December 22-23 2008
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Monday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 77
Honolulu, Oahu – 81
Kaneohe, Oahu – 78
Kahului, Maui – 81
Hilo, Hawaii – 79
Kailua-kona – 81
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level, and on the highest mountains…at 4 p.m. Monday afternoon:
Barking Sands, Kauai – 82F
Hilo, Hawaii – 74F
Haleakala Crater – 54 (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:
0.02 Poipu, Kauai
0.40 Poamoho 2, Oahu
0.00 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.12 West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.22 Glenwood, Big Island
Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a 1027 millibar high pressure system to the northeast, iwth its associated ridge extending down to near the islands. As a low to the NW moves away, the ridge will migrate northward…allowing trade winds to flow across the entire island chain.
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
Waimanalo Beach…on the island of Oahu
Photo Credit: Flikr.com
An early winter trade wind weather pattern will remain in place through the remainder of this work week. These trade winds will blow in the light to moderately srong realms…although stronger and gusty locally. We find a small craft wind advisory now active across the Alenuihaha Channel, and down along the leeward coasts of the Big Island. The gusty trade winds will persist through Saturday, then may give way to lighter southeasterlies again Sunday into early next week, as a new cold front approaches the state then.
Generally dry conditions will prevail through most of Christmas Day. Weather dynamics should stay rather static, so that we’ll not see many showers for the time being. The leeward sides will find dry conditions, with generally sunny to partly cloudy conditions. The latest models show a trough of low pressure arriving over the state from the east by later Christmas Day, with an increase in windward showers then…through the following several days. The next chance for cold front precipitation will hold off until early next week.
It’s early Monday evening here in Kihei, Maui, as I start writing this last paragraph. Monday was a great day, the trade winds aren’t particularly strong yet, which made for good conditions for our local beaches…especially on the leeward sides. I see little in the way of change as we move through the next several days. We may even sneak through most of Christmas Day, with good early winter conditions. Later Christmas Day, and then through the following several days, we’ll see a surge of moisture flooding into the state from the east…taking aim on the windward sides. ~~~ This was the first full day of winter in the northern hemisphere, of course which includes the Hawaiian Islands. Here in the tropics, the latter part of autumn, and early winter period are typically quite similar. As the trade winds are back with us now, we should see pleasant weather conditions for another several days. ~~~ Monday’s TV weather show started the new week, which will finish on Wednesday…which is the end of an era, as many of my viewers are describing it. It lasted almost two decades, and has been a great experience in my life! Fortunately, this website will take its place, although I know that it won’t be the same for those long term viewers. ~~~ Looking out the window here in Kihei before driving upcountry to Kula, I see lots of clear blue skies, with just some clouds surrounding the Haleakala Crater, and the West Maui Mountains. Look for a nice night, with generally clear to partly cloudy skies taking over again on Tuesday. By the way, the picture above is more or less where President elect Barack Obama is staying on the island of Oahu, for his family Christmas holiday. Speaking of Tuesday, I’ll be back online very early Tuesday morning with your next new weather narrative. I hope you have a great Monday night! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting: Weather fronts originating from Siberia and Mongolia swept south across China over the weekend, sending temperatures plummeting and bringing heavy snow falls across parts of the country. On Saturday the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) issued orange warnings for the cold weather, advising residents to prepare for a sharp drop in temperature, heavy snow falls and gale force northerly winds. This extreme cold weather warning was the country’s second this winter. The first was issued early in the month when heavy snow brought widespread disruption to travel services. Northern and eastern parts of China bore the brunt of the current cold weather. Shandong province was hit by heavy snow falls which closed major highways and delayed flights at Jinan International Airport. In Beijing, snow, strong winds and temperature falls of 8 to 10 degrees Celsius gave the city a real taste of winter. The CMA states that while this cold front was not as severe as the first in early December, it arrived suddenly and brought with it a very sharp fall in temperature. The extreme weather continues to affect central and southern parts of China on Monday though conditions will improve during the day.
Interesting2: A Taiwanese plane arrived in the Chinese city of Chengdu on Monday to pick up a pair of giant pandas, a goodwill gift from Beijing and the latest sign of improving ties between the political rivals. Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, whose names said together mean "unite," will be flown to Taiwan on Tuesday with steamed corn buns and fresh bamboo in their luggage and a standby supply of air-sickness pills. China had offered the pandas as a goodwill gift in 2006 as part of a charm offensive after decades of saber rattling. Taiwan’s then anti-China president declined the gift. Beijing has given pandas to nine countries, including Japan, North Korea, the United States and the former Soviet Union, since 1957. China-Taiwan ties have improved vastly in recent months after the election of China-friendly Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou. "It’s clearly part of the longer rapprochement, a nice symbol," Brad Glosserman, executive director of the U.S.-based think tank Pacific Forum CSIS, said of the pandas.
Last week Taiwan and China launched direct daily passenger flights, new shipping routes and postal links for the first time in six decades. China has also offered Taiwan investors on the mainland $19 billion in financing over the next three years amid the global economic downturn. But many Taiwan citizens would prefer China remove missiles aimed at the island and let it join international organizations such as the United Nations instead of offering money or animals, experts say. "It’s not a milestone, not a breakthrough, just a continuation," said Lin Chong-pin, a strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan. China has claimed sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong’s Communists won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists (KMT) fled to the island. Beijing has vowed to bring Taiwan under its rule, by force if necessary. China claims Taiwan as part of "one China," a notion many in Taiwan resist, especially the opposition Democratic Progressive Party that favors the island’s formal declaration of independence from China.
Interesting3: The United States could suffer the effects of abrupt climate changes within decades—sooner than some previously thought–says a new government report. It contends that seas could rise rapidly if melting of polar ice continues to outrun recent projections, and that an ongoing drought in the U.S. west could be the start of permanent drying for the region. Commissioned by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, the report was authored by experts from the U.S. Geological Survey, Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and other leading institutions. It was released at this week’s meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Many scientists are now raising the possibility that abrupt, catastrophic switches in natural systems may punctuate the steady rise in global temperatures now underway. However, the likelihood and timing of such "tipping points," where large systems move into radically new states, has been controversial. The new report synthesizes the latest published evidence on four specific threats for the 21st century. It uses studies not available to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose widely cited 2007 report explored similar questions.
"This is the most up to date, as it includes research that came out after IPCC assembled its data," said Edward Cook, a climatologist at Lamont-Doherty and a lead author of the new study. The researchers say the IPCC’s maximum estimate of two feet of sea level rise by 2100 may be exceeded, because new data shows that melting of polar ice sheets is accelerating. Among other things, there is now good evidence that the Antarctic ice cap is losing overall mass. At the time of the IPCC report, scientists were uncertain whether collapses of ice shelves into the ocean off the western Antarctica were being offset by snow accumulation in the continent’s interior. But one coauthor, remote-sensing specialist Eric Rignot of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told a press conference at the meeting: "There is a new consensus that Antarctica is losing mass." Seaward flow of ice from Greenland is also accelerating. However, projections of how far sea levels might rise are "highly uncertain," says the report, as researchers cannot say whether such losses will continue at the same rates.
In the interior United States, a widespread drought that began in the Southwest about 6 years ago could be the leading edge of a new climate regime for a wider region. Cook, who heads Lamont’s Tree Ring Lab, says that periodic droughts over the past 1,000 years have been driven by natural cycles in air circulation, and that these cycles appear to be made more intense and persistent by warming. Among the new research cited is a 2007 Science paper by Lamont climate modeler Richard Seager, showing how changes in temperature over the Pacific have driven large-scale droughts across western North America. "We have no smoking gun saying that humans are causing the current changes. But the past is a cautionary tale," Cook told the press conference. "What this tells us is that the system has the ability to lock into periods of profound, long-lasting aridity. And there is the suggestion that these changes are related to warmer climate." Cook added: "If the system tips over, that would have catastrophic effects no human activities and populations over wide areas."
Interesting4: President-elect Barack Obama underscored on Saturday his intent to push initiatives on climate change by naming John Holdren, an energy and climate specialist, as the new White House science adviser. Holdren is a Harvard University physicist who has focused on the causes and consequences of climate change and advocated policies aimed at sustainable development. He has also done extensive research on the dangers of nuclear weapons. Obama pledged to put a priority on encouraging scientific breakthroughs in areas such as alternative energy solutions and finding cures to diseases, as he announced the pick of Holdren and other top science advisers in the Democratic weekly radio and video address. "Today, more than ever before, science holds the key to our survival as a planet and our security and prosperity as a nation," Obama said.
"It’s time we once again put science at the top of our agenda and worked to restore America’s place as the world leader in science and technology." "From landing on the moon, to sequencing the human genome, to inventing the Internet, America has been the first to cross that new frontier," Obama said. Obama said that government has played an important role in encouraging those breakthroughs and could do so in the future. The Bush administration has had a rocky relationship with the scientific community and was at times accused by critics of ignoring scientific evidence in its efforts to make political points on issues such as global warming. Holdren, who teaches at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, will head the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He is a former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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