Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha paragraphs / February 8-9, 2012

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

Lihue, Kauai –                     76  
Honolulu airport, Oahu –       78  
Kaneohe, Oahu –                 76
Molokai airport –                  74
Kahului airport, Maui –         79  (Record high temperature on this date – 88F – 1980) 
Kona airport –                       79 
Hilo airport, Hawaii –            79   (Record high temperature on this date – 85F – 1950) 

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

Kailua-kona, Hawaii – 76
Princeville, Kauai – 68

Haleakala Crater –  39 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea –         28 (near 13,800 feet on the Big Island)

Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live web cam on the summit of near 13,800 foot Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. This web cam is available during the daylight hours here in the islands…and when there’s a big moon shining down during the night at times. Plus, during the nights you will be able to see stars, and the sunrise and sunset too…depending upon weather conditions. Here's the Haleakala Crater webcam on Maui.

 Aloha Paragraphs

 
  Gusty winds over the Big Island summits –
  large surf on our north and west shores –
  Cool northerly winds blowing through the islands –
improving weather with moderately strong and
gusty trade winds, and smaller surf
  soon…increasing windward
  showers arriving this weekend

As this weather map shows, we have low pressure systems to the north through northeast of the islands, with an weakening cold front to the southeast of the Big Island.   At the same time, we have high pressure systems far to the east-northeast, and another cell far to the west-northwest. Our winds are will moderately strong, gusty and cool from the north tonight, becoming northeast later Thursday.

The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph), along with directions Wednesday evening:

18                 Barking Sands, Kauai – NNW 
27                 Honolulu, Oahu – NW
23                 Molokai – NNW    
35                    Kahoolawe – NNE  
25                 Kapalua, Maui – N  
17                 Lanai – NW
30                 Hilo airport, Big Island – NNW 

We can use the following links to see what’s going on in our area of the north central Pacific Ocean Wednesday evening.  Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we clouds associated with the recent cold front offshore to the southeast of the Big Island, which stretch back over that island. We can use this looping satellite image to see the cold front continuing to move southeast away from of the islands. At the same time we see stable low clouds moving into the state from the northwest. Checking out this looping radar image we see generally light showers arriving in the wake of the recent frontal passage.

Here are the 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Wednesday evening:

0.29               Kilohana, Kauai
0.21               Schofield Barracks, Oahu
0.30               Molokai
0.09               Kahoolawe
0.77               Puu Kukui, Maui
0.95                 Kahua Ranch, Big Island  

Sunset Commentary:  The cold front that pushed through the islands yesterday into last night, continues to move away to the southeast of the Big Island. The residual showers behind the departing front are still falling locally over the state…on the gusty northwest winds. These chilly winds will gradually turn more to the north to northeast through the night, bringing more cool weather into the state Thursday. Friday will gradually find warmer trade winds, which will continue through the weekend into early next week. There will continue to be a few passing showers, which will increase to some degree along our windward sides this weekend.

Here in my Kula, Maui weather tower at 810pm HST, we have northerly breezes…with a cool air temperature of 52.7F degrees.  Here's a satellite image showing the departing cold front offshore to the southeast of the Big Island. Here's a looping satellite image so we can see this front continuing to move away, and with stable low clouds flooding into the state in the wake of the front, riding in on the cool and gusty north-northwest winds. Here's a looping radar image so we can see the few light showers moving through the state.

We can look for continued cool weather tonight into Thursday, as the winds arrive from the north-northwest turn gradually to the north-northeast. These locally gusty winds will gradually swing further clockwise, around to a more classic trade wind direction by Friday, which will begin to warm us up again. Today was chilly, with none of the sea level observation stations reaching 80F degrees, which definitely qualifies as cooler than normal. Several areas couldn't even push past the middle 70F's. Here in Kula, at the 3,100 foot elevation, we hovered around 60 degrees all day, with those occasional light passing showers…brrr! It was a great example of a winter day, which will stretch into Thursday.

By the way, the very large surf today will gradually be lowering through the night into Thursday, although will fall only into the still large realms along our north shores. This big stuff will continue to lower in height until Sunday, when the next northwest swell will arrive along our north and west facing shores. It would be wise to keep an eye on the surf again early Thursday morning, at least if you live along the north shores, when the next high tide arrives. ~~~ I'd also recommend that folks be looking for that extra blanket before going to bed tonight, as it will be nippy, especially if the clouds decide to clear a bit towards morning. Here in Kula, I'll be wearing my wool socks to bed, and having that warm down comforter right up over my ears, as I keep all my windows open…no matter how cold it gets! You might wonder why does he keep his windows open on even cold nights? Well, granted that's a good question, perhaps the best answer might be that I feel it my duty to remain as close to weather as I can in life…which I've been doing since I was a very young boy. Kden, I hope you have a great Wednesday night, and I'll be back early Thursday morning with you next new weather narrative! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Extra: cool music video, Hall & Oates…Sara Smile

Interesting:  The current trend of increasing ocean acidification, which threatens fisheries around the world, is driven mainly by man-made changes and is higher even than that seen at the end of the last ice age, some 11,000 year ago, a study has said. Much of the carbon released by human activity ends up in the oceans, increasing their acidity and reducing the growth of corals and molluscs, which in turn may affect fisheries and aquaculture.

Fisheries in the Pacific and the Caribbean may suffer the most — in these regions, man-made acidification has already caused a 30-fold increase in the natural variation in ocean acidity, according to a study published in Nature Climate Change last month (22 January).

Regional acidification far exceeds pre-industrial levels, and coral calcification (growth) rates may have fallen by 15 per cent in the western tropical Pacific and the Caribbean, the study shows.

Interesting2:  (Commentary) Pointing out the similarities (and differences) between slavery and the use of fossil fuels can help us engage with climate change in a new way, says Jean-François Mouhot, visiting researcher at Georgetown University, USA. In 2005, while teaching history at a French university, I was struck by the general disbelief among students that rational and sensitive human beings could ever hold others in bondage. Slavery was so obviously evil that slave-holders could only have been barbarians.

My students could not entertain the idea that some slave-owners could have been genuinely blind to the harm they were doing. At the same time, I was reading a book on climate change which noted how today's machinery — almost exclusively powered by fossil fuels like coal and oil — does the same work that used to be done by slaves and servants.

"Energy slaves" now do our laundry, cook our food, transport us, entertain us, and do most of the hard work needed for our survival. Intriguing similarities between slavery and our current dependence on fossil-fuel-powered machines struck me: both perform roughly the same functions in society (doing the hard and dirty work that no one wants to do), both were considered for a long time to be acceptable by the majority and both came to be increasingly challenged as the harm they caused became more visible.

The history of slavery and its abolition shows how blurred the frontier between what is considered good and evil can be, and how quickly it can shift. We have a mental image of slave-owners as cruel, sadistic, inhuman brutes, and forget too easily the ordinariness of slave ownership throughout the world. To many, slavery seemed normal and indispensable. In the US, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson owned slaves.

Lifestyles and healthy incomes were predicated upon it, just as we today depend on oil. Similarly, many slave-owners lived with the impression that they were decent people. Obviously, there are differences between the use of slaves and of fossil fuels. Fundamentally, slavery is a crime against humanity.

Fossil fuel use is not a moral evil, but burning coal or oil contributes to global warming, already causing widespread harm: it now directly or indirectly kills 150,000 people per year according to a 2004 World Health Organisation study. States and energy companies' lust for oil also leads to wars and the toppling of democratically elected governments.

Our addiction to fossil fuel is increasingly destructive. Unlike the harm caused by slavery, the harm in the use of fossil fuels is of course indirect, long range, even unintended. It seems at first glance to be a fundamentally different kind of harm, and the unintended consequences of ongoing use of fossil fuels have only recently become understood. Initially, their use was seen as positive and progressive.

But now that we know the consequences, and continue, globally, to increase emission levels, how can we still consider these consequences "unintended"? Consumers of goods made by slaves or absentee plantation owners who lived in Britain in the 18th century also benefited from the slave system without maintaining direct connections to it.

Those beneficiaries can certainly be said to have committed a morally comparable sort of human transgression to that of people who benefit from fossil fuels today.