Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs / December 1-2, 2008

December 1-2 2008

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

Lihue, Kauai – 78
Honolulu, Oahu – 79
Kaneohe, Oahu – 79
Kahului, Maui – 83
Hilo, Hawaii – 81
Kailua-kona – 83

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

Kapalua, Maui – 82F
Molokai airport – 76F

Haleakala Crater    – 48  (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 39  (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 Monday afternoon:

0.03 Mount Waialaele, Kauai
0.04 Poamoho, Oahu
0.04 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.43 Oheo Gulch, Maui
0.10 Laupahoehoe, Big Island

Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a surface ridge near the Big Island will move slowly north, and will be near Kauai on Wednesday, and just north of Kauai on Thursday and Friday. The ridge will move south, and be over the island chain, on Saturday. 

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

      

 
  Partly cloudy at times…a few showers
Photo Credit: Flikr.com

We find lighter winds now, coming up from the deeper tropics, from the southwest to southeast…depending on which island you’re on. We’ll see locally hazy conditions at times into Wednesday, with better visibilities Thursday into Friday, as the trade winds return. The air flow at the moment will generally be light, with a high pressure ridge stationed right over the islands. As the trade winds return briefly later this week, blowing in the light to moderately strong realms…our atmosphere will have better visibilities. The latest model runs now show more light southeast winds forecast for this coming weekend, which may very well bring the volcanic haze right back around.

These Kona breezes will bring a few showers to the leeward sides at times…although nothing heavy is indicated. Mornings will begin in a hazy manner at times, and typically a bit warmer than it would otherwise be…given the tropical breezes coming up from more southern latitudes. There may be a few showers, although with a ridge of high pressure aloft, no major downpours are expected. As the trade winds return, the bias for showers will shift back over to the windward sides then. As the breezes return to the southeast, we may see some new showers arriving along our leeward coasts and slopes again this weekend.

The major issue this week, which will begin Tuesday…will be the major northwest swells. This will cause higher than normal surf levels along the north and west facing shores. The NWS office in Honolulu has issued a high surf advisory, and high surf warnings for those areas most influenced by this event.  Hurricane force winds, associated with a mid-latitude storm, generated this first part of the swell activity. The second aspect of this week’s high surf, will ramp-up the surf again starting Thursday, and be long lasting into the weekend. This will be the most dynamic situation in the Hawaiian Island weather picture through the rest of this week.

It’s early Monday evening here in Kihei, Maui.  Looking out the window here in Kihei, I see more clouds along the west and south facing beaches, than I do over on the windward sides. Looking at this looping radar image, it appears that we have some showers coming up from the southwest direction…carried our way on the Kona breezes. At the time of this writing, I spot most of the showers heading towards Lanai and Molokai, with a little trying to spread over towards Maui. Back and forth this week, first kona winds, then trade winds, and then back to kona winds this weekend. Perhaps the best chance for showers will exist tonight into Tuesday, and then drier weather will settle back in thereafter. I’ll be back very early Tuesday morning with your next new weather narrative from paradise. Please see the announcement just below, and then its quite interesting to read the responses well below, and my responses there as well. Aloha for now…Glenn.

News: After almost 18 years, I have decided to discontinue the TV weather program. This was not something that has come lightly, and I deliberated over this for quite a while. In the end though, it seems like the right thing to do. As many of you know, I have been carrying a very heavy work load, what with doing this website, having a TV weather show, and working as the senior weather analyst at the Pacific Disaster Center in Kihei, Maui. That has made for three weather related jobs, keeping me very busy, perhaps too busy for a long time. I’ve been carrying these jobs for at least the last 13 years, since I started working in Kihei. ~~~ I needed to find some relief from my 14 hour work days. I know that many, many people count on, and have enjoyed this 15 minute, live broadcast morning weather show. I’ve greatly enjoyed doing it myself! The last day of viewing on Kauai, Oahu and the Big Island will be December 19th, while the islands of Maui County will be on the air until December 24th. I will speak more of this as we move through the month, but just wanted to let you know. I will absolutely continue this website, and recommend that my TV viewers transfer over to this site as their source for weather news. Please use the reply box below for your feedback, and I will respond to each one. Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting:

The health threat to city dwellers posed by Southern California wildfires like those of November 2008 may have been underestimated by officials. Detailed particulate analysis of the smoke produced by previous California wild fires indicates that the composition posed more serious potential threats to health than is generally realized, according to a new paper analyzing particulate matter (PM) from wildfires in Southern California. The new article confirms earlier studies by air polllution specialist Constantinos Sioutas of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, who is also co-director of the Southern California Particle Center.For the study Sioutas and colleagues from USC, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and RIVM (the National Institute of Health and the Environment of the Netherlands) analyzed the particular matter gathered during the fall 2007 blazes.

"Fire emissions produce a significantly larger aerosol in size than typically seen in urban environments during periods affected by traffic sources, which emit mostly ultrafine particles," Sioutas said. "Staying indoors may not provide protection from smoke particles in the absence of air conditioning or the ability to recirculate filtered indoor air. This is because the fire particles can penetrate indoor structures more readily than particles from vehicular emissions." According to Sioutas, the fires produce a dangerous mix. "The chemical composition of particles during the fire episodes is different than that during ‘normal’ days impacted by traffic sources.

Interesting2: 

The first comprehensive “inventory” of sea and land animals around a group of Antarctic islands reveals a region that is rich in biodiversity and has more species than the Galapagos. The study provides an important benchmark to monitor how they will respond to future environmental change. Reporting this week in the Journal of Biogeography, the team from British Antarctic Survey and University of Hamburg, describe how they combed the land, sea and shores of the South Orkney Islands, near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, using scuba divers and trawled nets to catch creatures as deep as 1500 metres. Animals recorded were then checked with a century of literature and modern databases and the team concludes there are over 1200 known marine and land species.

These include sea urchins, free-swimming worms, crustaceans and molluscs, mites and birds. Five were new to science. Lead author Dr David Barnes from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) says: “This is the first time anybody has done an inventory like this in the polar regions. It’s part of the Census of Marine Life (COML) – an international effort to assess and explain the diversity and distribution of marine life in the world’s oceans. If we are to understand how these animals will respond to future change, a starting point like this is really important.”  Author Stefanie Kaiser from University of Hamburg says: “We never knew there were so many different species on and around these islands. This abundance of life was completely unexpected for a location in the polar regions, previously perceived to be poor in biodiversity.”

Interesting3:

Scientists said Friday they had found remains of a meteor that illuminated the sky before falling to earth in western Canada earlier this month. University of Calgary scientist Alan Hildebrand and graduate student Ellen Milley found several meteor fragments near the BattleRiver along the rural Alberta-Saskatchewan border, near the city of Lloydminster late Thursday. They said there could be thousands of meteorite pieces strewn over a 7-square-mile area of mostly flat, barren land, with few inhabitants. Residents in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta have been buzzing about the huge fireball that lit up the night sky over the three provinces on Nov. 20. Witnesses reported hearing sonic boom rumblings and said the fiery flash was as bright as the sun.

Hildebrand, who also coordinates meteor sightings with the Canadian Space Agency, estimated the meteor could have been seen from as far as 434 miles away, into the northern United States. Widely broadcast video images of the meteor showed what appeared to be a speeding fireball that became larger and brighter before disappearing as it neared the ground. The meteor contained about one-tenth of a kiloton of energy when it entered the earth’s atmosphere, roughly the equivalent of 100 tons of the chemical explosive TNT. "It would be something like a billion-watt light bulb," said Hildebrand. The meteor has captured the imagination of sky watchers around the world. Robert Haag, a space rock collector from Arizona, offered up to $9,700 for the first one-kilogram chunk of the meteor that is found.

Interesting4: Thanks to poor dental hygiene, researchers are getting a more detailed understanding of what people ate thousands of years ago in what is now Peru. Dental plaque scraped from the teeth of people who lived as much as 9,200 years ago revealed traces of cultivated crops, including squash and beans, according to a report in Monday’s online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. These ancient people also ate peanuts and a local fruit known as pacay, according to the report by Dolores Piperno, a staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the National Museum of Natural History, and Tom Dillehay, professor of archaeology at Vanderbilt University. They studied 39 teeth from six to eight individuals.

Found in northern Peru’s Nanchoc Valley, the teeth were uncovered in the remains of round house structures in a settlement dated to 9,200 to 5,500 years ago. "Some teeth were dirtier than others. We found starch grains on most of the teeth. About a third of the teeth contained large numbers of starch grains," Piperno said in a statement. The teeth study indicates that the diet of these people contained cultivated crops and was stable over time. Some of the grains had been cooked, the researchers noted. The researchers said they hope the future analysis of starch grains from teeth can lead to other findings about ancient people, perhaps showing a difference in diet between Neanderthals and early modern humans.