Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs / April 8-9, 2011

Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Friday:

Lihue, Kauai –                    80
Honolulu airport, Oahu –      82
Kaneohe, Oahu –                78
Molokai airport –                   84
Kahului airport, Maui –         84
Kona airport –                     82
Hilo airport, Hawaii –           78

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops…as of 5pm Friday evening:

Barking Sands, Kauai – 80F
Hilo, Hawaii – 75

Haleakala Crater –     45 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea summit – 30 (over 13,500 feet on the Big Island)

Precipitation Totals – The following numbers represent the largest precipitation totals Friday evening:

0.19    Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.97    Hawaii Kai, Oahu
0.20    Molokai
0.19    Lanai 
0.00    Kahoolawe
4.56    Kaupo Gap, Maui
1.89    Hilo airport, Big Island

Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a large 1035 millibar high pressure system to the northeast of Hawaii. Our winds will blow from the east to southeast generally through Sunday.  

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 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 web cam on the summit of near 13,500 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 web cams 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. Of course, as we know, our hurricane season ended November 30th here in the central Pacific…and begins again June 1st.

 Aloha Paragraphs

Gradually improving weather
 
 

 

Generally light to moderate southeast winds will gradually give way to more typical easterly trade wind breezes this weekend into the early part of the new week ahead…then back to southeast by Tuesday or Wednesday.  According to this weather map, we find a large 1035 millibar high pressure system positioned to the northeast of the islands Friday night. Meanwhile, we have a weak trough of low pressure to our west. Looking at the isobaric lines around our islands, we find that our winds will remain southeast for the moment…then gradually veering back to the easterly trade wind direction Sunday onwards for a couple of days.

We have a small craft wind advisory active only around the the Big Island through early Saturday.  This is in addition to a wind advisory for the summits of Maui and the Big Island. We also have a winter storm warning for the tall peaks on the Big Island. The latest model output suggests that we'll find generally southeast winds blowing through Saturday.  Thereafter we’re expected to find a brief period of returning trade winds beginning Sunday, lasting through Monday and perhaps into Tuesday. Then, if the models are reading the future accurately, a deepening trough of low pressure will swing our winds back to the southeast by later Tuesday or Wednesday for several days. 

Light to moderately strong breezes will prevail…the following numbers represent the strongest gusts, along with directions Friday evening:

17 mph       Barking Sands, Kauai – SE
18              Waianae, Oahu – SE
08              Molokai 
29              Kahoolawe – SE
27              Lipoa, Maui – SE
07              Lanai Airport
30                South Point, Big Island – NE

We can use the following links to see what’s going on in our area of the north central Pacific Ocean Friday night.  This large University of Washington satellite image shows an extensive amount of moisture to the south…extending northward.  Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we see lots of multi-layered clouds out over the ocean and over the islands in places too…although it appears to be thinning now to some extent.  We can use this looping satellite image to see a dynamic stream of upper moisture into our area from the south.  Checking out this looping radar image shows light to moderately heavy showers surrounding all the islands, which are hitting and missing us in their travels on the south-southeast wind flow.

In conclusion: The atmosphere over the Hawaiian Islands remains moist and unstable Friday night…although is becoming less so.  As we move into Saturday, the moisture will still be around, although the threat of heavy showers will fade away. This doesn't mean that there won't be showers around, but just that they won't be heavy as over the last several days…when we had localized flooding rainfall and even thunderstorms. 

The models are still locked onto having a trough of low pressure deepening to the west by later next Tuesday or Wednesday. This in turn will veer our trade winds back to the southeast, putting us into a muggy reality, with possible volcanic haze showing up. We could see an associated increase in showers during the second half of the new work week ahead. Some of the computer models are showing an upper air trough of low pressure, with its associated cold air arriving during that same time…which could enhance our rainfall again then.

Since its Friday evening, I'm going to see a new film in Kahului. This is the opening night, so I'm hoping that it won't be sold out. It's called Hanna, starring Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, and Cate Blanchett…among others. The synopsis: Saoirse Ronan is a teenager, raised in isolation by her father to be the perfect assassin…who is sent into the world on a deadly mission. The critics are giving it a B grade, while the viewers are rewarding it with the same. I'll be back Saturday morning with my thoughts about this film. Here's a trailer if you are interested in checking it out.

~~~ Here in Kihei, Maui at around 535pm Friday evening, it's still quite cloudy pretty much everywhere here, with some showers falling around the edges…especially out along the windward side of east Maui, and along the leeward slopes of the Haleakala Crater too. I'm heading into Kahului now, and need to leave soon so I can grab a bit of dinner before the film starts. I'll look forward to catching up with you in the morning, when I'll have your next new weather narrative ready for the reading. I hope you have a great Friday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting:  Despite shifting into higher gear within the consumer's green conscience, hybrid vehicles are still tethered to the gas pump via a fuel-thirsty 100-year-old invention: the internal combustion engine. However, researchers at Michigan State University have built a prototype gasoline engine that requires no transmission, crankshaft, pistons, valves, fuel compression, cooling systems or fluids.

Their so-called Wave Disk Generator could greatly improve the efficiency of gas-electric hybrid automobiles and potentially decrease auto emissions up to 90 percent when compared with conventional combustion engines. The engine has a rotor that's equipped with wave-like channels that trap and mix oxygen and fuel as the rotor spins.

These central inlets are blocked off, building pressure within the chamber, causing a shock wave that ignites the compressed air and fuel to transmit energy. The Wave Disk Generator uses 60 percent of its fuel for propulsion; standard car engines use just 15 percent. As a result, the generator is 3.5 times more fuel efficient than typical combustion engines.

Interesting2: Converting forms of public transportation over to green technology is a great way of reducing the carbon emissions in a particular metropolitan area. To this effect, many cities around the world have invested in buses that utilize either hybrid systems or fully renewable fuel sources.

London in particular has been working on hybridizing their buses, but now has turned their attention to their famous black cabs. Last week, Intelligent Energy, a global clean power systems company, announced that several of their Fuel Cell Black Cab prototypes had begun operation on London streets.

The prototypes are designed to operate with a combination of fuel cell and electric motor technology to ensure that they give off virtually zero emissions during operation. According to Intelligent Energy, the prototypes have logged nearly 8000 hours in both test track and real world conditions and performed admirably in London traffic.

Intelligent Energy has also said that thanks to the specifications, the Fuel Cell Black Cabs have a range of about 250 miles and can reach a top speed of 81 miles per hour. Considering the fact that these cabs are going to be operating in a busy metropolitan area it seems unlikely that their top speed will ever need to be fully put to the test.

The Fuel Cell Black Cabs are a part of the overall plan put into place by Boris Johnson, London's mayor, to have an entire fleet of green black cabs by 2012. It is also a part of his plan to increase the support of fuel cell technology throughout the city by installing more hydrogen refueling stations.

Interesting3: The Senate rejected a measure on Wednesday to kill the Environmental Protection Agency's regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, handing President Barack Obama a victory in his effort to quicken the move to clean energy. The EPA's rules, which it began rolling out on polluters such as power plants and oil refineries early this year, are one of Obama's top strategies to show the world the United States is fighting climate change.

Republicans, who were able to block a climate and energy bill last year, hoped to pick up support from Democrats in energy-dependent states facing tight elections next year on the measure sponsored by Republican leader Mitch McConnell. But it got only 50 votes in the Democratic-led 100-member chamber, short of the 60 votes needed to pass.

"The Senate rejected an approach that would have increased the nation's dependence on oil, contradicted the scientific consensus on global warming, and jeopardized America's ability to lead the world in the clean energy economy," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

Obama has pledged to world leaders that the United States would cut emissions about 17 percent by 2020 under 2005 levels. The EPA rules could help that effort, though it may also take faster adoption of clean energy like wind and solar power, and natural gas, and energy efficiency.

The battle over the EPA's moves to curb emissions is likely to continue in Congress ahead of the 2012 elections. Republicans, and some Democrats from states heavily dependent on energy, warn the cost of the regulations could hurt businesses recovering from the economic downturn.

They may take up the fight later this year, possibly by making EPA rules part of the upcoming 2012 budget debate, analysts said. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives is widely expected to pass a similar bill that would stop the EPA's rules, but analysts said it would largely be a symbolic show of force after the Senate vote on Wednesday.

Interesting4: The growing quantity of space debris is a serious threat to satellites and other spacecraft, which risk being damaged or even destroyed. A new European space surveillance system is being developed to ward off the danger of collisions in orbit. Fraunhofer researchers are supplying the receiver for the radar demonstrator system.

Orbital space is like a busy highway, with countless satellites constantly circling Earth and occasional visits by stray asteroids, comets and meteorites. The region is also strewn with debris from human space activities such as burnt-out rocket stages and fragments of disintegrated spacecraft, which are transforming it into an orbiting junk yard.

It is estimated that there are currently around 20,000 objects with a minimum diameter of ten centimeters in orbit around Earth, including 15,000 in the low Earth orbit at an altitude of between 200 and 2,000 kilometers.

These objects travel at a speed of up to 28,000 kilometers per hour, which means even the smallest particles measuring a centimeter or less in diameter are capable of causing serious damage to any satellite they encounter, or even completely destroying it. Only two years ago, in February 2009, a retired satellite collided with one of the Iridium communication satellites.

The International Space Station ISS has to perform four to five evasive maneuvers each year. In the light of this potentially disastrous situation, the European Space Agency ESA decided to take concrete action by launching a Space Situational Awareness (SSA) program, which runs from 2009 through to the end of 2011, to create the basic framework for a new, European response to this problem.

At present, Europe does not possess the necessary high-resolution radar systems capable of tracking all of the smaller items of space debris. For this, the experts have to rely on data supplied by the American Space Surveillance Network. The new European system is to be built up in stages between 2012 and 2019 at locations that have yet to be defined.

Interesting5: Contagious yawning is not just a marker of sleepiness or boredom. For chimpanzees, it may actually be a sign of a social connection between individuals. New research at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, may help scientists understand empathy, the mechanism thought to underlie contagious yawning, in both chimpanzees and humans.

The research also may help show how social biases strengthen or weaken empathy. Scientists at Yerkes discovered chimpanzees yawn more after watching familiar chimpanzees yawn than after watching strangers yawn. The Public Library of Science One (PLoS ONE) published the study online April 6, 2011.

Yerkes researchers Matthew Campbell, PhD, and Frans de Waal, PhD, propose that when yawning spreads between chimpanzees, it reflects an underlying empathy between them. "The idea is that yawns are contagious for the same reason that smiles, frowns and other facial expressions are contagious," they write.

"Our results support the idea that contagious yawning can be used as a measure of empathy, because the biases we observed were similar to empathy biases previously seen in humans." Campbell is a FIRST postdoctoral fellow at Yerkes and Emory (Fellowship in Research and Science Teaching). De Waal is director of the Living Links Center at Yerkes and C.H. Candler Professor of Psychology at Emory.

They studied 23 adult chimpanzees that were housed in two separate groups. The chimpanzees viewed several nine-second video clips of other chimpanzees, in both groups, either yawning or doing something else. They yawned 50 percent more frequently in response to seeing members of their group yawn compared to seeing others yawn.

In humans, scientists have identified certain parts of the brain that are activated both when someone experiences pain and when they see someone else experiencing pain. In these experiments, people tend to show more sensitivity for members of the same social group. The results raise the question of whether contagious yawning among humans shows the same biases: favoring members of the same social group over different social groups.

The authors note one complication: chimpanzees live in small communities where unfamiliar individuals are by definition seen as members of a separate social group. In contrast, humans do not necessarily see strangers as belonging to an "outgroup." For this reason, the in-group/out-group distinction may be more absolute in chimpanzees than in humans.

Chimpanzees in the wild are known to be extremely hostile to external groups, which probably adds to the effects found in this study. The authors say that contagious yawning could be a window into social and emotional connections between individuals, and suggest that insight into barriers to chimpanzee empathy may help break down those barriers for humans.

"Empathy is difficult to measure directly because it is a largely internal response: mimicking the emotional response of another. Contagious yawning allows for a measurement of empathic response that is purely behavioral, and thus can be applied more widely," Campbell writes. "Anyone who wants to increase human empathy towards outsiders should consider that techniques to this effect could be tested out on chimpanzees and other animals."