December 4-5 2008
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Thursday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 79
Honolulu, Oahu – 84
Kaneohe, Oahu – 79
Kahului, Maui – 83
Hilo, Hawaii – 78
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:
Honolulu, Oahu – 82F
Molokai airport – 74F
Haleakala Crater – 54 (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 Thursday afternoon:
0.04 Kalaheo, Kauai
0.44 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.00 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.02 Oheo Gulch, Maui
0.13 Puu Waawaa, Big Island
Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a ridge of high pressure will build north of the state today. The ridge will move south near Kauai Saturday. It will then recede eastward Sunday night as a front approaches the state from the northwest. The dissipating front will be near Kauai Monday with only its remnant expected over the state Tuesday.
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
High surf conditions here in the islands
Photo Credit: Flikr.com
A brief period of trade winds, blowing in the light to moderately strong category will continue into the first half of the upcoming weekend. A high pressure ridge is located just north of Kauai Thursday evening, and will be migrating a little further north into Saturday
The overlying air mass remains rather dry, limiting the showers along the windward sides for the time being. Now that the trade winds have returned, the bias for showers will shift back over to the windward sides…although showers will be few and far between generally. The breezes return to the southeast later this weekend, when we may see an increase in showers arriving along our leeward coasts and slopes by Sunday into Monday. There may be a further increase in showers Tuesday…as the front works its way down to Oahu. The latest GFS model runs show the potential for considerably more rainy weather, especially on the Kauai end of the state, arriving next Thursday.
The most recent swell has brought the surf back up into Friday. This second large to extra large swell of the week, will cause another round of high surf advisory level surf, with many north shore locations having even larger high surf warning level waves breaking. This high surf event will remain active into the weekend…with more medium to large surf expected at times next week. There have been more than the normal amount of surf along the south shores of Maui down through the Big Island, where Kihei, and the Kona coast on the Big Island should see larger waves too.
It’s early Thursday evening here in Kihei, Maui. The haze, which has plagued many parts of the Hawaiian Islands the last several days, has now been swept away by the trade winds. The one exception continues to be the Kona side of the Big Island, where thick haze has hung-in, despite the return of trade winds. The relatively big news at the moment, is that the trade winds have returned, which has brought dry and favorably inclined weather conditions to the entire state. The really big news however, continues to be the larger, to much larger than normal high surf surf conditions along our west and north facing beaches. We should see this newest swell train of waves peak out at some point Friday, and then drop going into the weekend. This is a special time to remain well back from the breaking waves along those shores…in other words don’t get to close…we don’t want anyone swept into the ocean! ~~~ Looking out the window here in Kihei, before I take the drive upcountry to Kula, I see more of those high cirrus clouds sneaking in overhead. These bring nice sunset colors, so if you’re here at the moment, keep your eyes peeled for those pink and orange clouds showing their style, as the sun goes down into the western horizon. If they are still around early Friday morning, at sunrise, and you are awake, check those high cirrus clouds out again then. Speaking of early Friday morning, that’s when I’ll be back with your next new weather narrative from paradise. I hope you have a great Thursday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting: Soot is darkening ice in the Arctic and speeding a melt that could make the ocean around the North Pole ice-free in summer well before 2050. The experts said the fight against warming in the Arctic should be re-directed to focus more on cutting the industrial pollution from soot, ozone and methane in Europe, North America and Russia to try to prevent the ice disappearing. Soot or black carbon darkens the ice and makes it soak up more heat, accelerating a melt compared to reflective snow and ice. Methane comes sources including oil and gas and agriculture while ozone is formed from industrial pollutants. "Reductions in these pollutants would have a greater impact" in the next two decades than curbing emissions of the main greenhouse gas — carbon dioxide — according to scientists on the sidelines of 187-nation U.N. climate talks in Poland.
The Arctic is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world and ice shrank to a record low in 2007, leading to worries that it could pass a point of no return. "The Arctic sea ice may already have passed a ‘tipping point’," said Pam Pearson, an Arctic pollution expert at the Climate Policy Center who presented the findings. "An ice-free summer Arctic is now possible well before 2050." "Some scientists are arguing that it (the Arctic Ocean) could be (ice free) in summer within the next 10 to 20 years," said Bob Watson, a former head of the U.N. Climate Panel who chaired a presentation of the research in Poznan. The three pollutants — soot, ozone and methane — linger in the atmosphere far less time than carbon dioxide, meaning cuts in emissions would have a quicker impact in cleaning the air.
Interesting2: In the hit 1998 movie Armageddon, Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck blew up an asteroid to save the world. While the film was science fiction, the chances of an asteroid hitting the Earth one day are very real – and blowing up an asteroid in real life, says a Tel Aviv University researcher, will be more complicated than in the movies. Astrophysicists agree that the best method for avoiding a catastrophic collision would be to change the path of the asteroid heading toward our planet. “For that to work, we need to be able to predict what would happen if we attempt an explosion,” says Tel Aviv University doctoral student David Polishook, who is studying asteroids with his supervisor Dr. Noah Brosch at the Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences. Polishook and Brosch are among the few scientists in the world researching the structure and composition of asteroids a critical first step in learning how to destroy them before they reach the Earth’s atmosphere. Their research could prevent catastrophe: blowing up an asteroid may create many equally dangerous smaller asteroids of about 100 meters each in diameter – twice the size of the asteroid that created the famous Arizona crater.
Interesting3: A Duke University study suggests that evolution can behave as differently as dogs and cats. While the dogs depend on an energy-efficient style of four-footed running over long distances to catch their prey, cats seem to have evolved a profoundly inefficient gait, tailor-made to creep up on a mouse or bird in slow motion. "It is usually assumed that efficiency is what matters in evolution," said Daniel Schmitt, a Duke associate professor of evolutionary anthropology. "We’ve found that’s too simple a way of looking at evolution, because there are some animals that need to operate at high energy cost and low efficiency." In a report published online Nov. 26 in the research journal Public Library of Science (PLoS), Schmitt and two former Duke co-researchers followed up on a scientific hunch by measuring and videotaping how six housecats moved along a 6 yard-long runway in pursuit of food treats or feline toys.
Long-distance chase predators like dogs can reduce their muscular work needed to move forward by as much as 70 percent by allowing their body to rise and fall and exchanging potential and kinetic energy with each step. In contrast, the maximum for cats is about 37 percent and much lower than that in a stalking posture, the report found. "An important implication of these results is the possibility of a tradeoff between stealthy walking and economy of locomotion," the three researchers wrote in PLoS. "These data show a previously unrecognized mechanical relationship in which crouched postures are associated with changes in footfall pattern, which are in turn related to reduced mechanical energy recovery." In other words, they found that when cats slink close to the ground they walk in a way that "the movements of their front and back ends cancel each other out," Schmitt said. While that’s not good for energy efficiency "the total movement of their bodies is going to be even and they’ll be flowing along," he added.
Interesting4: The Argentine cruise ship Ciudad de Ushuaia, with 122 people on board, issued a distress signal Thursday after getting stuck in the ice, suffering a fuel leak and letting in a "minimal" amount of water, the Argentine Navy said in Buenos Aires. The ship’s 89 passengers and a crew of 33 were "in perfect health," Admiral Daniel Alberto Martin told the news television channel C5N. Chilean Navy ships were on the way to rescue the passengers and much of the crew. Divers would then examine the tear in the ship’s hull. Another cruise ship, the Atlantic Dream, was already at the accident site and could evacuate the Ciudad de Ushuaia’s passengers if necessary. The problem happened some 300 kilometres south-west of Argentina’s Antarctic base, Comodoro Marambio. The Ushuaia left the Argentine harbour of the same name two days ago headed for the Antarctic. Martin said the meteorological conditions in the area were "not the best," particularly due to the wind.
Interesting5: An ant species that originated in the Black Sea region has invaded more than 100 areas across Europe and is moving north. Scientists say if it is not stopped, it will reach northern Germany, Scandinavia and Britain and could invade the whole world. The pest, called Lasius neglectus, destroys native ant species as it invades new territory. It has also invaded much of Asia. This week in the journal PLoS ONE, scientists presented the first thorough study of the intruder, which was discovered in 1990 after moving into Hungary. "Its rapid spread through Europe and Asia [is] the most recent example of a pest ant that may become a global problem," the scientists write. Ants thrive all over the world because they are very adaptive.
Urban ants, for example, have adapted to the extreme heat of city living. Scientists estimate there are about 20,000 different species globally. The combined weight of ants in the Brazilian Amazon is thought to be four times greater than the combined mass of all of the mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians there. When they arrive in new locations, ants can be extremely aggressive and very detrimental to local flora and fauna. For example, the non-native red fire ant causes about $750 million of damage in the United States every year, the authors of the new study point out. And the Argentine ant has spread along thousands of miles of coastline in southern Europe, exterminating the natural insect fauna. In California, the Argentine ant armies have nearly wiped out all native ants.
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