Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs / November 15-16, 2008

November 15-16 2008

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

Lihue, Kauai – 80
Honolulu, Oahu – 80
Kaneohe, Oahu – 82
Kahului, Maui – 85
Hilo, Hawaii – 82
Kailua-kona – 83

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

Kapalua, Maui – 82F  
Kaneohe, Oahu – 73 

Haleakala Crater    – 48  (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 Saturday afternoon:

0.64 Kapahi, Kauai
0.90 Honolulu airport, Oahu
0.46 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.29 Kahoolawe
0.48 Hana airport, Maui
0.07 Pohakuloa Kipuka Alala, Big Island

Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing the leading edge of a cold front just northwest of Kauai, which will continue to slowly approach the main Hawaiian Islands and weaken today. The front is expected to dissipate over the islands on Sunday. Moderate to fresh trade winds will rebuild over the area Sunday and Monday. Wind speeds will begin to diminish on Wednesday.

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

      

 
Off and on showers…mostly on…at least that’s the way it will be at times going forward into the new week.
Photo Credit: Flickr.com

Southeast to southwest winds will continue ahead of a slow moving cold front, followed by stronger NE to ENE trade winds…in the wake of the frontal boundary. This cold front, as shown in the following satellite image, is moving over Kauai Saturday evening, then on to Oahu, before stalling over Maui Sunday. There is still uncertainty about whether the frontal showers will reach the Big Island thereafter. Winds coming across our area are picking up volcanic haze from the Big Island vents, carrying it over parts of the Aloha state. Look for NE winds to increase rather dramatically later this weekend, following the cold front…helping to clear the unclear air visibilities. These winds will remain active into the new week, keeping the windward sides of the islands wetter than usual for several days. These winds, in combination with the falling showers, will bring a feeling of early winter weather for our windward sides. The leeward sides too will feel the fresh breezes…carrying showers at times as well.

The atmosphere is ripe for heavy showers, coming in ahead of the cold front, and then associated with the frontal cloud band itself tonight into Sunday…with localized thunderstorms possible. This will all happen as the Pacific cold front continues slowly moving down through the island chain. As the front stalls near Maui, 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 the new week ahead…the source of which will be the remnant moisture from the cold front. We may see more showers, some of which could be flood producers later in the new week, as a Kona low develops to our west, or a second cold front is pushed down into the state then.    

There are many weather ingredients working together now, all of which will lead to more precipitation, some of which will be locally heavy enough at times…to perhaps bring flash flood conditions.  As mentioned above, the overlying atmosphere is shower prone, or more precisely…rain prone. We’ll find pre-frontal showers in places from Oahu down through parts of Maui County…which will continue ahead of the arrival of the front. The cold front, becoming a shearline, will bring its own period of heavy rains too. Then, if all that wasn’t enough, the winds with the frontal cloud band, and behind it, will keep showers falling along the windward sides into the new week ahead. There is a good chance that some of these windward biased showers will spread into the leeward sections too. Looking even further ahead, the second half of the new week ahead looks like it may bring more wet weather! I think its time to bring this looping radar image into play, so we can keep an eye on exactly where the showers are falling. During the day Saturday, rains were concentrating their efforts over Kauai and Oahu.

Last night after work I went to see a new film in Kahului, Maui…produced by Madonna’s former husband, Guy Richie. It was called Rocknrolla (2008), billed as an action film, R rated. The short version in way of a description is…a Russian mobster orchestrates a crooked land deal, putting millions of dollars up for grabs. I wasn’t familiar with any of the stars, but they mostly looked like gangster types to me. The critics are giving it a B- to B+…which was good enough to draw me in. This film definitely deserved an R rating, and there was plenty of action, much of which bordered on, or stumbled into violence. I was slightly put off by the directness, but that’s what made it so interesting at the same time. There were just a few of us in the theater, which definitely caught my attention as I sat there waiting for the film to begin. The truth is that I liked Rocknrolla quite a bit, reminding me that I’m drawn to this macho footage. Here’s a trailer for those who would like to get a preview of this rough film centered around tough men. The one main woman played a riveting part, pulling me into the heart of the moments with her. I look forward to seeing the new James Bond film next week.

It’s Saturday evening here in Kula, Maui, as I finish off today’s weather narrative. I woke up early, still feeling the influence of my recent mainland vacation. I started my day, as I always do, by updating this website. The road beckoned me then, drawing me out for a long walk around Kula before sunrise. Hunger hit me when I got back, so I turned to oatmeal and toast with a banana for breakfast. It began clouding-up quickly in the upcountry parts of Maui, so I drove down to Paia for a walk on the beach at Baldwin, and into the surf. I hit the health food store next, and the coffee store for beans, before high-tailing it back home to Kula for the rest of the day. I interacted with my neighbors off and on, and enjoyed the luxury of free time. The showers, so well advertised in the paragraphs above, didn’t really touch Maui much, although we saw a brief spell of light drops during the afternoon hours. The most intense showers fell during the day on Kauai and Oahu, closer to the cold front dropping down the chain now. Actually, besides the hazy conditions here on Maui, skies are quite cloud free at sunset, although I know that showers are on their way eventually. I hope that you have a great Saturday night here in the islands, or wherever you happen to be reading from! I’ll be back Sunday morning with your next new weather narrative. 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. 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.