February 14-15, 2009
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Saturday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 75
Honolulu, Oahu – 80
Kaneohe, Oahu – 75
Kahului, Maui – 79
Hilo, Hawaii – 75
Kailua-kona – 82
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level, and on the highest mountains…at 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon:
Kailua-kona – 80F
Hilo, Hawaii – 68
Haleakala Crater – 43 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 27 (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 Saturday afternoon:
0.35 Mount Waialaele, Kauai
0.90 South Fork Kaukonahua, Oahu
0.03 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.43 West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.63 Glenwood, Big Island
Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a 1033 millibar high pressure system located to the north of the islands…we’ll see strong and gusty trade winds both Saturday evening into Sunday.
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. Finally, here’s a looping IR satellite image, making viewable the clouds around the islands 24 hours a day. 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
Happy Valentines Day!
Photo Credit: flickr.com
The trade winds may have peaked in strength earlier Saturday, although will remain stronger than normal Sunday…moderating a tad further Monday. The trade winds remain stronger and more gusty than usual Saturday evening, keeping small craft wind advisories active over all coastal and channel waters…with a gale warning posted in the channels between Maui and the Big Island. The NWS forecast office has pulled back the wind advisory, which is now ative over only parts of the Big Island, and the summit of the Haleakala Crater on Maui. The latest forecast keeps these gusty trade winds blowing, although somewhat lighter through the next week…at least.
Showers will fall at times along the windward sides, although they will be rather modest…with dry conditions expected across the leeward sides. Showery clouds carried along by these strong trade winds, will remain rather limited, although may pick up briefly at times. Since the trade winds will be around through the next week, we will likely see more of these showers around through the extended forecast time frame. The atmosphere has taken on a drier aspect now, so that showers shouldn’t be a problem.
The winds blowing on the ocean will keep it very rough and choppy, with rather large surf breaking along our east facing beaches. As these strong and gusty trade winds remain blustery through Sunday, we’ll see our local ocean rough and pretty gnarly under their influence. The NWS office in Honolulu is keeping the high surf advisory active, along our east shores, for this incoming larger than normal surf. I recommend being careful going out into the ocean on small boats, and especially kayaks for the time being.
It’s early Saturday evening here in Kula, Maui, as I begin writing this last section of today’s narrative. The winds, although having perhaps peaked in strength earlier in the day Saturday, were still on the strong and gusty side, no doubt about it! Saturday evening’s top gusts, at 5pm included still an impressive array of numbers:
30 mph on Kauai
42 mph on Oahu
35 mph on Molokai
47 mph on Lanai
42 mph on Kahoolawe
46 mph on Maui
46 mph on the Big Island
These numbers represent way stronger winds than we would see blowing on a more typical trade wind day! There will still be gusts above 40 mph Saturday night into Sunday, but the overall tendency will be for slightly lighter winds going forward.
~~~ Friday night after work I went to see the new film Taken (2009) starring Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, among others. Taken is described as an action, adventure, art, foreign, drama thriller…I like all these words! The critics have been rather spare with their praise for this film, giving it a luke warm C as an average grade. The Yahoo! Users are giving it a more upbeat A-. I was certainly willing to be taken into this film, swept radically away from my mild mannered Maui weatherman existence. The main thrust of this film is about a father who goes to Paris to find his daughter, who was kidnapped by criminals. As he hunts her down, there’s lots of violence along the way. As usual, with these action flicks, I liked it. I don’t usually think of Liam Neeson as being in movies with this much violence, but he more than adequately held his own in this department! Here’s a trailer of this film, although its a pretty rough and tumble piece of work.
~~~ It’s a bit before sunset here in Kula, as the strong trade winds continue to rage locally. There are those places too, that are out of the gusty trade wind flow, which are seeing considerably less windy weather. Here in Kula for instance, there are only light breezes, although just strong enough at the moment (6pm) for my wind chimes to be sounding off slightly. Then, as noted above, there are those windier areas that have well over 40 mph gusts, which have the ocean chalked-up with white caps galore! It’s Valentine’s Day, and in that regard, I send my intimate wishes out to all you lovely ladies out there, who may be reading these words…especially to my Mother Dorothy James, if she happens to be reading from Southern California! I’ll be back Sunday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you find everything that you’re looking for on this romantic Saturday night! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Valentines Day… Her eyes are wide as they stare into yours. You wrap your arm around her waist and pull her in close. She touches your face and you lean in, tilt your head—to the right, of course—and your lips connect. The rushing sensation leaves you little room to wonder, “Why the hell am I doing this anyway?” Of course, the simplest answer is that humans kiss because it just feels good. But there are people for whom this explanation isn’t quite sufficient. They formally study the anatomy and evolutionary history of kissing and call themselves philematologists. So far, these kiss scientists haven’t conclusively explained how human smooching originated, but they’ve come up with a few theories, and they’ve mapped out how our biology is affected by a passionate lip-lock. A big question is whether kissing is learned or instinctual. Some say it is a learned behavior, dating back to the days of our early human ancestors. Back then, mothers may have chewed food and passed it from their mouths into those of their toothless infants. Even after babies cut their teeth, mothers would continue to press their lips against their toddlers’ cheeks to comfort them. Supporting the idea that kissing is learned rather than instinctual is the fact that not all humans kiss. Certain tribes around the world just don’t make out, anthropologists say.
While 90 percent of humans actually do kiss, 10 percent have no idea what they’re missing. Others believe kissing is indeed an instinctive behavior, and cite animals’ kissing-like behaviors as proof. While most animals rub noses with each other as a gesture of affection, others like to pucker up just like humans. Bonobos, for example, make up tons of excuses to swap some spit. They do it to make up after fights, to comfort each other, to develop social bonds, and sometimes for no clear reason at all—just like us. Today, the most widely accepted theory of kissing is that humans do it because it helps us sniff out a quality mate. When our faces are close together, our pheromones “talk”—exchanging biological information about whether or not two people will make strong offspring. Women, for example, subconsciously prefer the scent of men whose genes for certain immune system proteins are different from their own. This kind of match could yield offspring with stronger immune systems, and better chances for survival. Still, most people are satisfied with the explanation that humans kiss because it feels good. Our lips and tongues are packed with nerve endings, which help intensify all those dizzying sensations of being in love when we press our mouths to someone else’s. Experiencing such feelings doesn’t usually make us think too hard about why we kiss—instead, it drives us to find ways to do it more often.
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