Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs / November 21-22, 2008

November 21-22 2008

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

Lihue, Kauai – 73
Honolulu, Oahu – 83
Kaneohe, Oahu – 81
Kahului, Maui – 87
Hilo, Hawaii – 82
Kailua-kona – 82

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

Kahului, Maui – 82F
Lihue, Kauai – 69F

Haleakala Crater    – 48  (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 36  (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:

0.68 Mohihi Crossing, Kauai
1.53 Schofield Barracks, Oahu
0.00 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.03 Hana Airport, Maui
0.20 Pali 2, 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

      

 
  Wet weather weekend coming up
Photo Credit: Flikr.com

The winds across the Hawaiian Islands are coming up from the southeast near the Big Island…and the southwest near Kauai Friday night. These southerly oriented winds will be lighter in general than the gusty trade winds that we saw blowing earlier in the week. An air flow from these directions will bring surface moisture up from the deeper tropics, along with higher humidity levels…and localized volcanic haze. Kona winds will prevail through Saturday into Sunday, then give way to returning fresh trade winds later Sunday…into the first half of the new week ahead. The long range computer models suggest that lighter southeast winds will return as we move into the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.

A deepening trough of low pressure has become well established to our west and northwest…which is making our local atmosphere much more shower prone now. This trough of low pressure, with its cold air aloft, will destabilize the air mass around Hawaii. This influence will set the stage for localized heavy rains during the weekend. Niihau, Kauai and Oahu will see the heaviest rains, although the other islands will find rainfall too. The heaviest showers should start diminishing later in the day Sunday. Windward biased showers will return as we move into early next week…with hopefully clearing skies for leeward beaches then.

The NWS forecast office in Honolulu continues its statewide issued flash flood watch through late Saturday night. As this heavy rainfall event unfolds Saturday, this watch will likely shift into localized flash flood warnings. This tropical rainfall will vary in its intensity, but there will be heavy downpours, which will cause localized flooding in many areas. Thunderstorms could easily form in this wet weather situation, adding extra heavy rainfall into this inclement mix. It would be wise to stay home, or under cover during this rainy period if possible. Driving of course becomes more dangerous, and increases the chance of mishaps.

Niihau and Kauai experienced steady showers Friday, which began moving over Oahu during the evening hours. Maui began to pick up some shower activity towards sunset as well, with still the chance that the Big Island will shift to a wet reality with time as well. Here’s the latest looping satellite imagery, showing the copious cloud cover that continues to develop to the west and southwest of our islands…moving northeast over us. Here’s the looping radar image, which as of Friday evening showed the wet weather moving most generously over the islands of Niihau and Kauai. I will leave these two live images available here, as they will become handy to see where the heaviest rainfall is occurring, as move through the weekend. I would highly recommend that everyone here in the islands stays tuned into this wet weather episode as it develops.

It’s early Friday evening here in Kihei, Maui, as I finish a long work day. I’m about ready to take the drive over to Kahului, to see a new film. This time I’ll see Quantum of Solace (2008), the new James Bond movie, starring Daniel Craig, Judi Dench among others. This newest version of the James Bond series is being billed as an action, adventure, thiller, adaptation and sequel. These words of course are "right down my alley", and have had me looking forward to seeing this new movie ever since I found it was coming our way. I’ll of course let you know what I thought of it Saturday morning, when I return here, but until then, here’s a trailer for your viewing pleasure. ~~~







I’ll return early Saturday with the latest updates and information about this well advertised wet weather episode here in the islands, be well and stay dry until then!. Aloha for now…Glenn.
 
Interesting:

Little more than a week after enduring what was said to be Queensland’s worst storms in over 25 years, the state has been pummeled once again. A series of violent storms first tore across Australia’s east coast last weekend. The storms especially affected Brisbane and the popular tourist areas of the Sunshine and Gold coasts. Just when residents might have thought things were returning to some normality, most of the same areas were hit again Thursday by a second spate of storms. The first storm hit early in the day dumping almost 200mm (8 inches) of rain across Queensland’s capital Brisbane and surrounding areas. Much of this fell in a matter of hours triggering flash floods. Troops were deployed once again to help thousands of residents. Although the weather improved across Queensland on Thursday the Australian Bureau of Meteorology issued an advisory concerning severe weather and potential flooding for eastern Victoria this weekend. An intense area of low pressure is expected to develop over the eastern Bass Strait on Saturday bringing widespread heavy rain and some very strong winds across parts of Victoria.





























































































Interesting2:

Over a third of China’s land is being scoured by serious erosion that is putting its crops and water supply a risk, a three-year nationwide survey has found. Soil is being washed and blown away not only in remote rural areas, but near mines, factories and even in cities, the official Xinhua agency cited the country’s bio-environment security research team saying. Each year some 4.5 billion tons of soil are lost, threatening the country’s ability to feed itself. If the loss continues at this rate, harvests in China‘s northeastern breadbasket could fall 40 percent in 50 years, adding to erosion costs estimated at 200 billion yuan ($29 billion) in this decade alone.

"China has a more dire situation than India, Japan, the United States, Australia and many other countries suffering from soil erosion," Xinhua quoted the research team saying. Beijing has long been worried about the desertification of its northern grasslands, and scaled back logging after rain rushing down denuded mountainsides caused massive flooding along the Yangtze in the late 1990s. But around 1.6 million square km of land are still being degraded by water erosion, with almost every river basin affected. Another 2.0 million square km are under attack from wind, the report said. The survey was the largest on soil conservation since the Communist Party took control of China in 1949.

Interesting3: Two plucky spiders on the International Space Station have bounced back from a tangled false start to weave amazing new webs in zero gravity, astronauts said Friday. The orb-weaving spiders were transported to the station aboard NASA’s shuttle Endeavour earlier this week, but initially wove an aimless concoction in their lab enclosure during their first days in weightlessness. But now they’ve taken another stab at weightless web construction. "We noticed the spiders’ made a symmetrical web," the space station’s current skipper Michael Fincke radioed to Mission Control today. "It looks beautiful." Fincke said he was amazed at how fast the two eight-legged creatures appear to have adapted to living in space.

The spiders are part of an experiment aimed at sparking interest in science among students on Earth. The arachnids are the same kind of spider as "Charlotte" in the children’s book "Charlotte’s Web" by E.B. White. Students on Earth will compare the webs of the space station’s spiders with those of similar arachnids on Earth for the next few months. They’ll also follow the lifecycle of painted lady butterfly larvae, which also are part of the experiment. The University of Colorado at Boulder is overseeing the experiment and provided an ample supply of fruit flies to feed the spiders, and nectar for the butterflies that will eventually emerge.