December 11-12 2008
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Thursday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 76
Honolulu, Oahu – 76
Kaneohe, Oahu – 76
Kahului, Maui – 79
Hilo, Hawaii – 79
Kailua-kona – 82
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level, and on the highest mountains…at 4 p.m. Thursday afternoon:
Port Allen, Kauai – 79F
Kapalua, Maui – 70F
Haleakala Crater – 41 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 30 (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:
5.58 Omao, Kauai
14.00 South Fork Kaukonahua, Oahu
2.63 Molokai
1.59 Lanai
2.64 Kahoolawe
2.77 Puu Kukui, Maui
0.64 Pali 2, Big Island
Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a cold front near Kauai, which will weaken Friday leaving a weak trough in its wake west of Kauai into Saturday. The trough will linger over the offshore waters west of Kauai through Sunday. Weak trade winds to return Monday. A low will form just west of the offshore waters Tuesday as high pressure sits far to the northeast.
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
Aloha Paragraphs
Cloudy and showery…most areas of Hawaii
Photo Credit: Flikr.com
A well advertised Kona low pressure system, which the computer models began pointing out the middle of last week, brought windy and wet weather to much of the state Thursday. This low pressure system took form later in the day Wednesday, with the pressure gradient across the
This weather map shows the location of this Kona low up around 33 degrees north latitude, and 167 degrees west longitude…to the northwest of
The ocean out and around the islands is locally chopped-up and rough, with small craft advisories active in many areas. The winds rotating around this Kona low, given that they are locally from the southwest, has churned up a locally derived wind swell, with wave breaking along our leeward beaches. The swell coming from this low will be coming up along the north and west shores soon too, again generated by this same storm to our northwest. The relatively close proximity of this storms position, will likely make for closely spaced waves, making the surf rougher than usual…compared to when these swells are generated thousands of miles away. This swell will probably flirt with high surf advisory levels, which could mean a high surf advisory with time. This surf will drop in size over the weekend, although a new NW swell is forecast to arrive in the islands by Monday.
Looking a bit further ahead, in terms of the weather, we won’t be out of the woods yet. As a matter of fact, even as the storm moves away towards the north, it will leave behind a trough of low pressure. The band of clouds now over the islands, may stick around for quite a while longer. Speaking of which, here’s a looping satellite image of this cloud band. If this band did remain anchored over the state, as the models are suggesting, we could see a prolonged period of off and on showers. The satellite image shows the clouds, but we need to refer to this looping radar image to get the full picture! The eastern edge of this inclement weather situation has shifted over to the east, now overlapping the western parts of the
The computer models show as the gusty south to SW winds ease up, with the departure of the parent low to our northwest, our winds will become considerably lighter. As a matter of fact, they are forecast to scale back in strength, and turn back towards the southeast, where they began as the storm moved in our direction. As the winds come down, the trough of low pressure to our west, left behind by the Kona low, will keep unsettled weather in our area through the weekend into the middle of next week perhaps. SE winds bring volcanic haze with them, so that whatever showers that are around, may fall out of hazy skies. There are no real signs of the trade winds returning at the moment, which means that we could be settling into a rather murky situation through much of the week ahead. The latest rainfall total for Oahu is very impressive, with many totals above 10.00” during the last 24 hours, with the South Fork Kaukonahua gauge reading 14.00 wet inches!
It’s early Thursday evening here in Kihei, Maui, as I start writing this last paragraph. The paragraphs above have captured the essence of this rainy period, with lots of detail. I’m not sure exactly what else to say, although as I look out the window here in Kihei…before driving upcountry to Kula, it’s still majorly cloudy, with light rain falling. This is the first all cloudy day that I’ve seen in some time, with rain varying between heavy with thunderstorms this morning, grading into light stuff this evening. I must admit I’ve enjoyed the change, although I’m not sure everyone has, especially the visitors who are here on vacation…who I’m sure would have enjoyed a nice sunny day instead. ~~~ The computer forecast models aren’t helping out much, as they continue to point out the chance of continued off and on unsettled weather conditions through the rest of this week, into the middle of next week! Our winds will remain from the southeast, and at least be lighter soon…although as many of you know, southeast winds bring volcanic haze up from the three vents on the Big Island. ~~~ What can I say? Is there a positive spin to all this? I don’t see one now, and looking at this satellite image, that same rain producing wedge of showery, or rainy clouds, remains anchored over the islands! ~~~ Nonetheless, I will be back very early Friday morning with your next new weather narrative, although I’m not sure what, if any, relief that I’ll be bearing then! I hope you have a good Thursday night anyway, either here in the islands, or elsewhere. By the way, when I got home to Kula, it was pea soup fog pretty much all the way up the mountain from Pukalani. There was generally light rain falling all the way home from Kihei, right to my weather tower! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting: It’s one of the biggest, fastest, and most beautiful fish in the sea. It has captured the imaginations of people from Homer to Salvador Dali. But end-times loom for the giant bluefin tuna, whose chances of survival were greatly diminished in late November by the international commission charged with its care. Once again, that body — the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas — refused to take strong action to prevent the runaway overfishing of the giant bluefin tuna in its sole remaining, yet rapidly disappearing, stronghold: the Mediterranean. One of the sea’s few elite warm-blooded fish, bluefin tuna can reach three-quarters of a ton, swim at highway speeds, migrate across oceans, and visit coasts of distant continents. They’re also the world’s most valued fish (once they’re dead), and therein they hang by the tail. Too valuable everywhere to be allowed to live anywhere, the giant bluefin tuna may be worth more money to a person who kills one than any other animal on the planet, elephants and rhinos included. A few years ago, a single 444-pound bluefin tuna sold wholesale in Japan for $173,600.
Interesting2: It’s 40 degrees F below zero (with the wind chill) at the South Pole today. Yet a research team from the University of Delaware is taking it all in stride. The physicists, engineers and technicians from the University of Delaware’s Bartol Research Institute are part of an international team working to build the world’s largest neutrino telescope in the Antarctic ice, far beneath the continent’s snow-covered surface. Dubbed “IceCube,” the telescope will occupy a cubic kilometer of Antarctica when it is completed in 2011, opening super-sensitive new eyes into the heavens. “IceCube will provide new information about some of the most violent and far-away astrophysical events in the cosmos,” says Thomas Gaisser, the Martin A. Pomerantz Chaired Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Delaware, and one of the project’s lead scientists. The University of Delaware is among 33 institutions worldwide that are contributing to the National Science Foundation project, which is coordinated by the University of Wisconsin. Besides taking a turn as “on-ice lead” for this year’s IceCube construction effort at the South Pole (or simply “Pole,” as the locals call it), Gaisser is managing the University of Delaware’s continued deployment of the telescope’s surface array of detectors, known as “IceTop.”
Interesting3: Elephants in European zoos live dramatically shorter lives than pachyderms in the wild, finds a new study. The research is based on health information for 4,500 Asian and African elephants living in some 270 European zoos between 1960 and 2005 and their counterparts living in the wild either in Kenya or as working animals in Myanmar. The wild creatures live decades longer, on average. The new information will shed light on a longstanding debate about the physical and mental well-being of zoo elephants. One of the main tensions has been between animal welfare scientists and activists, who think keeping such an intelligent and social animal as an elephant captive is unethical, and zoo scientists, who look at elephants as sort of ambassadors for endangered populations in the wild, said George Amato, a wildlife conservation geneticist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Amato was not involved in the current study. Regardless of the life spans of elephants in captivity, Amato said, the real problem threatening both species with extinction is human-caused and takes place in the wild where the animals suffer from, among other threats, habitat destruction and being killed for their tusks to fuel the ivory trade. The results, published in the Dec. 12 issue of the journal Science, likely apply to zoo elephants in the United States as well, said researcher Georgia Mason of the University of Guelph in Canada.
Interesting4: In the last few years there has been a growing number of documented cases in which large earthquakes set off unfelt tremors in earthquake faults hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of miles away. New research shows that the great Indian Ocean earthquake that struck off the Indonesian island of Sumatra on the day after Christmas in 2004 set off such tremors nearly 9,000 miles away in the San Andreas fault at Parkfield, Calif. "We found that an earthquake that happened halfway around the world could trigger a seismic signal in the San Andreas fault. It is a low-stress event and a new kind of seismic phenomenon," said Abhijit Ghosh, a University of Washington doctoral student in Earth and space sciences. "Previous research has shown that this phenomenon, called non-volcanic tremor, was produced in the San Andreas fault in 2002 by the Denali earthquake in Alaska, but seeing this new evidence of tremor triggered by an event as distant as the Sumatra earthquake is really exciting," he said. Ghosh is to present the findings next week (Dec. 17) in a poster at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting in San Francisco.
Interesting5: A relief operation is slowly taking shape in Papua New Guinea’s New Ireland province to help thousands of people displaced by huge king tides that struck the island two days ago. Pockets of devastation can be found down the entire 280-kilometre stretch of New Ireland’s only coastal road. Village homes built close to the water’s edge were either destroyed or swept some 50 meters inland by the high tides. The pristine white sand is littered with coral and debris, while the normally bustling villages have been abandoned. Locals say it is the worst destruction they have seen in 30 years. Government-coordinated relief efforts are slowly unfolding.
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