December 8-9 2008
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Monday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 78
Honolulu, Oahu – 82
Kaneohe, Oahu – 79
Kahului, Maui – 85
Hilo, Hawaii – 80
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:
Kailua-kona – 80F
Lihue, Kauai – 74F
Haleakala Crater – 52 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 41 (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:
0.18 Mount Waialaele, Kauai
0.32 Manoa Lyon Aroretum, Oahu
0.00 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.24 West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.18 Glenwood, Big Island
Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a shear line has stalled north of the islands, and will weaken later today. A strong low will develop far northwest of the state Wednesday, and will push a front across Kauai Thursday. The low will move northwest, and the front will weaken, Friday and 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
Aloha Paragraphs
Humpback whales…offshore from Maui
Photo Credit: Flikr.com
We’ll find generally light trade winds blowing, gradually turning to the southeast Tuesday. A high pressure ridge remains to the northeast of our islands Monday evening, which will allow the light trade winds to continue for a while longer. A frontal cloud band will get closer to Kauai, but stall before arriving. This however will turn our winds to the southeast, which may pull up volcanic haze from the Big Island…over other parts of the state eventually. Kona winds will become stronger from the south and southwest later Wednesday over Kauai and Oahu, as a deep low pressure system moves into place northwest of the islands. This low will cause unsettled weather, at times quite gusty later Wednesday into Friday, perhaps into Saturday…especially on the Kauai end of the island chain.
The atmosphere will remain quite dry and stable for the time being, limiting our showers everywhere through the better part of Tuesday. There may be a few windward biased showers through this period, but nothing much. There may be an increase in showers on Kauai or even Oahu…perhaps as early as Tuesday afternoon. We’ll see increased moisture being drawn-up over that end of the state on the strengthening south to southwest Kona winds later Wednesday into Friday. This will bring locally heavy rain over Kauai and Oahu, which may or may not reach the other islands. The weather conditions this coming weekend seem to be edging towards improving weather later Saturday into Sunday…into early next week.
This satellite image, shows the high level cirrus clouds dropping southward over the islands now. These icy clouds are famous for bringing colorful sunset and sunrise colors to Hawaii…keep an eye out!
It’s early Monday evening here in Kihei, Maui. This new work week will start off in a gentle way, then end up wet and windy! The second half of this week will see a definite increase in rainfall, and strong and gusty winds, starting later Wednesday into Friday…particularly over Kauai and Oahu. We’ll find these gusty winds streaming up from the deeper tropics, which will be carrying off and on heavy precipitation our way for several days. What’s called a Kona low pressure system, is modeled to form to the northwest of Kauai by Wednesday morning. This deep low pressure system will push a vigorous Pacific cold front down into the state Thursday and Friday, with heavy rainfall and strong and gusty winds ahead of, and along its boundary. This will bring inclement weather conditions over us, and definitely catch our attention…again especially over Kauai and Oahu! ~~~ The latest computer forecast models are starting to edge this inclement weather system a bit further to the west. This in turn puts the Big Island end of the island chain somewhat less in threat of the gusty winds and heavy rains. This may change over the next couple of days, but for now it looks like Maui and the Big Island will see less rainfall in general. ~~~ The satellite image just up the page from here (actually just above this long paragraph) shows considerable high cirrus clouds dropping down over the state. Looking out the window at the moment, those cirrus clouds have gotten much thicker than they were this morning. Monday was a pretty nice day, although as we move forward, conditions will be breaking down, as the Kona low pressure system gets closer by mid-week. This situation warrants a close inspection, and I will remain focused on this event like a hawk from here on out. I will return very early Tuesday morning with more information on this, bringing you up to speed in that regard then. I hope you have a great Monday night! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting: The planet’s present day greenhouse problem, carbon dioxide, may have played a vital role in helping ancient Earth to escape from complete glaciation, say scientists in a paper published online today. In their review for Nature Geoscience, UK scientists claim that the Earth never froze over completely during the Cryogenian Period, about 840 to 635 million years ago. This is contrary to the Snowball Earth hypothesis, which envisages a fully frozen Earth that was locked in ice for many millions of years as a result of a runaway chain reaction that caused the planet to cool. What enabled the Earth to escape from a complete freeze is not certain, but the UK scientists in their review point to recent research carried out at the University of Toronto.
This speculates that the advancing ice was stalled by the interaction of the physical climate system and the carbon cycle of the ocean, with carbon dioxide playing a key role in insulating the planet. The Toronto scientists say that as Earth’s temperatures cooled, oxygen was drawn into the ocean, where it oxidized organic matter, releasing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The review’s lead author, Professor Phillip Allen, from Imperial College London’s Department of Earth Science and Engineering, says that something must have kept the planet’s equatorial oceans from freezing over. He adds: “In the climate change game, carbon dioxide can be both saint and sinner. These days we are so concerned about global warming and the harm that carbon dioxide is doing to our planet. However, approximately 600 million years ago, this greenhouse gas probably saved ancient Earth and its basic life forms from an icy extinction.
Interesting2: Scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego returning from research expeditions in Mexico, have captured unprecedented details of vibrant sea life and ecosystems in the Gulf of California, including documentations of new species and marine animals previously never seen alive. Yet the expeditions, which included surveys at unexplored depths, have revealed disturbing declines in sea-life populations and evidence that human impacts have stretched down deeply in the gulf. In one expedition, researchers Exequiel Ezcurra (adjunct professor at Scripps Oceanography and former provost of the San Diego Natural History Museum), Brad Erisman (Scripps postdoctoral researcher) and Octavio Aburto-Oropeza (graduate student researcher) traveled on a three-person submarine to explore marine life in the Gulf of California’s deep-sea reefs and around undersea mountains called seamounts. The DeepSee submersible gave the researchers unique access to environments below 50 meters (164 feet), depths virtually unknown in the gulf because of their inaccessibility below scuba diving levels. “Our investigation resulted in many new discoveries, which included new species of invertebrates and possibly fishes,” said Erisman. “Similarly, we collected and observed species that had not been recorded in the gulf, had never been observed alive or had never been observed at such depths."
Interesting3: Enormous cave bears, Ursus spelaeus, that once inhabited a large swathe of Europe, from Spain to the Urals, died out 27,800 years ago, around 13 millennia earlier than was previously believed, scientists have reported. The new date coincides with a period of significant climate change, known as the Last Glacial Maximum, when a marked cooling in temperature resulted in the reduction or loss of vegetation forming the main component of the cave bears’ diet. In a study published in Boreas, researchers suggest it was this deterioration in food supply that led to the extinction of the cave bear, one of a group of ‘megafauna’ – including woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, giant deer and cave lion – to disappear during the last Ice Age. They found no convincing evidence of human involvement in the disappearance of these bears. The team used both new data and existing records of radiocarbon dating on cave bear remains to construct their chronology for cave bear extinction. "Our work shows that the cave bear, among the megafauna that became extinct during the Last Glacial period in Europe, was one of the earliest to disappear," said Dr Martina Pacher of the Department of Palaeontology at the University of Vienna. "Other, later extinctions happened at different times within the last 15,000 years.
Interesting4: University of California, Berkeley, researchers have shown for the first time that the brains of low-income children function differently from the brains of high-income kids. In a study recently accepted for publication in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, scientists at UC Berkeley’s Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute and the School of Public Health report that normal 9- and 10-year-olds differing only in socioeconomic status have detectable differences in the response of their prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that is critical for problem solving and creativity.
Brain function was measured by means of an electroencephalograph (EEG) – basically, a cap fitted with electrodes to measure electrical activity in the brain – like that used to assess epilepsy, sleep disorders and brain tumors. "Kids from lower socioeconomic levels show brain physiology patterns similar to someone who actually had damage in the frontal lobe as an adult," said Robert Knight, director of the institute and a UC Berkeley professor of psychology. "We found that kids are more likely to have a low response if they have low socioeconomic status, though not everyone who is poor has low frontal lobe response.
Interesting5: The world economy will likely feel the impact of the global financial turmoil for another three years at least, the 2008 winner of the Nobel economics prize, Paul Krugman, said. "We could easily be talking about a world economy that is depressed into 2011 and even beyond," the Princeton University professor and New York Times columnist said in Stockholm, where he will receive his Nobel prize this week. "The scenario I fear is that we’ll see for the whole world the equivalent of Japan’s lost decade in the 1990s, that we’ll see a world of zero interest rates and inflation and no sign of recovery and it will just go on for a very, very extended period," he said. "On top of that, we’ll have a series of extremely severe crises in particular countries in trouble," he predicted, pointing out that "we certainly see the roots of … Argentina- or Indonesia-style crises … particularly in the European periphery."
As for the United States, Professor Krugman, who has previously said a stimulus plan of at least 4 per cent of the US gross domestic product is needed next year, said today that amount might not be enough. "If you’re serious about the size of the hole that needs to be filled, that’s actually modest," he said, stressing that amount "is not enough to prevent a further decline in the economy. It’s enough to prevent a sharp decline". The falling US housing market, which triggered the global financial crisis, will probably continue to weaken, he said, pointing out that recent estimates show "we have another 10 to 15 per cent to go". Prof Krugman, who won the Nobel prize for his work on the impact of free trade and globalisation, said Washington should not hesitate to spend on infrastructure that would provide long-term benefit to the country, even if it means running up a high deficit in the short term.
Interesting6: Uniquely old tree remains have recently been uncovered by the thawing of the rapidly shrinking Kårsa Glacier west of Abisko in Lapland, in northernmost Sweden. The finds show that in the last 7,000 years it has probably never been so warm as during the last century. “If the area hadn’t been covered by a glacier all these thousands of years, these tree remnants would never have made it. The finds yield information indicating that the 20th century was probably the warmest century in 7,000 years. The fact that the climate is so unique during the last century means that we must question whether this could be 100 percent the result of natural mechanisms,” says Leif Kullman, professor of physical geography, who is directing the project.
Pines and birches grew on the site of the glacier during parts of or perhaps the entire period between 11,800 and 7,000 years ago. This is shown by carbon 14 dating of the remains of trees that have now been uncovered. During that period, the glacier did not continuously exist, and the climate was warmer than at any time afterward. All in all, there are four finds, parts of birch and pine trunks, that have been uncovered under the shrinking glacier in the Lapland mountains. In most cases they are well preserved, but they are degrading rapidly as they come in contact with air and water. As early as 2003, tree remnants of a similar age were found in Sylarna, in Jämtland province. They have completely crumbled into dust at this point. The warmer climate during the last century, which is the reason the tree remnants have now seen the light of day, may therefore be unique in the perspective of many millennia.
Interesting7: On Dec. 31 this year, your day will be just a second longer. Like the more well-known time adjustment, the leap year, a "leap second" is tacked on to clocks every so often to keep them correct. Earth’s trip around the sun — our year with all its seasons — is about 365.2422 days long, which we round to 365 to keep things simpler. But every four years, we add 0.2422 x 4 days (that’s about one day) at the end of the month of February (extending it from 28 to 29 days) to fix the calendar. Likewise, a "leap second" is added on to our clocks every so often to keep them in synch with the somewhat unpredictable nature of our planet’s rotation, the roughly 24-hour whirl that brings the sun into the sky each morning. Historically, time was based on the mean rotation of the Earth relative to celestial bodies and the second was defined from this frame of reference.
But the invention of atomic clocks brought about a definition of a second that is independent of the Earth’s rotation and based on a regular signal emitted by electrons changing energy state within an atom. In 1970, an international agreement established two timescales: one based on the rotation of the Earth and one based on atomic time. The problem is that the Earth is very gradually slowing down, continually throwing the two timescales out of synch, so every so often, a "leap second" has to be tacked on to the atomic clock. The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service is the organization that monitors the difference in the two timescales and calls for leap seconds to be inserted or removed when necessary. Since 1972, leap seconds have been added at intervals varying from six months to seven years — the most recent was inserted on Dec. 31, 2005.
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