Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs / November 20-21, 2008I

November 20-21 2008

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

Lihue, Kauai – 79
Honolulu, Oahu – 85
Kaneohe, Oahu – 80
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 5 p.m. Thursday evening:

Port Allen, Kauai – 81F
Hilo, Hawaii – 76 

Haleakala Crater    – 45  (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 Thursday afternoon:

1.45 Mount Waialaele, Kauai
0.32 Poamoho 2, Oahu
0.00 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.29 Puu Kukui, Maui
0.35 Kealakekua, Big Island

Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a high pressure system remaining in place far northeast of the islands. A trough of low pressure has formed and will linger near Kauai into Sunday. A large high far northwest of the state will settle north of the islands late Saturday into Sunday. The high will drift slowly eastward Monday as the trough drifts westward and weakens. Our local winds will remain quite light and from the south to southeast.

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

      

 
  Rain heading our way…first on Kauai
Photo Credit: Flikr.com

Winds slowed down Thursday, and began turning south and southeast. As we move through the next several days, perhaps through the rest of this week, our local winds will arrive from more southerly latitudes, which will bring deep tropical moisture into the state. These winds are expected to be on the light side, but there may be some localized gusty conditions, especially in the vicinity of thunderstorms. The trade winds are expected to return early next week, that is until around Thanksgiving…when another batch of lighter southeast winds arrives.

The weather here in the islands…will turn wetter soon. The latest computer model runs continue to show a cold front approaching from the northwest. At the same time, we’ll soon find an upper air trough of low pressure, with its cold air aloft, destabilizing our atmosphere. These two influences will set the stage for more localized heavy rains early Friday into the weekend. Windward biased showers will return as we move into early next week…with hopefully more of our famous Hawaiian sunshine returning to the leeward beaches then!

The forecast heavy rains will ride in on south to southeast winds, providing the chance of a flooding precipitation event here in Hawaii. The seriousness of this threat has been captured by the issuance of a flash flood watch across the entire Hawaiian Island chain Thursday evening. This will very likely change to a flash flood warning, as the heavy precipitation begins Friday…first on Kauai. This rainfall will vary in its intensity, but there will be heavy downpours, which will cause localized flooding in many areas.

It’s early Thursday evening here in Kihei, Maui, as I begin writing this last paragraph. We continue onward towards what looks like a very wet period of weather, which looms right around the corner. Here’s the latest satellite imagery, which will help you see what’s coming our way. Our weather will turn wetter, after what was a nice day Thursday. Actually, other than quite a bit of high cirrus clouds, skies were mostly dry for a change. Here’s the looping radar image, which will show where the heaviest rains will be falling…and already was showing some increase to the west of Kauai. ~~~ So, everything seems to be set in place now, or will be soon, as all the necessary components of the upcoming wet weather period move in our direction. Kauai will see the rain first, then Oahu on Friday, with the other islands getting into the heart of this wet period during the day Saturday into the night. ~~~ I’ll be back very early Friday morning with your next new weather narrative, be well until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
 
Interesting:

Close to 16,000 citizens from 149 countries have signed up to join numerous restaurants, retailers and chefs in boycotting Mediterranean bluefin tuna — until stocks have recovered and the fishery is properly controlled and managed. WWF has presented the petition, on behalf of 15,941 concerned individuals, to top fisheries decision-makers today in Marrakech, Morrocco where the 46 Contracting Parties of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) are meeting to decide the future of bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean. “Thousands of consumers from across the world are voting with their wallets by not buying or eating endangered Mediterranean bluefin tuna,” said Dr Sergi Tudela, Head of Fisheries at WWF Mediterranean. “WWF hopes ICCAT acts on this strong plea from global citizens.” As increasing numbers of responsible consumers say no to bluefin, the list of chefs, restaurants and retailers around the world that have stopped serving and selling bluefin is also growing.

The trailblazers — Auchan in France, Carrefour in Italy, Coop in Italy and Switzerland, ICA in Norway, Moshi Moshi in the UK, and Memento in Spain — have now been joined by many others in taking bluefin off their menus and shelves. These are Benoît Delbasserue French chef; Casino French supermarket; Coop Norwegian supermarket; Deutsche See German processor; Elior French restaurant chain; Gottfried Friedrichs German processor; M&J UK seafood supplier; Migros Swiss supermarket; Relais du Parc French restaurant; Sergi Arola, Dario Barrio, Karel Bell — Spanish chefs; and over 50 restaurants in Monaco. “Bluefin tuna was one of the star items on our menu, but the critical situation of the stocks made me take it off the plates so that diners can keep enjoying it in years to come,” said Sergi Arola, Spanish celebrity chef. “I believe it’s my duty to take care of the sustainability of a dish as well as its taste.” “ICCAT members are under pressure from numerous countries, international institutions, scientists and even their own review to close this fishery and allow it to recover,” said Dr Tudela. “Now they are also coming under pressure from more and more of their own citizens, their noted chefs, their leading restaurants and their leading marketers.

Interesting2:

The rapid ice melt and temperature rise in the Arctic region has been widely reported, with a record summer ice melt occurring last year in the Arctic ocean, and a near-record this year (the volume of sea ice, if not the extent, did reach a record low this year, with autumn temperatures in the Arctic 9 degrees Fahrenheit above normal). The February 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated that humanity’s impact on climate is felt on every continent on the globe except Antarctica. A recent study by researchers from the U.K. Meteorological Office’s Hadley Center and Environment Canada have compared over fifty years of data records from Antarctic weather station and a century’s worth of weather data from the Arctic. By comparing the data between the Arctic and Antarctic, as well as against several computer climate simulations, the researchers have determined that natural influences, such as amount of sunlight or volcanic eruptions, could not account for the warming trends.

The data didn’t match the measured temperature change until increasing levels of greenhouse gases were added to the equation. Peter Stott, climate modeler for the Hadley Centre and co-author of the study published in the journal Nature Geoscience says “We have detected the human fingerprint in both the Arctic and Antarctic regions." In the past few decades average temperatures in the Arctic have risen by about 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, in Antarctica a bit less than 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit. The collapse of the Larson B and Wilkins ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula, which scientists say has warmed more than any other part of the world, has already been linked to human-caused global warming. Some researchers fear they may have actually underestimated the temperature change by giving equal weight to readings from the cold continental interior (made even cooler in the spring and summer by the ozone hole over the region) and coastal regions where warming is more pronounced.

Interesting3:

Turtles nesting along the Mississippi River and other areas are altering their nesting dates in response to rising temperatures, says a researcher from Iowa State University. Fred Janzen, a professor in ecology, evolution and organismal biology, has studied turtle nesting habits and also accumulated research going back decades in order to track the habits of the turtles to find out when they make nests and lay eggs. "The results have been astonishing," says Janzen. "In some cases such as regional populations of red-eared sliders, they are now nesting three weeks earlier than they did in the early 1990s. That is the fastest response to climate change of any species that I know of." The turtles that changed their nesting habits were not only young turtles that are nesting for the first time, said Janzen, but were also older turtles that were changing their habits. This trait, called plasticity, helps animals alter their behavior in the short term until inherited behavior takes over. "What we found was that in the late 1980s, painted turtles started nesting in early June, now it is on the order of 10 days or more earlier," said Janzen. "These behaviors are showing how the plasticity of the species is helping them survive, but we are wondering what the limit is to their ability to adapt."

Interesting4:

Mars has vast glaciers hidden under aprons of rocky debris near mid-latitude mountains, a new study confirms, pointing to a new and large potential reservoir of life-supporting water on the planet. These mounds of ice exist at much lower latitudes than any ice previously found on the red planet. "Altogether, these glaciers almost certainly represent the largest reservoir of water ice on Mars that’s not in the polar caps," said John Holt of the University of Texas at Austin and the main author of the study. "Just one of the features we examined is three times larger than the city of Los Angeles and up to one-half-mile thick, and there are many more." The gently sloping mid-latitude debris flows have puzzled scientists since they were revealed by NASA’s Viking orbiters in the 1970s — they looked very different than the fans and cones of debris found near mountains and cliffs in Mars’ equatorial regions.

Interesting5: There used to be tens of millions of bison ranging from Alaska to Mexico, but they were nearly wiped out by commercial hunting and habitat loss. Fewer than 10 percent of U.S. residents know how many bison remain in the United States, according to a new Wildlife Conservation Society survey. So: About 500,000 bison remain in the United States , mostly on private ranches. Only about 9,000 plains bison are considered free-ranging, in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico . The American Bison Society wanted you to know all this, and also this: In the survey, 40 percent said they have tried bison, and 83 percent thought it was as good or better-tasting than beef. That suggests that "one road to bison conservation may be a pragmatic, market-based approach, namely to grow sustainable markets for wild, free-ranging bison meat," said Kent Redford of the WCS.