December 30-31 2008
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Tuesday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 76
Honolulu, Oahu – 78
Kaneohe, Oahu – 75
Kahului, Maui – 76
Hilo, Hawaii – 71
Kailua-kona – 79
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level, and on the highest mountains…at 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon
Port Allen, Kauai – 81F
Hilo, Hawaii – 66F
Haleakala Crater – 39 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – missing (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 Tuesday afternoon:
1.56 Mount Waialaele, Kauai
2.49 Poamoho 2, Oahu
0.52 Molokai
0.03 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
3.67 West Wailuaiki, Maui
2.08 Waiakea Uka, Big Island
Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a high pressure system far to the east-northeast of the Hawaiian Islands. This trade wind producing high pressure system, along with its associated ridge, will keep trade winds active through Thursday.
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
The beauty of Kauai
Photo Credit: flickr.com
Trade wind breezes will diminish a little Wednesday…then increase again New Years Day into the weekend. The trade winds will soften some now, then surge again starting Thursday, prevailing into the first weekend of the new year. The models show another wind shift occurring early next week, as they take on a south to southeast orientation…with a cold front pushing in our direction then. These breezes may carry some volcanic haze up over parts of the island chain, from the Big Island vents.
The windward sides will continue to see incoming trade wind showers, with some rain in other areas as well. The atmosphere remains unstable over the islands, so that a few of these showers may be locally quite heavy. The leeward sides will find some high clouds blocking the daytime sunshine…with a few showers falling there too. As the trade winds increase Thursday, we should see an associated increase in windward showers along with them. Looking further ahead, we may see a cold front bring showers to the state early next week.
It’s early Tuesday evening here in Kihei, Maui, as I start writing this long last paragraph. Tuesday was a mostly cloudy day, with showers falling in many areas, including some leeward beaches. Looking at the latest looping radar image, we find the most frequent, and heaviest showers taking aim on the Big Island, Maui, and Oahu. There are still some high cirrus clouds being carried overhead too, arriving from the deeper tropics to our south…as shown on this looping satellite image – although now having temporarily cleared Kauai. ~~~ The instability associated with the trough of low pressure near the islands, is enhancing the lower level shower clouds, especially over those eastern most islands of Maui and the Big Island, where it has been quite heavy at times. The Koolau Mountains on Oahu are finding numerous showers too. ~~~ Despite the best hopes that our local weather would clear in time for New Years Eve, it doesn’t appear likely at this point. As a matter of fact, it looks like our weather will remain quite cloudy, with the continued threat of showers in the forecast. Looking at that looping satellite image above, it seems as if we may get another batch of high and middle level clouds, to our west, heading our way too at some point soon. ~~~ The long and short of this situation is that it’s winter, and even here in the tropics, we get our fair share of cloudy and wet weather, although at least its not cold. Not cold that is, down near sea level, although at the higher elevations, we are find very chilly weather, with snow falling atop the two mountain peaks on the Big Island. Once again, I will leave this link, so that you can see those snowy conditions, that is when the lens clears at times, and before it gets dark. ~~~ I’m about ready to take the drive from here in Kihei, up the 3,000+ feet…to my home in Kula. It looks to be cloudy in every direction, and if I run into some note worthy rain showers, between here and up there, I’ll come back online and let you know. ~~~ As it turned out, I ran into more than heavy rain, I crossed through the most vivid double rainbow just above Pukalani, and then ran into a major thunderstorm just up the slopes of the Haleakala Crater, with bright lightning and loud thunder too! When I got home it was pouring, and as soon as I walked into the house, there was an amazing flash of lightning, followed almost instantly, by a loud crack of thunder…it was great! I’ll be back with your next new weather narrative early Wednesday morning, New Years Eve morning! I hope you have a great Tuesday night wherever you happen to be spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting: More than 15,000 people in southern India protested against the extension of a new tiger reserve Tuesday, despite official assurances that they will not lose their homes to the sanctuary. Representatives from all parties in Tamil Nadu state, including the state’s ruling party, took part in what is the third such protest since November against the extension of the Mudumalai wildlife sanctuary, police said. The state government declared Mudumalai as a tiger reserve earlier this year as part of a federal government initiative, called "Project Tiger," to boost the country’s dwindling numbers of big cats. There were about 40,000 tigers in India a century ago. A government census report published this year says the tiger population has fallen to 1,411, down from 3,642 in 2002, largely due to dwindling habitat and poaching. A special panel set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in 2006 that thousands of poor villagers inside India’s tiger reserves would have to be relocated to protect the endangered animals from poachers and smugglers.
Some experts have put the number at around 300,000. Poachers and smugglers exploit the grinding poverty of forest villagers to keep them on their side. Authorities have tried educating the villagers, handing out monetary incentives and drafting them as informants. Tuesday’s demonstrators were not against the declaration of a 125 sq mile core area but against the creation of a buffer zone, Rajeev Srivastava, a field director for Project Tiger said. Around 350 families living in the core area have been given a 1 million rupee ($20,800) payout, but those in the buffer areas fear they will be evicted, Srivastava said. "We have no intention to dislodge anyone from the buffer zone. In fact, people in this zone will be involved in the project as trackers and guides for eco-tourists to enhance their means of livelihood." The Mudumalai wildlife sanctuary is part of the larger Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve on a mountain range that spans three Indian states. There are 48 tigers in the Nilgiri Reserve across which the tigers are free to roam, Srivastava added.
Interesting2: The scent of fast money in Washington has all manner of corporate interests scrambling to show they can create jobs, especially green ones. The prize is a slice of the Obama Administration’s stimulus package, expected to range from $675 billion to $775 billion in scale. But the President-elect’s transition team is warning interest groups that they won’t see any of the money unless their pet projects meet strict criteria.
First, the projects must be "shovel-ready"—that is, ready to go immediately. "They told us that for business to get anything, we have to prove there’s a short-term job impact—within six months," explains Brent Erickson, vice-president of the Biotechnology Industry Assn., which is pushing for biofuels production incentives. But the projects can’t put Uncle Sam on the hook to spend money for more than a year or two. "They have to be temporary, not creating a permanent need for funding," says Dow Chemical lobbyist Peter Molinaro.
Hiring ditch diggers would get shovels in the ground fast, of course. But Obama’s team is most interested in projects that will speed America toward a greener, cleaner future, reducing both energy dependence and the emissions that cause global warming. That has touched off a "feeding frenzy," says Steven Nadel, executive director of the nonprofit American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. "Everyone and his mother is saying why their pet projects deserve to be invested in."
The nuclear industry, for instance, wants more help not just building new power plants but also jump-starting homegrown suppliers of components. "If you think of an industry that has created the most green jobs over the past 40 years, it is the nuclear industry," argues Marvin S. Fertel, acting president of the Nuclear Energy Institute. Dow Chemical figures its water supply business fits the bill. "What’s not green about retrofitting and repairing water systems that leak thousands of gallons a day?" Molinaro asks.
Interesting3: Contact with nature has long been suspected to increase positive feelings, reduce stress, and provide distraction from the pain associated with recovery from surgery. Now, research has confirmed the beneficial effects of plants and flowers for patients recovering from abdominal surgery. A recent study by Seong-Hyun Park and Richard H. Mattson, researchers from the Department of Horticulture, Recreation and Forestry at Kansas State University, provides strong evidence that contact with plants is directly beneficial to a hospital patient’s health. Using various medical and psychological measurements, the study set out to evaluate if plants in hospital rooms have therapeutic influences. Studies show that when patients have great stress associated with surgery, they typically experience more severe pain and a slower recovery period. Some of these problems are treated through the use of anesthetics and analgesics, but, if not properly administered, the drugs can have side effects ranging from vomiting and headaches to drug dependency or even fatality. It is therefore beneficial to patients and care providers to develop approaches that improve the overall patient experience but don’t rely on pharmaceuticals.
Interesting4: Facial expressions of emotion are hardwired into our genes, according to a new study. The research suggests that facial expressions of emotion are innate rather than a product of cultural learning. The study is the first of its kind to demonstrate that sighted and blind individuals use the same facial expressions, producing the same facial muscle movements in response to specific emotional stimuli. The study also provides new insight into how humans manage emotional displays according to social context, suggesting that the ability to regulate emotional expressions is not learned through observation. San Francisco State University Psychology Professor David Matsumoto compared the facial expressions of sighted and blind judo athletes at the 2004 Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games.
More than 4,800 photographs were captured and analyzed, including images of athletes from 23 countries. "The statistical correlation between the facial expressions of sighted and blind individuals was almost perfect," Matsumoto said. "This suggests something genetically resident within us is the source of facial expressions of emotion." Matsumoto found that sighted and blind individuals manage their expressions of emotion in the same way according to social context. For example, because of the social nature of the Olympic medal ceremonies, 85 percent of silver medalists who lost their medal matches produced "social smiles" during the ceremony. Social smiles use only the mouth muscles whereas true smiles, known as Duchenne smiles, cause the eyes to twinkle and narrow and the cheeks to rise.
Interesting5: Climate change can have significant impacts on high-elevation lakes and imperiled Sierra Nevada Yellow-legged frogs that depend upon them, according to U.S. Forest Service and University of California, Berkeley, scientists. Their findings show how a combination of the shallow lakes drying up in summer and predation by introduced trout in larger lakes severely limits the amphibian’s breeding habitat, and can cause its extinction. "Environmental factors that increase summer drying of small lakes are likely to bring further population decline because the larger lakes are off limits to breeding," said Kathleen Matthews a Forest Service scientist at the Pacific Southwest Research Station and one of the studies authors.
Matthews co-authored the 10-year study with Igor Lacan, of the U.C. Berkeley Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, and Krishna Feldman, another Pacific Southwest Research Station scientist. The Forest Service funded the study. The Sierra Nevada Yellow-legged frog was common in Sierra Nevada high-elevation lakes and slow-moving streams at altitudes ranging from 4,500 to 12,000 feet. But, its range has decreased more than 80 percent in the last 90 years. These lakes and streams were historically fishless, until hybrid trout were introduced. The researchers studied lakes in Kings Canyon National Park’s Dusy Basin that are mostly fed by snowmelt. Climate change models suggest one of the principal effects of climate change on Sierra Nevada water balance will be a decreased snow pack, with more than half of the current snow water equivalent gone by 2090.
Interesting6: It’s Wall Street’s version of an early warning system. We’re talking about January, seasonally one of the best months for stocks. How stocks fare in the first month of the year could offer a clue as to whether the battered market will rebound in 2009, whether investors have regained their confidence, and whether cash sitting safely on the sidelines is put back to work in stocks. Historically, stock performance in the first five days of a new year, and January overall, has been a good predictor of how the full year will go. Since 1950, an up January has led to annual gains more than 90% of the time, the Stock Trader’s Almanac says. But every down January has "preceded a new or extended bear market, or flat market." So it’s no surprise that with the stock market down 40.6% and on track for its worst year since 1931, investors will be scrutinizing stocks more closely than usual this January, says Kevin Lane, director of research at Fusioninvest.com. "January has always been important for setting the tone for the year," Lane says.
"A strong month would suggest that investors have come to the conclusion that the bailout plans and stimulus programs are working. A bad month would suggest they don’t believe enough has been done." It would be "disheartening if stocks start 2009 like they did in January 2008, when the S&P 500 index slid 6.1%, says Paul Hickey of Bespoke Investment Group. "From a psychological standpoint, investors will start thinking, ‘Uh oh, more of the same.’ "But because so many unprecedented forces are in play that can affect stocks, it will be hard to pin a losing year on a weak January, Hickey says. Wall Street expects the recession to end in mid-2009 and stocks to rebound. Investors aren’t particularly scared or aggressive now, and that could mean they could be easily swayed by how stocks perform early in the year, says Richard Bernstein, chief investment strategist at Merrill Lynch. How stocks fare in the first five trading days of January is key. The last 36 times stocks rose at the start of the month, they were higher at year’s end 31 times, the Almanac says. "If the seasonally bullish pattern doesn’t occur, it would be a red flag."
Interesting7: Natural disasters killed more than 220,000 people in 2008, making it one of the most devastating years on record. The world’s number two insurer, says the figure confirms a global climate deal is badly needed. Although the number of natural disasters was lower than in 2007, the catastrophes in 2008 were more destructive in terms of the number of victims and the financial cost of the damage caused, Germany-based Munich Re said in its annual assessment. Most devastating was Cyclone Nargis, which battered Burma in May to kill more than 135,000 people, and the earthquake that shook China’s Sichuan province the same month which left 70,000 dead, 18,000 missing and almost five million homeless, Munich Re said. "This continues the long-term trend we have been observing," Munich Re board member Torsten Jeworrek said. "Climate change has already started and is very probably contributing to increasingly frequent weather extremes and ensuing natural catastrophes. The world needed "effective and binding rules on CO2 emissions, so that climate change is curbed and future generations do not have to live with weather scenarios that are difficult to control."
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