October 9-10 2008
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Thursday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 85
Honolulu, Oahu – 88
Kaneohe, Oahu – 83
Kahului, Maui – 86
Hilo, Hawaii – 84
Kailua-kona – 84
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level, and on the highest mountains…at 4 p.m. Thursday afternoon:
Honolulu, Oahu – 86F
Hilo, Hawaii – 79
Haleakala Crater – 54 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 43 (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 Thursday afternoon:
0.22 Mount Waialeale Kauai
0.17 Manoa Lyon Arboretum, Oahu
0.00 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.09 Hana airport, Maui
0.05 Pahala, Big Island
Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing low pressure systems to the north and NW of Hawaii. This will allow the high pressure ridge, to our north, to migrate northward as well. This in turn will allow gradually increasing trade wind speeds Friday into the weekend.
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
Aloha Paragraphs
The ending to a near perfect Maui day
Photo Credit: flickr.com
The trade winds have increased during the day Thursday, which will further strengthen into Friday…then remain moderately strong through the weekend. A high pressure center is evident on weather maps far to our northeast. This high has a ridge extending southwest to points north and northwest of Hawaii. Our trade winds have filled back in Thursday, then more so into the upcoming weekend. The models are sketchy at this point, but the light to moderately strong trade winds should give way to another bout of lighter southeast winds early next week…as a trough of low pressure to the north interrupts our wind flow.
As the trade winds gradually return into Friday, we’ll see some modest increase in showers along the windward sides of the islands. The bias for showers will shift back over to the windward sides Thursday night into Friday. We’ll find generally favorably inclined weather circumstances as we move into the upcoming weekend time frame. As we proceed into early next week, our weather may become more changable, with chance of afternoon clouds and showers taking aim on the leeward upcountry sides of the islands…especially over Kauai and Oahu.
Hurricane Norbert has declined in strength, although is still a hurricane in the eastern Pacific. Norbert continues its bead on the southern part of the Baja Peninsula, along the west coast, bringing strong winds to that area on Saturday. Here’s a tracking map showing this tropical system in the eastern Pacific
It’s early Thursday evening here in Kihei, Maui, as I begin writing this last section of today’s weather narrative from Hawaii. As noted above, the trade winds will gradually be taking the place of the light wind situation we’ve seen the last couple of days. These trade winds won’t be getting all that strong, but should gain light to moderately strong status Friday into the weekend. Meanwhile, as the trade winds arrive during the day Thursday, we should see some sort of minor increase in showers along the windward sides of the islands during the night into Friday. These showers will remain with us into the weekend, providing what we could describe as a fairly typical trade wind weather pattern. ~~~ As we move into next week, the models are still not as clear as we’d like them to be as to what will be coming our way. At this time, I looks like our winds will calm down again after the weekend. Depending upon just where a newly developing low pressure system, and its associated trough decide where they will end up…will help determine what will happen then. I’d say at this point, lighter winds in general, and chance of afternoon clouds and showers manifesting over the leeward sides during the afternoons on Kauai and Oahu. We may have little if any weather changes in store for Maui and the Big Island, further east from the low pressure to the northwest of Kauai. ~~~ Looking out the window here in Kihei, I see blue skies, with at least some high clouds streaking across our skies, along with the trade winds definitely back into play. I anticipate another good night, with the addition of a few windward biased showers during the overnight hours. Friday should be about like Thursday, with the weekend about like Thursday and Friday! I’ll be back early Friday morning with your next new weather narrative from paradise, I hope you have a great Thursday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting:
We heard this week that a quarter of all mammals are threatened with extinction. One of those, the polar bear, made headlines earlier this year for being the first animal to be listed on the US Endangered Species Act, because of its vulnerability to climate change. This begs the question: aren’t all species vulnerable to climate change? Why protect the polar bear but not the ringed seal? This is the question that a huge endeavor led by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) is attempting to answer. Its first results were presented in
The verdict is bleak: of 17,000 assessed species, over 7000 could become threatened with extinction because of climate change. "Climate change is already happening, but conservation decision-makers currently have very little guidance on which species are going to be the worst affected," says Wendy Foden, who led the efforts. Yet, "Climate change is going to affect everything we do in terms of conservation," adds Jean-Christophe Vié, deputy head of the species program at the IUCN. In order to assess which species need protection first, experts working with the IUCN have spent the past few years reviewing 17,000 species of birds, amphibians and warm-water corals to assess how susceptible they are to climate change.
Interesting2:
The International Herald Tribune, October 8, 2008 Wednesday – The United Nations food agency on Tuesday called for a review of biofuel subsides and policies, noting that they had contributed significantly to rising food prices and the hunger in poor countries. With policies and subsidies to encourage biofuel production in place in much of the developed world, farmers now often find it more profitable to plants crops for fuel rather than for food, a shift that has helped lead to global food shortages. Current policies should be ”urgently reviewed in order to preserve the goal of world food security, protect poor farmers, promote broad-based rural development and ensure environmental sustainability,” said a report released by the executive director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Jacques Diouf, in Rome on Tuesday.
”The challenge is to reduce or manage the risks while sharing the opportunities more widely,” he said. In releasing the report, the UN joins other environmental groups and prominent international experts who have called for an end to – or at least a serious overhaul of – subsidies for biofuels, which are cleaner, plant-based fuels that can be substituted for oil and gas in some circumstances. In a devastating assessment released this summer, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development concluded that government support of biofuel production in OECD countries was hugely expensive and ”had a limited impact on reducing greenhouse gases and improving energy security.” It did have ”a significant impact on world crop prices,” the report noted. ”National governments should cease to create new mandates for biofuels and investigate ways to phase them out,” the report concluded.
Interesting3:
Environmental damage such as desertification or flooding caused by climate change could force millions of peoples from their homes in the next few decades, experts said on Wednesday. "All indicators show we are dealing with a major emerging global problem," said Janos Bogardi, director of the U.N. University`s Institute on the Environment and Human Security in Bonn, Germany. "Experts estimate that by 2050 some 200 million people will be displaced by environmental problems, a number of people roughly equal to two-thirds of the
He said it was important to work out ways of tracking the numbers of people forced to leave their homes for reasons such as repeated crop failures caused by global warming, so that governments and aid groups could work out how to help. "The main step towards helping is recognition," Bogardi told Reuters. In the past, many such people would be listed as economic migrants. However economic migrants, for example, were often young men looking for work. "Environmentally-motivated migration is expected to feature poorer people, more women, children and elderly, from more desperate environmental situations," it said. Experts from almost 80 countries will meet in
Interesting4:
As more and more fishermen chase fewer and fewer fish, $50 billion is lost each year in potential economic benefits to the fishing industry, a report released Wednesday said. Released by the World Bank and the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization, the report blamed poor management, inefficiencies and overfishing for more than $2 trillion of avoidable economic losses over the last three decades. In a time of worldwide financial turmoil, the amount may seem like ‘small change,’ said Kieran Kelleher, the World Bank’s fisheries team leader, but fisheries are in a global crisis and adding to lost opportunities for economic growth. Better management and a move to more sustainable fishing practices could turn much of the billions of dollars lost each year into economic benefits for fishers and coastal communities, the report said.
‘Fisheries are a tremendous source of income, employment and wealth creation if managed properly,’ said Daniel Gustafson, director of the liaison office for
Interesting5:
Global warming calculations have been too optimistic, and the sea level round the globe is likely to rise a full metre this century, two senior German scientists warned Wednesday. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, who heads the Potsdam Institute for Research on Global Warming Effects and Jochem Marotzke, a leading meteorologist, said UN-backed data on climate change, predicting a rise of 18 to 59 centimetres, was out of date. “We now have to expect that the sea level will rise by a metre this century,” said Schellnhuber in
Interesting6: Underwater cacophony caused by commercial and military ships has become so intense that it is killing whales, scientists at the World Conservation Congress here say. Sounds ranging from the hum of yacht motors to sonar blasts strong enough to destroy a whale’s inner ear are wreaking havoc on the ability of these cetaceans to migrate, feed and breed, they said on Thursday as a historic case began to be heard by the US Supreme Court. The noises generated by ships create what I call acoustic smog," said Michel Andre, director of the Laboratory of Applied Bio-Acoustics in
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