Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Friday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 78
Honolulu airport, Oahu – 80
Molokai airport – 77
Kahului airport, Maui – 79
Kona airport – 83
Hilo airport, Hawaii – 76
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops around the state…as of 930pm Friday evening:
Kailua Kona – 74
Hana airport, Maui – 68
Haleakala Summit – 41 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 34 (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.
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. The 2012 hurricane season is over in the eastern and central Pacific…resuming on May 15th and June 1st 2013.
Aloha Paragraphs
Clear to partly cloudy, cloudy periods, passing showers
at times windward sides…a few along the leeward sides
Blustery trade winds…becoming lighter this weekend
Small craft wind advisory…most marine zones
High surf advisory for east and north shores of Kauai,
Oahu, Maui and the Big Island through 6pm Saturday
High surf warning east shores of Kauai, Oahu,
Molokai and the Big Island of Hawaii
Surges expected in the Hilo and Kahului harbors
The following numbers represent the most recent top wind gusts (mph), along with directions as of Friday evening:
31 Lihue, Kauai – NE
36 Kahuku Trng, Oahu – NE
37 Molokai – NE
46 Kahoolawe – NE
38 Lipoa, Maui – NE
M Lanai – NE
44 South Point, Big Island – NE
Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Friday evening:
0.52 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.39 Waiawa, Oahu
0.20 Molokai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.73 Puu Kukui, Maui
1.72 Saddle Quarry, Big Island
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.
~~~ Hawaii Weather Commentary ~~~
Strong and gusty trade winds will continue to blow across our islands…although will taper off as we get into the weekend. Here's a weather chart showing the north central Pacific, with a weaker near 1027 millibar high pressure cell to our north-northeast…with an even weaker near 1020 millibar high pressure cell far to east-northeast. Our local winds continued to gust up into the 30-40+ mph range today, at least in a few of those windiest locations around the state. As we get into the weekend however, our winds will gradually become quite a bit lighter, especially by Sunday. This will occur as a trough of low pressure to the southwest of the state gradually moves closer…prompting east-southeast to southeast breezes. This suggests that we could see volcanic haze (vog) returning to some areas of the smaller islands later this weekend into Monday or so.
There will continue to be off and on passing showers along our windward sides tonight…then becoming drier into the weekend. Here's a satellite image, showing low clouds upstream of our islands, being carried our way on the trade wind flow. Our leeward sides will see a few passing showers on the smaller islands too, blown over there by the still gusty trade wind flow. As for this weekend, it looks like it will finally be less windy, and less showery along our windward sides. Baring any unexpected intrusions of high cirrus clouds, we should see quite a bit of sunshine both Saturday and Sunday in most areas.
The exact forecast for the important Christmas holiday ahead…still remains a bit questionable. There have been some differences in what the models are serving up as weather solutions. What I'm seeing now is a low pressure system, with its associated rainfall, moving over the Kauai end of the state from the southwest later Monday into Wednesday morning. This large satellite image, shows this extensive area of bright white clouds to the southwest of the state, which will move over Kauai and probably Oahu later Monday. It appears that Maui County and the Big Island will miss the bulk of this locally wet weather. I'll be back Saturday morning with more updates on all of the above, I hope you have a great Friday night wherever you happen to be spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Extra: Youtube surfing video…surfing with whales
Friday night film: This time around I'll be seeing one that I've been really looking forward to for quite a while. It's called The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, starring Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom, Cate Blanchett…among so many more.
The synopsis: Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an epic quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome Dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the Wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of 13 Dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the Wild, through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins, Orcs and deadly Wargs, as well as a mysterious and sinister figure known only as the Necromancer.
Although their goal lies to the East and the wastelands of the Lonely Mountain, first they must escape the Goblin tunnels, where Bilbo meets the creature that will change his life forever…Gollum.
Here, alone with Gollum, on the shores of an underground lake, the unassuming Bilbo Baggins not only discovers depths of ingenuity and courage that surprise even him, he also gains possession of Gollum's "precious" ring that holds unexpected and useful qualities…A simple, gold ring that is tied to the fate of all Middle-earth in ways Bilbo cannot begin to know.
The reviews on this film are mixed, which surprised me some. I mean, from what some called garbage…to an Unexpected Journey indeed. I'm learning to overlook most of the critical comments, and just go on my own intuition. The one thing that does unnerve me a bit, is that the film is 2 hours 46 minutes long! That's a long time to sit still, so it will take a great film to keep my attention throughout. I'll let you know my thoughts Saturday morning, until then…here's the 8 minute trailer – suggest the full screen version.
World-wide tropical cyclone activity:
Atlantic Ocean/Caribbean Sea: There are no active tropical cyclones
Gulf of Mexico: There are no active tropical cyclones
Eastern Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones
Central Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones
Western Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones
South Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones
North and South Indian Oceans: There are no active tropical cyclones
Interesting: The End is coming, maybe and again. End of the world events are common throughout history. The current one is the Mayan Calendar prediction for December 21. There is nothing in the Maya or Aztec or ancient Mesoamerican prophecy to suggest that they prophesied a sudden or major change of any sort in 2012. The notion of a Great Cycle coming to an end is completely a modern invention.
Tongue in cheek is the best way Payson Sheets, a CU-Boulder anthropologist, tries to explain the supposed Mayan calendar prophecy of doom and gloom or spiritual enlightenment, depending on which side of the calendar fence you sit on. A specialist in ancient societies of Mesoamerica, Sheets knows a tad bit about Mayan culture and has this to say about what will happen on Dec. 21, 2012.
"I might surprise my academic colleagues a little bit by saying there actually will be a perceptible, maybe even significant change, from December 21 to December 22. And that is a change of one number — 21 to 22." The 2012 "end of world" phenomenon comprises a range of end-of-the-world beliefs to which cataclysmic or spiritual transformation events that will occur on Dec. 21.
That day is regarded as the end-date of a 5,125-year-long cycle in the Mayan long count calendar. But according to Sheets, it’s not the end of the calendar, it’s only the end of what is called a ”B’aktun, a millennium of sorts, of which there are 19.
Some of the various suppositions linked to the Mayan event are:
1. The Earth and Sun will align with the Dark Rift near the Galactic Center. This event last happened about 25,800 years ago.
2. The magnetic poles of the Earth may reverse,
3. An unusually powerful Solar Maximum (sunspot season)
4. And then the usual disasters loom: food shortages, cataclysmic storms due to global warming, gasoline prices going through the roof, etc.
"We will be in the 13th B'aktun for about 400 years. New Agers listen in — if you want to worry people in 400 years get them worried. But, don’t get them too worried because the Maya just put in what? From 13 they go to 14, and they go to 15, then go to 16. So how long do we have to wait until we get to the 19th B'aktun? Well that’s a few thousand years away," Sheets said.
He also would like to point out that if there were a prophecy connected to the calendar it would most likely be a good omen instead of a cataclysmic event due to the number 13. "Let’s say the that the Maya actually did a prophecy, that there are big changes — they didn’t — but let’s say they did. It would go from the 12th B'aktun to the 13th in the Mayan calendar on the 22nd of December. 13 is the luckiest number of all Maya numbers.
There are 13 components to the heavens and good things happen from the heavens. So if anything related to the Mayan calendar happens, why, things are going to better not worse." Even though many scholars from many disciplines have dismissed the idea of the Mayan calendar prophecy, Sheets is not surprised that people still put stock in it.
"End of the world" events happen periodically. There is always someone who can concoct some sort of happening. "It doesn’t seem to take an awful lot to trigger prophesies of disaster. The Harmonic Convergence was happening and a number of New Agers took people to Mayan archeological sites and said 'boy, hang on, it’s going to be big.
This will be the only place where we survive.' Well, they survived but so did everyone who didn’t go to a Mayan site. Y2K generated huge amounts of concern and then people woke up on January 1 and looked around and noticed that things were pretty much like they were the day before."
Sheets continues, "What I’ve done is that I’ve offered to everyone of them a bet and they can choose any amount of money they want. I will match it. And they bet something catastrophic is going to happen at midnight or thereabouts on the 21st of December. Want to know how many people have taken me up? I have yet to have one cent!"
Email Glenn James: 
jeff mcconnel Says:
For you Glenn…..
I woke up this morning, an eery feeling filled my mind, a bit agitated, a slight trepidation. I walked out into my backyard, and yes it had happened, see I wasn't paranoid, the sun was gone…..The Mayans were right, I could hear Jim Morrison singing in the background, "this is the end, my only friend the end". I gazed into the dark skies, the wind was shrieking, satellites buzzed by, obviously looking fruitlessly for the sun. This was it. They were right. I walked into my front yard to find my Ebay order: 3 spare generators, a year supply of food, new clocks and calendars, computers with built in clocks that went beyond 2000. The feelings were so strong I sat down and googled my symptoms… There it was, PTY2KS, what? Post traumatic Y2K syndrome…It was all coming back to me, that panicky feeling 12 years ago,,, there it is the "12" thing again, hang on I have an idea, I look at my calendar, yes it does say 12/21/12, check, I run to the clock, it says 630 in the morning……..uh oh, I head out into the front yard again, tripping over my huge order that took up nearly all of my entryway, a bright light in the East behind Mauna Kea, a glow of orange, the sun! I'm actually coming out of the confusion moment by moment. But that shrieking wind, oh yeah, this "is" Waikoloa, those satellites, a nightly thing. Then the new worries. What do I do with all this stuff? If everyone in the county had "planned" like I did…….the economy would have come back, the deficit gone, employment would therefore rise….we could have made our government leaders so happy, more money in the coffers….no cliff…..NO, I think I'll just go back to sleep and wake up on the other side of the bed!~~~Jeff, I now feel like I’ve already been to my Friday evening film, after reading your story! It was a good film, a good story, one that I’m glad you were here to write and experience. I was the first to peruse it…before I shifted it out there/here for the rest of the visitors to this website to enjoy. We made it, all that worry, kind of like the fiscal cliff you refer to…which seems like such a joke to me. Ok once, maybe twice, but over and over, this gets a bit old after a while. Somehow, it seems like the government has to have us believe that they’re actually doing something up there. I often think they must consider us fools down here, as they glance down, from their rarified atmosphere up high on that mighty hill. At any rate, I like your writing, thanks for sharing, right on! Aloha, Glenn