Monthly Archives: December 2016

Example of Radar Beam Ducting

Reflectivity image from the Kohala radar showing trade wind showers much farther away than it should. (341 pm HST 12/20/16)

Reflectivity image from the Kohala radar showing trade wind showers much farther away than it should. (Animated radar loop)

Yesterday afternoon something strange showed up on the Kohala radar–a bunch of trade wind showers north of the Big Island.  Showers were to be expected, as we were watching an area of open-cell cumulus clouds approach from the east.  The strange part is that they extended to the extreme edge of the radar range, about 285 miles away.  At that point, the radar beam could be sampling up to 50,000 feet, quite a bit higher than these showers.  What gives?  Since we weren’t looking at cumulonimbus clouds on satellite, we were looking at a nice example of radar beam ducting.

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Why I Want Bikeshare…

…Even When I Ride My Own Bike

I just read the “Our Year In Review” message that Bikeshare Hawaii sent out yesterday and it got me thinking.  We’ve enjoyed the benefits of bikeshare systems in many different cities during our travels and know that it will be a great thing for visitors to Honolulu.  However, what about our residents?  I already have a couple bikes that I use to get around town; is there a benefit to me?  The answer is most definitely yes.

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McCully Street Bike Lanes

At the beginning of the month, the City and County Department of Transportation Services gave a presentation at the McCully-Moiliili Neighborhood Board meeting concerning their plan to install bike lanes along McCully Street.  (The minutes will be available here.)  This is a plan that has been discussed for a while, going back at least to January.  Most news stories highlighted the removal of parking spots, such as Hawaii News Now (“McCully Street to get bike lanes, lose parking“) or the Honolulu Star-Advertiser (“McCully Street bike lanes to eliminate up to 30 parking spots“)  [You may notice in the Star-Advertiser URL that their original headline read “up to 80 parking spots”; the headline was corrected but not the sharable link.]

What’s unfortunate about these stories is that they missed an important aspect–that parking along McCully Street is unsafe and that the City and County would consider removing it whether or not bike lanes were added.  Continue reading →