Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs / November 14-15, 2008

November 14-15 2008

Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Friday afternoon: 

Lihue, Kauai – 81
Honolulu, Oahu – 81
Kaneohe, Oahu – 82
Kahului, Maui – 87
Hilo, Hawaii – 82
Kailua-kona – 84

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level, and on the highest mountains…at 4 p.m. Friday afternoon:

Port Allen, Kauai – 84F  
Hilo, Hawaii – 77 

Haleakala Crater    – 46  (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 32  (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 Friday afternoon:

0.33 Moloaa Dairy, Kauai
0.72 Schofield Barracks, Oahu
0.19 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.07 Kahoolawe
1.91 Kula, Maui
1.29 Pali 2, Big Island

Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a cold front 150 nautical miles northwest of Kauai, which will continue to slowly approach the main Hawaiian Islands. The front will move into the northwest waters and weaken through Saturday, before dissipating over the islands on Sunday. Moderate to fresh NE winds will rebuild over the area Sunday and Monday.

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. 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

      

 
The showers in Hawaii will stick around
Photo Credit: Flickr.com

Our winds will remain south to southeast, and even southwest over Kauai for the time being, as a high pressure ridge is over the state, pushed there by an approaching slow moving cold front. This cold front, as shown in the following satellite image, should move over Kauai Saturday evening, then on to Oahu, before stalling over Maui Sunday. The leading edge of this cold front is still northwest of Kauai ,which was situated near open ocean anchored buoy 51001…or some 200+ miles away Friday night. Looking at that satellite picture, it isn’t so easy to see the frontal boundary, as there are lots of high clouds hovering in the area as well. Winds coming across our area are picking up various amounts of volcanic haze from the BigIsland vents, carrying it over much of the rest of the Aloha state now. Look for NE winds to increase rather dramatically later during the weekend, following in the wake of a cold front arriving then. These winds will likely remain active into next week, keeping the windward sides of the islands wetter than usual for several days. These winds, in combination with the falling showers, will usher in a distinct feeling of early winter weather for our windward sides going into the new week.

The overlying air mass is damp and somewhat unstable, in fact we have seen locally heavy rains, with even thunderstorms occurring at several areas around the state lately.  As the daytime heating occurred Friday, we found clouds gathering over and around the mountains, especially during the afternoon hours. These convective cumulus clouds provided localized interior showers, which spread down towards the coasts locally. The heaviest showers Friday evening seemed to be occurring near Hana, Maui, and upcountry from there. This will all happen as the Pacific cold front continues slowly moving in our direction. As the front dissipates near Maui later this weekend, the NE winds will keep windward biased showers falling on all the islands. This should keep wet weather along those north and east facing coasts and slopes during the first part of next week…the source of which will be the dissipating cold front.   

On the one hand, the recent rains have been rather awkward, as most folks enjoy sunny weather…although we sure need the showers!  As mentioned above, the overlying atmosphere is anything but dry and stable, with lots of clouds, and showers prevailing at times here and there. The heaviest showers have been shared by Oahu, Maui and the Big Island so far. Going forward, we still have more convective rainfall to deal with, and then the cold front will bring its associated locally heavy showers into our area as well…with chance of a few thunderstorms. Following closely will be strengthening cooler NE winds, which may arrive with or even ahead of the front Saturday. This flow of air, which will likely be rather strong, and cool too, will keep the front’s moisture hung-up along the windward sides, with wet conditions expected into mid-week. Beyond then, it appears that a low pressure system will set up to the northwest or west of Hawaii, likely too far away to bring its heavy precipitation our way, would it be incorrect to say…hopefully?

I’m just finishing work here in Kihei, Maui, and about ready to drive over to Kahului. I’m headed to see a new film, called Rocknrolla (2008), and is billed as an action film, and is R rated. I’ll have more information about it Saturday morning, but the short version of what it’s about is: a Russian mobster orchestrates a crooked land deal, putting millions of dollars up for grabs. I’m not familiar with the stars, but they all look like gangsters to me. The critcs seem to be giving it a B- to B+…which is good enough to have me interested. I’ll be sure to give you a more thorough review when I come back online Saturday morning. Oh yeah, here’s a trailer for those that would like to get a sneak peek. I hope you have a good Friday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting:

The Atlantic hurricane season officially runs from June 1st to November 30th each year and with only a fortnight left to go, 2008 might be remembered for several reasons. The season got off to an active start with Tropical Storm Arthur developing on the 30th May and with three further storms following in July. Hurricane Bertha developed on the 3rd of July. It was an early Cape-Verde type storm which went on to become the longest-lived pre-August tropical cyclone on record. Bertha lasted a total of 18 days, running from the 3rd to the 20th of July. Tropical Storm Cristobal and Hurricane Dolly soon followed. All three storms were active together on the 20th July, making it the earliest known date for three storms to be active on the same day.

In August, Tropical Storm Fay developed, this storm went on to make landfall on four separate occasions across the state of Florida. This is the first time in history for this to have happened. More recently, Hurricane Paloma, which developed early in November, was a late season storm. It became a major hurricane and the second strongest hurricane to develop in November. So far, there have been 16 storms this season, meaning that the 2008 season is joint 4th in terms of most Atlantic storms within one season. Although prior to satellites, data may have been more ambiguous with some storms going undetected. It remains to be seen if any further storms will develop over the next weeks.

Interesting2:

U.S. conservation groups on Thursday hailed the imminent end of "environmental abuse and neglect" by the Bush administration and promised to work with President-elect Barack Obama to reverse this course. "The Bush administration has done a lot of damage to our nation’s environmental protections over the last eight years," said Mike Daulton, the National Audubon Society’s legislative director. "And nowhere is that more evident than the Bush administration’s drilling policies, which have been slanted dramatically toward the oil industry." Daulton noted that President George W. Bush last summer withdrew an executive ban on offshore drilling, which he said eroded protections for U.S. beaches and coastal economies. Obama’s election last week "defeated candidates who focused on a drill-everywhere policy and the inauguration will sweep two oilmen from the White House," Daulton said in a telephone briefing with other conservation leaders. "Eight dismal years of environmental abuse and neglect are now coming to an end," said Betsy Loyless, Audubon’s senior vice president.

Interesting3:

Are you as tired of the unending bad economic news? From the subprime crisis to the collapse of the real estate bubble to the near-failure of the global finance industry, it just goes from bad to worse. More scary news this week — major retailers are failing (CircuitCity) and one or more of our domestic auto manufacturers appears to be next. It now appears likely that the government (and as a result we, the taxpayers) will fund some kind of bailout for the auto industry. The price tag could be in the $25 – $50 billion range, and that’s on top of a $25 billion loan they’ve already received from the US Department of Energy to retool their operations to produce more efficient cars. This really pains me. Several years ago, when the Prius began to take off, it was pretty clear (at least here in California) that this was the beginning of a transformation rather than a little niche. It doesn’t take that much marketing insight to see that something major is happening when folks who normally would buy $50K+ luxury cars (executives, celebrities, high-tech entrepreneurs, etc) are standing in line to buy a $22K mid-size car that looks like a spruced-up door stop. Especially when that trend is being driven by a real-world problem that just happens to threaten the entire planet.

Instead of taking action, the US car companies pursued inaction. Instead of investing in new design on these alt-fuel cars, they lobbied hard to prevent increased fuel economy standards. They repackaged old products based on old technologies in increasingly extravagent ways (see Hummer and Escalade) instead of ramping up innovation. And they made sure that they used their clout (both companies and unions) to keep anyone else who might prod them to change, such as the State of California Air Resources Board, at a standstill as well. These companies deserve to fail, but this can’t happen. Our economy is teetering on the brink, and losing one out of every ten jobs in the US (and probably a higher percentage of wealth, given that these jobs are high paying) would certainly push us into a deep dark hole the likes of which we haven’t seen before. This would take a huge human toll: as much as auto unions have been part of the problem, they represent hundreds of thousands of workers who have families to support and homes to keep out of foreclosure. It would seem that we can either “rescue” these companies (albeit from themselves) or sustain their work forces in a way that ensures we are fueling the creation of a new economy rather than prolonging the rattling last gasp of an old one.

Interesting4:

Coal, which produces more climate-warming carbon dioxide than oil or gas, will remain the world’s main source of power until 2030 and nuclear will lose market share, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday. Expectations of slower economic growth have led the IEA to downgrade its 2030 world electricity demand forecast to 23,141 terawatt hours (TWh), but the share of coal generated power would rise to 44 percent by 2015 from 41 percent in 2006. It would stay at that level to 2030. "Globally, coal-based electricity is projected to rise … to almost 14,600 TWh by 2030, giving rise to significant increases in associated CO2 emissions," the Paris-based agency said in its World Energy Outlook. The report from the IEA, adviser to 28 industrialized nations, says coal emissions, also including toxic and pollutant gases, can have serious effects on the local environment and human health.

Most of the growth was expected in non-OECD countries, such as China, which the IEA expected soon to become the world’s biggest electricity consumer. Its demand for power doubled between 2000 and 2006. The IEA urged stronger policies for carbon capture and storage (CCS), saying the world was likely to make only a minor contribution in the period. "Market mechanisms alone will not be sufficient to achieve the demonstration program on the scale required. Another challenge is financing the necessary CO2 transport infrastructure," it said. Despite a global nuclear renaissance sparked by efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate climate change, the IEA expected nuclear’s share in power generation to drop to 10 percent by 2030 from 15 percent in 2006. "Over the past few years, a large number of countries have expressed renewed interest in building nuclear power plants," it said. "Few governments, however, have taken concrete steps to build new reactors.

Interesting5:

As if the worst drought in a generation wasn’t bad enough, wheat farmers in Australia’s south-east corner were Friday warned that locusts could decimate this year’s winter harvest. "We expect to see locusts swarming in the next week or so and members of the community especially those in northern Victoria, who have not previously seen locusts, need to be prepared for their arrival," Victorian Agriculture Minister Joe Helper said. "It’s still vital that landholders report locust sightings as swarming locusts are capable of laying eggs that can hatch as early as within two weeks, if ideal conditions prevail." The long dry spell has cut the forecast for the winter grain crop by almost 9 per cent to 23 million tons. Earlier in the year, estimates for a crop that will be harvested from October were as high as 26 million tons but low rainfall forced the projection to be scaled back.  Wheat sowing has risen by 13 per cent to a record 14 million hectares and the wheat harvest should trump last year’s by 10 million tons. Last year’s harvest came in at 13 million tons.