Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha Paragraphs / August 24-25, 2013

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

86  Lihue, Kauai
88  Honolulu, Oahu
85  Molokai
89  Kahului, Maui
88  Kona, Hawaii
83  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 530pm Saturday evening:

Port Allen, Kauai – 86
Hilo, Hawaii – 81

Haleakala Summit –   48 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 46 (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

Trade winds picking up this weekend…into the
first couple of days of the new week

Small Craft Wind Advisory…windiest coasts and
channel around Maui and the Big Island

A few windward showers, although limited…dry
leeward beaches

Celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day

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

23  Port Allen, Kauai – NE
39  Kuaokala, Oahu – NE
32  Molokai – NE
33  Lanai – NE
35  Kahoolawe – ENE
31  Kahului, Maui – NE
32  Waikoloa, Big Island – NE

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

0.19  Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.12  Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.02  Molokai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.00  Lanai
0.12  Hana airport, Maui
0.23  Kawainui Stream, 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 gradually increase this weekend…continuing into the first part of the new work week ahead. Here’s a weather chart showing a near 1023 millibar high pressure system located to the northeast of the islands. There’s also a weak low pressure system to the south-southwest of Kauai. The models continue showing a reduction in our trade wind speeds by mid-week. This will occur as an area of low pressure edges towards our area aloft…which may prompt a convective weather pattern for a few days. The longer range outlook suggests that the trade winds will return later next week.

A few showers will arrive along the windward sides…although the next several days will be generally dry most areas. Satellite imagery shows very few scattered low clouds over the ocean upstream of the islands, while the leeward sides were mostly clear to partly cloudy. There’s an area of high clouds to our west-northwest, and another moving through the central islands at the time of this writing. Here’s the looping radar image, showing generally light showers falling over the nearby ocean…and over the central islands in places this evening. As the lighter breezes arrive around mid-week, we’ll likely see some increase in our leeward upcountry shower activity during the afternoon hours. Then, as the trades pick up again later next week, those upcountry showers will diminish…followed by more windward showers again Friday into next weekend.

Glenn on Maui:  I was up early this morning, before 5am, which is early for me on a Saturday. I got up and sat quietly for about half an hour in the dark, although the still fairly large moon was providing some light. I just finished, or am about to just finish the latest installment of this weather narrative. I’m seriously thinking about going out on my 2 mile fast walk, before the sun rises. The reason is that I’d like to finally drive down to Pukalani, for their farmers market, which I’ve been meaning to do forever. I so much enjoyed this little morning outing, it was fun, and reminded me of the great farmers market that I go to in San Rafael…in Marin County when I’m there. I picked up some organic mixed salad greens, a small bunch of sage that was grown in lower Kula, two big mangoes, some apple bananas…and a dozen eggs. I really enjoyed seeing all the upcountry folks, as I’m such a people watcher.

After that, I had breakfast, consisting of (all organic) 6-grain hot cereal, vanilla yogurt, apple banana, walnuts and almonds, and blueberries…with 1/2 & 1/2 in the cereal. Then a bit later in the morning I drove down to the health food store in Paia for my weekly shopping.  I spent the afternoon hours visiting with my neighbors, and working in the garden. I’ll have fresh wild caught Opakapaka for dinner, with potatoes and broccoli. My other set of neighbors invited me to go dancing this evening, which will be fun. We’re meeting in Wailea for a drink, before heading over to our favorite dive bar dance floor after that. It will be a late night, so I’ll likely be pretty lazy on Sunday, which doesn’t bother me too much. ~~~ I’ll be back with a few more on this first day of the weekend. I hope you have a great Saturday wherever you’re spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Friday night film: There are so many good looking films playing now, although several of them are just opening…which can often leave them too crowded. So, I’ll see one, that some of you may roll your eyes over, called The Wolverine. It stars Hugh Jackman, Will Yun Lee, Hiroyuki Sanada, Hal Yamanouchi, Rita Fukushima, and Famke Janssen…among many others. The synopsis: Logan, the eternal warrior and outsider, finds himself in Japan. Out of his depth in an unknown world, he will face a host of unexpected and deadly opponents in a life-or-death battle that will leave him forever changed. Vulnerable for the first time and pushed to his physical and emotional limits, he confronts not only lethal samurai steel but also his inner struggle against his own immortality. ~~~ Looking at what the reviews and critics say, they’re being quite generous with this action/adventure film. It’s a long 2 hours and 6 minutes, although I like long films usually. I knew for sure that it was going to be full of violence, and intense sci-fi action, which turned out to be very true. I think I’m starting to sound like a broken record here, as I like all the films that I see!  Let’s just put it this way, this was a clawing adventure, taking one on a slick, very entertaining, super hero thrill ride. As for a grade, I’ll say it was a B+ outing to the theater, and I was glad I made the choice to see it. If you’re interested in taking a look…here’s a trailer for you.

World-wide tropical cyclone activity:

Atlantic Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones

Interesting: NASA mission to study the moon’s atmosphere – The moon is a barren, rocky sphere that doesn’t have an atmosphere like planet Earth, right? Well, it apparently does have a thin atmosphere and NASA is getting ready to launch a new mission to learn more about the lunar atmosphere.

NASA is making final preparations to launch a probe at 11:27 p.m. EDT Friday, Sept. 6, from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va. The small car-sized Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) is a robotic mission that will orbit the moon to gather detailed information about the structure and composition of the thin lunar atmosphere and determine whether dust is being lofted into the lunar sky. A thorough understanding of these characteristics of our nearest celestial neighbor will help researchers understand other bodies in the solar system, such as large asteroids, Mercury, and the moons of outer planets.

“The moon’s tenuous atmosphere may be more common in the solar system than we thought,” said John Grunsfeld, NASA’s associate administrator for science in Washington. “Further understanding of the moon’s atmosphere may also help us better understand our diverse solar system and its evolution.”

The mission has many firsts, including the first flight of the Minotaur V rocket, testing of a high-data-rate laser communication system, and the first launch beyond Earth orbit from the agency’s Virginia Space Coast launch facility.

LADEE also is the first spacecraft designed, developed, built, integrated and tested at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. The probe will launch on a U.S. Air Force Minotaur V rocket, an excess ballistic missile converted into a space launch vehicle and operated by Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va.

LADEE was built using an Ames-developed Modular Common Spacecraft Bus architecture, a general purpose spacecraft design that allows NASA to develop, assemble and test multiple modules at the same time. The LADEE bus structure is made of a lightweight carbon composite with a mass of 547.2 pounds — 844.4 pounds when fully fueled.

“This mission will put the common bus design to the test,” said Ames Director S. Pete Worden. “This same common bus can be used on future missions to explore other destinations, including voyages to orbit and land on the moon, low-Earth orbit, and near-Earth objects.”

Butler Hine, LADEE project manager at Ames, said the innovative common bus concept brings NASA a step closer to multi-use designs and assembly line production and away from custom design. “The LADEE mission demonstrates how it is possible to build a first class spacecraft at a reduced cost while using a more efficient manufacturing and assembly process,” Hine said.

Approximately one month after launch, LADEE will begin its 40-day commissioning phase, the first 30 days of which the spacecraft will be performing activities high above the moon’s surface. These activities include testing a high-data-rate laser communication system that will enable higher rates of satellite communications similar in capability to high-speed fiber optic networks on Earth.