October 13-14, 2009
Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Tuesday afternoon:
Lihue, Kauai – 82
Honolulu, Oahu – 85
Kaneohe, Oahu – 81
Kaunakakai, Molokai – 84
Kahului, Maui – 85
Hilo, Hawaii – 81
Kailua-kona – 87
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level around the state – and on the highest mountains…at 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon:
Kailua-kona – 85F
Hilo, Hawaii – 78
Haleakala Crater – 55 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 46 (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:
0.46 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.89 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.03 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.37 West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.68 Mountain View, Big Island
Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a 1019 millibar high pressure system to the west-northwest of the islands…moving away towards the west. At the same time, we find an approaching cold front pushing this departing high pressure cell’s ridge down towards the islands. Our local trade winds giving way to lighter winds Wednesday into Thursday.
Satellite and Radar Images: To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with this 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 Pacific Ocean. Finally, here’s a Looping IR satellite image, making viewable the clouds around the islands 24 hours a day. To help you keep track of where any showers may be around the islands, here’s the latest animated radar image.
Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of near 14,000 foot Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. The tallest peak on the island of Maui is the Haleakala Crater, which is near 10,000 feet in elevation. These two webcams are available during the daylight hours here in the islands…and when there’s a big moon rising just after sunset for an hour or two! Plus, during the nights and early mornings you will be able to see stars, and the sunrise too…depending upon weather conditions.
Tropical Cyclone activity in the eastern and central Pacific – Here’s the latest weather information coming out of the National Hurricane Center, covering the eastern north Pacific. You can find the latest tropical cyclone information for the central north Pacific (where Hawaii is located) by clicking on this link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. Here’s a tracking map covering both the eastern and central Pacific Ocean. A satellite image, which shows the entire ocean area between Hawaii and the Mexican coast…can be found here.
Aloha Paragraphs
The utmost in tropical visions!
The trade winds blew during the day Tuesday, although will be mostly gone…for several days. What is causing this faltering of the trade winds, is an approaching cold front from the north. Using this weather map, we can see the parent low pressure system, for this cold front, just offshore from the west coast. This storm is bringing wet and windy weather all along the California coast. Tuesday evening we have a 1019 millibar high pressure system positioned west-northwest of
As the trade winds falter, we’ll find muggy conditions, associated with what we call a convective weather pattern…settling into our area Wednesday through Friday. As the islands heat up during the days, this causes onshore flowing sea breezes to begin blowing lightly. This in turn carries moisture inland over the islands, which cools and condenses into clouds along the upcountry slopes during the afternoon hours. This time around, it appears that there won’t be all that many showers, and likely nothing overly heavy is anticipated either. These clouds will however look rather threatening, and may spread down towards the coasts during the afternoon hours locally.
Looking a bit further ahead, after the sultry light wind episode that we have coming up…the trade winds will return for the weekend. This will ventilate our stagnant air mass, which by the way, might be rather hazy (some of which may be volcanic in origin) after several days without our typical trade wind flow. Meanwhile, that next cold front mentioned above, will continue pushing our way. It appears that the frontal cloud band may reach Kauai by Friday. It might bring some showers to that northern island, before dissipating going into the weekend. As the front loses its influence, we’ll find returning trade winds bringing relief from the sultry weather conditions beginning Saturday. We may see a few windward biased showers beginning to fall then too.
It’s that time of the year again, when I’ll be taking my annual vacation to the mainland…once again to California. I’ll be leaving next Monday, and be gone for about three weeks. I’ll be visiting my good friends, and also spending some quality time with my family in Long Beach as well. This will be a time when I renew my batteries, and spend time away from my weather schedule here in the islands. I’ll have more to say about this going forward, but just wanted to give you a heads up ahead of time. I’ll probably leave this paragraph here, so that those who drop by every few days, will know of my plans, and won’t be surprised.
It’s early Tuesday evening here in Kihei, Maui, as I begin writing this last section of today’s narrative update. Tuesday saw the combination of trade wind weather, and the start of a convective weather pattern. So, we saw some showers spilling along the windward sides in places, and over the leeward slopes during the afternoons too. The emphasis will more fully shift over to the leeward clouds starting Wednesday, with most of whatever showers that fall, dropping over the upcountry sections during the afternoons then. This convective weather pattern will last through the end of the work week…at which point the trade winds will return this weekend. ~~~ I’m heading back upcountry now, up into the clouds that are still hugging the slopes of Haleakala. I’ll be back early Wednesday morning with your next new weather narrative, at which point the day should start off quite clearly. I hope you have a great Tuesday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting: Known to science only by two specimens described in 1900, a critically endangered crow has re-emerged on a remote, mountainous Indonesian island thanks in part to a Michigan State University scientist. The Banggai Crow was believed by many to be extinct until Indonesian biologists finally secured two new specimens on Peleng Island in 2007. Pamela Rasmussen, an MSU assistant professor of zoology and renowned species sleuth, provided conclusive verification.
An ornithologist who specializes on the birds of southern Asia, Rasmussen studied the two century-old specimens known as Corvus unicolor in New York’s American Museum of Natural History. She compared them to the new crow specimens in Indonesia’s national museum, to lay to rest speculation that they were merely a subspecies of a different crow. The more common Slender-billed Crow, or Corvus enca, also is found in the Banggai Islands, and likewise is all black.
"The morphometric analysis I did shows that all four unicolor specimens are very similar to each other, and distinctly different from enca specimens. We also showed that the two taxa differ in eye color — an important feature in Corvus," Rasmussen said. "Not only did this confirm the identity of the new specimens but also the specific distinctness of Corvus unicolor, which has long been in doubt."
The rediscovery was spearheaded by professor Mochamad Indrawan of the University of Indonesia, chairperson of the Indonesian Ornithologists’ Union, who conducted ecological field studies. He was assisted by collaborator Yunus Masala and by the Celebes Bird Club, members of which secured the new specimens that are now catalogued at the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense in Java.
Interesting2: Five giant non-native snake species would pose high risks to the health of ecosystems in the United States should they become established here, according to a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) report. The USGS report details the risks of nine non-native boa, anaconda and python species that are invasive or potentially invasive in the United States.
Because all nine species share characteristics associated with greater risks, none was found to be a low ecological risk. Two of these species are documented as reproducing in the wild in South Florida, with population estimates for Burmese pythons in the tens of thousands.
Based on the biology and known natural history of the giant constrictors, individuals of some species may also pose a small risk to people, although most snakes would not be large enough to consider a person as suitable prey.
Mature individuals of the largest species—Burmese, reticulated, and northern and southern African pythons—have been documented as attacking and killing people in the wild in their native range, though such unprovoked attacks appear to be quite rare, the report authors wrote.
The snake most associated with unprovoked human fatalities in the wild is the reticulated python. The situation with human risk is similar to that experienced with alligators: attacks in the wild are improbable but possible.
“This report clearly reveals that these giant snakes threaten to destabilize some of our most precious ecosystems and parks, primarily through predation on vulnerable native species,” said Dr. Robert Reed, a coauthor of the report and a USGS invasive species scientist and herpetologist.
High-risk species—Burmese pythons, northern and southern African pythons, boa constrictors and yellow anacondas—put larger portions of the U.S. mainland at risk, constitute a greater ecological threat, or are more common in trade and commerce. Medium-risk species—reticulated python, Deschauensee’s anaconda, green anaconda and Beni anaconda—constitute lesser threats in these areas, but still are potentially serious threats.
Interesting3: Retirees who transition from full-time work into a temporary or part-time job experience fewer major diseases and are able to function better day-to-day than people who stop working altogether, according to a national study. And the findings were significant even after controlling for people’s physical and mental health before retirement.
The study’s authors refer to this transition between career and complete retirement as "bridge employment," which can be a part-time job, self-employment or a temporary job. The findings are reported in the October issue of the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association.
"Given the economic recession, we will probably see more people considering post-retirement employment," said co-author Mo Wang, PhD, of the University of Maryland. "These findings highlight bridge employment’s potential benefits." For this study, Wang and his fellow researchers looked at the national Health and Retirement Study, which is sponsored by the National Institute on Aging.
They used data from 12,189 participants who were between the ages of 51 and 61 at the beginning of the study. The participants were interviewed every two years over a six-year period beginning in 1992 about their health, finances, employment history and work or retirement life.
In order to measure the respondents’ health over the course of the study, the researchers considered only physician-diagnosed health problems, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, lung disease, heart disease, stroke and psychiatric problems.
They controlled not only for baseline physical and mental health but also for age, sex, education level, and total financial wealth. The results showed the retirees who continued to work in a bridge job experienced fewer major diseases and fewer functional limitations than those who fully retired.
Interesting4: "What happened to global warming?" read the headline – on BBC News on Oct. 9, no less. Consider it a cataclysmic event: Mainstream news organizations have begun reporting on scientific research that suggests that global warming may not be caused by man and may not be as dire and imminent as alarmists suggest.
Indeed, as the BBC’s climate correspondent Paul Hudson reported, the warmest year recorded globally "was not in 2008 or 2007, but 1998." It’s true, he continued, "For the last 11 years, we have not observed any increase in global temperatures."
At a London conference later this month, Hudson reported, solar scientist Piers Corbyn will present evidence that solar-charged particles have a big impact on global temperatures. Western Washington University geologist Don J. Easterbrook presented research last year that suggests that the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) caused warmer temperatures in the 1980s and 1990s.
With Pacific sea surface temperatures cooling, Easterbrook expects 30 years of global cooling. EPA analyst Alan Carlin – an MIT-trained economist with a degree in physics – referred to "solar variability" and Easterbrook’s work in a document that warned that politics had prompted the Environmental Protection Agency and countries to pay "too little attention to the science of global warming" as partisans ignored the lack of global warming over the past 10 years.
At first the EPA buried the paper, then it permitted Carlin to post it on his personal Web site. In May, Fortune reported on the testimony of John Christy, University of Alabama-Huntsville Earth System Science Center director, before the House Ways and Means Committee. Christy is a 2001 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report signatory who believes human effects have a warming influence, but rejects the disaster scenarios.
As Christy told the committee, climate models rely on land temperature data that are distorted and exaggerated by surface development – that is, asphalt and buildings. In a nice bit of research, Christy, who is also the Alabama state climatologist, debunked the temperature increase predictions made by NASA scientist James Hansen in 1988.
"The real atmosphere," Christy testified, "has many ways to respond to the changes that the extra CO2 is forcing upon it." Add Christy, Easterbrook and Corbyn to the long list of scientists who see climate as a complex issue rather than an opportunity to sermonize and lecture the general public.
Over the years, global warming alarmists have sought to stifle debate by arguing that there was no debate. They bullied dissenters and ex-communicated nonbelievers from their panels. In the name of science, disciples made it a virtue to not recognize the existence of scientists such as MIT’s Richard Lindzen and Colorado State University’s William Gray.
For a long time, that approach worked. But after 11 years without record temperatures that had the seas spilling over the Statue of Liberty’s toes, they are going to have to change tactics. They’re going to have to rely on real data, not failed models and scare stories, and the Big Lie that everyone who counts agrees with them.
Interesting5: Australian voters no longer see the environment as the top policy issue, but the government remained committed Tuesday to an emissions trading scheme which, if defeated in November, could see a snap election. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was swept to power on his promise to tackle climate change in 2007, but a new opinion poll on Tuesday found that saving jobs was now the top priority for Australians and fighting climate change had fallen to seventh.
"Climate change continues to drop as a priority for Australians," said the fifth annual "Australia and the World" poll by the Sydney-based Lowy Institute for International Policy. "In 2007, Australians ranked tackling climate change as the equal most important foreign policy goal.
This year it ranked seventh out of 10 possible goals, down 10 points since last year and 19 points since 2007." Climate Change Minister Penny Wong dismissed the poll and said the government would press ahead with its emissions trading scheme (ETS).
"Our policy is not determined by polls," she told radio, adding the government would act in the national interest. The legislation has already been rejected once by the Senate and if defeated again would give Rudd, who has a commanding lead in opinion polls, a trigger for a snap election.
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