Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha Paragraphs / August 18-19, 2013

Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Sunday:

86  Lihue, Kauai
89  Honolulu, Oahu
83  Molokai
88  Kahului, Maui
88  Kona, Hawaii
84  Hilo, Hawaii

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops on Maui and the Big Island…as of 710pm Sunday evening:

Kailua Kona – 81
Hana airport, Maui – 73

Haleakala Summit –   41 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 39 (13,000+ 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 – if it’s working.

Aloha Paragraphs

Moderately strong trades continuing…a bit lighter now

Generally dry conditions…with a few windward showers locally

The following numbers represent the most recent top wind gusts (mph), along with directions as of Sunday evening:

22  Port Allen, Kauai – NE
31  Kuaokala, Oahu – NE
23  Molokai – NE
30  Lanai – NE
36  Kahoolawe – NE
35  Kahului, Maui – NE
40  PTA West, Big Island – NW

Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Sunday evening:

0.16  Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.01  Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.04  Molokai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.00  Lanai
0.11  Hana airport, Maui
0.38 Honaunau, 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 Narrative ~~~

The trade winds will continue blowing, although a bit lighter through mid-week…then increasing again Thursday onwards. Here’s a weather chart showing two near 1026 millibar high pressure systems located to the northwest and northeast of the islands. At the same time we have newly formed tropical storm Unala well southwest of our islands. There’s also troughs of low pressure well to the west-southwest and southeast of Hawaii. Trade wind speeds will be in the moderately strong category for the most part.

Generally favorable weather prevail…with just a few windward showers at times. Satellite imagery shows scattered low cloud patches over the ocean surround the islands, being carried into the windward sides at times. Meanwhile. the south and west facing leeward beaches are mostly clear to partly cloudy. At the same time, we can see high level clouds to our west and southwest…and to the southeast of the Big Island. Here’s the looping radar image, showing a few showers falling along the windward coasts and slopes. Looking a bit further ahead, the computer models are suggesting we could have a modest increase in shower activity near the Big Island later Tuesday into Tuesday.

Tropical storm Pewa has moved into the western Pacific…although newly formed tropical storm Unala is now active over the ocean well to the west-southwest of the islands. There’s other tropical disturbances in our central Pacific waters, all with low chances of developing into tropical cyclones over the next couple of days, to the west-southwest and southeast. Here’s a satellite picture, showing these areas circled in yellow. By the way, it appears that TS Pewa, which was recently in our central Pacific, will strengthen in about 12 hours, becoming a typhoon as the Joint Typhoon Warning Center is now in charge of the forecasts. There’s no danger of the tropical systems here in the central Pacific having any impact here in Hawaii. I’ll be back with your next new weather narrative early Monday morning. I hope you have a great Sunday night wherever you’re spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Friday evening film: I’m going to see one that I’ve been looking forward to ever since seeing the trailer the first time. It’s called Elysium, starring Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga, Diego Luna, Wagner Moura, and William Fichtner…among others. The synopsis: In the year 2159, two classes of people exist: the very wealthy, who live on a pristine man-made space station called Elysium, and the rest, who live on an overpopulated, ruined Earth. The people of Earth are desperate to escape the planet’s crime and poverty, and they critically need the state-of-the-art medical care available on Elysium – but some in Elysium will stop at nothing to enforce anti-immigration laws and preserve their citizens’ luxurious lifestyle. The only man with the chance bring equality to these worlds is Max, an ordinary guy in desperate need to get to Elysium. With his life hanging in the balance, he reluctantly takes on a dangerous mission – one that pits him against Elysium’s Secretary Delacourt and her hard-line forces – but if he succeeds, he could save not only his own life, but millions of people on Earth as well. / The reviews are all over the map, ranging from incredible Sci-Fi…to pathetic political propaganda film. The rotten tomatoes film reviewing website shows the critics and the audience both gave it a 68% rating…which isn’t bad for this sometimes tough grading site. ~~~ This film was lots of fun, and I was thoroughly entertained throughout! I liked the acting, all the high sci stuff, and found it to be full of astonishing imagery. This big budget film reaches for the sky impressively…and gets there in my opinion. As for a grade, I feel very comfortable giving it a B+ rating without hesitation. If you’re a sci-fi kind of person, this film will get you to where you wanna go.

Interesting: China’s State Council has announced plans to make green industries central to the economy by 2015 – China is to fast-track expansion and investment in energy saving technologies in an attempt to tackle its worsening pollution problems. China is to fast-track expansion and investment in energy saving technologies in an attempt to tackle its worsening pollution problems. China’s cabinet, the State Council, recently announced plans to make the energy saving sector a “pillar” of the economy by 2015. In a statement the council said that under the new plan the environmental protection sector will grow by 15% on average annually, reaching an output of 4.5 trillion yuan (£474 billion / $438 billion USD).

China’s massive economic growth has come at a major cost to its environment and even its environmental ministry has described the country’s environmental situation as “grim”.

Under the plan, environmental protection industries will receive funding from the government in an effort to stimulate technological innovation. The funding will cover a wide range of technologies that address air, water and soil pollution including energy saving products, waste disposal, electric vehicles and pollution monitoring.

Many analysts welcomed the plan and some were quoted in the Chinese media as saying that it will create opportunities for investors and will give direction to the industry.

“It’s good to see this and it’s an indication that development of environmental protection and energy saving industry is a priority, since it’s coming from the State Council,” said Alvin Lin, China Climate and Energy Policy Director with the Natural Resources Defense Council in Beijing. The plan also includes policies, standards, pilot programmes, financing mechanisms and incentives, emissions and carbon trading said Lin.

However Lin believes that the plan is “vulnerable to being so broad as to be lacking focus and hard to implement.

“I think it could discuss more on the importance of implementing standards and policies in order to create the demand for the energy saving and environmental protection market, and the importance of accurate measurement and public reporting to ensure standards are met,” he said.

Ailun Yang, a senior associate with the World Resources Institute, said the initiative is “encouraging”. “It shows the ambition of the Chinese government to tackle its growing environmental problems while making the country the world’s biggest manufacturer of the environmental protection technologies.” She added however that more details need to be known before it is possible to assess the effectiveness of the new plan.

Tackling pollution has been a priority of the new administration under Xi Jinping, especially as pollution has become a major concern among Chinese citizens and is one of the main causes of social unrest. In an effort to tackle the problem, China has also committed to reducing its carbon emissions per unit of GDP by 40-45% by 2020 from 2005 levels and is aiming to increase renewable energy to 15% of its total energy consumption.