Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha Paragraphs / January 8-9, 2014

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

77  Lihue, Kauai
80  Honolulu, Oahu
76  Molokai
79  Kahului, Maui
82  Kona, Hawaii
77  Hilo, Hawaii

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops on Maui and the Big Island…as of 810pm Wednesday evening:

Kaneohe, Oahu – 73
Kahului, Maui – 68

Haleakala Summit –   36 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 28 (13,000+ 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.

Aloha Paragraphs

>Off and on clouds and generally light showers for Oahu and Kauai,
a few elsewhere 

>Our recent cool north and northeast winds will be calming down
and warming up…as they shift to east and southeast
Thursday into Friday

>Looking ahead, there’s a good chance that we’ll see a wet weather
episode arriving this weekend… bringing rain and perhaps
a thunderstorm to our islands – stay tuned

The following numbers represent the most recent top wind gusts (mph), along with directions as of Wednesday evening:

25  Mana, Kauai – N
29  Makua Range, Oahu – ENE
21  Molokai – N
17  Lanai – NE
22  Kahoolawe – NNE
13  Hana, Maui – NW
25  Waikoloa, Big Island – NNE

Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Wednesday evening (545pm totals):

0.02  Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.35  Tunnel RG , Oahu
0.50  Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.21  Pukalani, Maui
0.41  Kawainui Stream – Big Island

We can use the following links to see what’s going on in our area of the north central Pacific Ocean. Here’s the latest NOAA satellite picture – the latest looping satellite image… and finally the latest looping radar image for the Hawaiian Islands.

~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~

Our winds will come in from the north-northeast…keeping a chill in the air for a short while longer. Here’s the latest weather map, showing the Hawaiian Islands, and the rest of the North Pacific Ocean. ~~~ We find high pressure systems over the ocean to the northwest and northeast of the state. At the same time, we see a low pressure trough just to the east, moving westward across our islands.  The recent chilly north and northeast winds will keep winter weather over our islands tonight. As we get into Thursday and Friday, and once this low pressure system gets to our west, our winds will calm down, warm up, and potentially bring volcanic haze our way. Thursday and most of Friday will be generally less cloudy, with a few showers along our windward sides…and perhaps over the leeward slopes during the afternoons.

Satellite imagery shows clouds over the ocean to the north and northeast of our islands. These low clouds are being carried towards us on the north-northeast wind flow. The bulk of them are now taking aim on Oahu and Kauai, at least at the time of this writing. Here’s the looping radar image, showing generally light showers falling over the ocean, being carried over parts of Oahu and Kauai.  Looking at this larger satellite image, which is in the looping mode, we can see the impressive area of clouds to the east and northeast of the state…along with the counter-clockwise rotating low pressure system as well. This upper level low pressure system appears to be stalling, keeping the heavy showers and thunderstorms at bay over the ocean to our east…another close call but no cigar! If this low pressure system were located to the west of the state, we would be getting heavy flooding rains, rather than the much lighter stuff we’ve seen!

Looking head, this surface low pressure trough will stall near Kauai Thursday into Friday, with the recent chilly winds easing up. These lighter winds, coupled with whatever moisture is still around, in addition to the daytime heating of the islands…may prompt a few afternoon clouds and a few showers over the next couple of days. Where these lighter breezes are blowing from the east, we might see a few windward biased showers as well. By the way, where southeast winds are blowing, and especially if they dip down to the Big Island, we could see volcanic haze venturing up through the smaller islands with time.  Then, this active winter weather pattern will return, as we find another low pressure system arriving over or near the state later in the day Friday…into this coming weekend. This will likely bring windy and rainy weather our way, along with a possible thunderstorm this weekend. It appears that Kauai and Oahu may take the brunt of this weekend’s wet weather episode, although other areas will likely get wet too.  ~~~ I’ll be back early Thursday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Wednesday night wherever you happen to be spending it. Aloha for now…Glenn.


World-wide tropical cyclone activity:

Atlantic Ocean: The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1st through November 30th. Here’s the 2013 hurricane season summary

Here’s a satellite image of the Atlantic Ocean

Caribbean Sea:

Gulf of Mexico:

Here’s a satellite image of the Caribbean Sea…and the Gulf of Mexico.

Here’s the link to the National Hurricane Center (NHC)

Eastern Pacific: The Eastern Pacific hurricane season runs from May 15th through November 30th. Here’s the 2013 hurricane season summary

Here’s a wide satellite image that covers the entire area between Mexico, out through the central Pacific…to the International Dateline.

Interesting: Volume of electronic waste set to rise by a third – The amount of electronic waste produced globally is set to grow by a third between 2012 and 2017, according to a forecast made by experts at a global partnership created to tackle e-waste.

The forecast was made as the Solving the E-Waste Problem (StEP) Initiative launched an interactive, online world map depicting the amount of electronic waste produced in different countries across the globe and a report showing the amount of e-waste shipped from the United States to developing countries.

On average, each person on the planet produced seven kilograms of e-waste in 2012, that is 48.9 million tons in total, and StEP estimates that this will rise to 65.4 million tons in 2017.

A lot of this potentially hazardous waste ends up in developing countries, where governments still do not pay enough attention to the rising problem, which also offers business opportunities, according to Ruediger Kuehr, executive secretary of StEP.

He tells SciDev.Net that the aim of the online map and the report, which were launched last month (16 December), is to allow governments, industry and other organizations to plan e-waste management and recycling of discarded mobile phones, laptops, televisions and computer monitors.

The map is based on 2012 data from 184 nations. As well as the amount of e-waste generated in each country, it shows how much electrical and electronic equipment was put on the market and contains national regulations regarding e-waste’s management.

Kuehr says he hopes the map will raise awareness of the scale of the problem of poor e-waste management, particularly in developing countries that lack regulations about the dismantling of these products.

The United States produced the largest total amount of e-waste in 2012 — nearly 9.4 million tons — followed by China, which generated almost 7.3 million tons.

Per capita, however, Qatar topped the list with 63 kilograms per person, nine times the world average, with the lowest global production per person coming from Ethiopia (680 grams), and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (210 grams).

US e-waste exports

The report on US e-waste generation and exports was written by experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States.

Mobile phones, televisions and computer monitors are the most common type of e-waste shipped from the United States, it finds.

Part of that electronic rubbish then travels illegally to developing countries, where it is dismantled “in conditions that could be hazardous to the workers, their health or the environment,” according to Jeremy Gregory, a co-author of the report.