mile or two wide.