Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha Paragraphs / February 23-24, 2014

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

79  Lihue, Kauai
82  Honolulu, Oahu
80  Molokai
83  Kahului, Maui
84  Kona, Hawaii
82  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 743pm Sunday evening:

Kailua Kona – 79
Lihue, Kauai – 72

Haleakala Summit –   41 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 34 (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

Generally light winds from the north and northeast…
with slightly cooler and drier weather into the new week

A couple of weak cold fronts will bring a few showers
to the north shores during the upcoming work week…
then the chance of a more active cold front arriving
next weekend

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

22  Mana, Kauai – NNW
21  Makua Range, Oahu – NE
09  Molokai – E
16  Lanai – NE
13  Kahoolawe – NE
20  Kahului, Maui – N
21 PTA West, Big Island – NW

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

2.68  Kapahi, Kauai
0.35  Nuuanu Upper, Oahu
0.00  Molokai
0.00  Lanai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.24  Kaupo Gap, Maui
0.63  Piihonua, 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 ~~~

Light breezes, locally a bit stronger from the north to northeast Monday through Thursday, bringing slightly cooler temperatures to our area. Here’s the latest weather map, showing the Hawaiian Islands, and the rest of the North Pacific Ocean. Here’s a real-time wind profile of the central Pacific…centered on the Hawaiian Islands. ~~~ We find a weak low pressure trough near Kauai. There’s low pressure systems northwest, north and northeast of the state, with their associated cold fronts. Meanwhile, we see a high pressure system well offshore to the northeast of the state, and far offshore to the west of Hawaii. These high pressure cells have elongated ridges of high pressure extending east and west into the area north and east of the state. Winds will generally be on the light side, with gradually strengthening north to northeast winds…bringing a slight cooling trend. We may see a brief period of trade winds Thursday, giving way to strengthening southeast through southwesterly winds later Friday into next weekend.

Satellite imagery shows a weak dissipating band of low clouds over of Kauai…with the rest of the state generally clear to partly cloudy. The clouds that formed over the mountains during the afternoon hours, will dissipate quickly later this evening into the night. Here’s the looping radar image, showing generally light showers over the ocean to the southwest of Kauai, to the northeast of Oahu…with a few more offshore to the west of the Big Island. Looking at this larger satellite image, which is in the looping mode, we can see generally clear skies across much of the state. We can see a dissipating band of clouds over Kauai…with a weak cold front approaching Kauai to the north as well. Otherwise, as drier air comes into the state over the next several days, whatever few showers that develop…will have limited intensity.

We’ll see the arrival of a couple of weak and shallow cold fronts during the new week, the first Tuesday morning, the second Thursday morning…although neither will be significant. Looking further ahead, the models are suggesting that a stronger cold front will approach the state from the northwest later Friday into next weekend. The front may bring increasing showers out ahead of it, and as the front pushes down through the state too. There are apt to be gusty winds coming from the southeast through southwest ahead of this cold front. This outlook is still pretty far out into the future, and thus, fine tuning will be necessary on the exact circumstances. However at the moment, the models are showing all the necessary ingredients for a period of showers Saturday and Sunday. I’ll have more to say about this situation as we move forward. I’ll be back early Monday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Sunday night wherever you’re spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Here on Maui, at the 3,100 foot elevation, at my upper Kula, Maui weather tower, the air temperature was 52.9F degrees at 630am on this Sunday morning. It’s just light enough that I can see a completely clear morning, although with a bit of light haze…and just a few clouds around the edges. It’s rather on the cool side, with totally calm winds at the moment.

~~~ It’s now 1125am, under partly cloudy skies, a light breeze…and 70.2 degrees. Looking down into the Central Valley, I can see lots of sunshine down there. Despite the fact that there’s clouds overhead here, they don’t particularly look or feel very shower bearing. It wouldn’t surprise me however to see a few showers here later this afternoon.

~~~ We’re into the early afternoon hours now, still under partly to mostly cloudy skies here in Upcountry Maui, at 1240pm. It’s starting to feel a little more like a shower could fall, or perhaps its just that the temperature has fallen a little from the later morning update…69.3 degrees. Now that the winds have shifted from the southeast to the north and northeast, the volcanic haze has been ventilated away.

~~~ We’ve pushed into the early evening here on Maui, at 530pm, under clear to partly cloudy skies, with light breezes…and an air temperature of 68.7 degrees. I anticipate that the clouds over this island will fade away over the next couple of hours, leaving clear skies, and a somewhat cool morning on tap for Monday. As for rainfall, I don’t anticipate much over the next couple of days, perhaps increasing a little on our windward sides as the next weak cold front arrives Tuesday morning.

Friday Evening Film: This time around it’s a film that’s just pure action…nothin’ but! The critics are just about split down the middle, with a 49% liking it, while 64% of the audience viewers are thumbs up. It’s called Robocop, starring Joel Kinnaman, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Keaton, Gary Oldman, Abbie Cornish and Marianne Jean-Baptis. The synopsis: In this film, the year is 2028 and multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is at the center of robot technology. Overseas, their drones have been used by the military for years – and it’s meant billions for OmniCorp’s bottom line. Now OmniCorp wants to bring their controversial technology to the home front, and they see a golden opportunity to do it. When Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) – a loving husband, father and good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit – is critically injured in the line of duty, OmniCorp sees their chance to build a part-man, part-robot police officer. OmniCorp envisions a RoboCop in every city and even more billions for their shareholders, but they never counted on one thing: there is still a man inside the machine pursuing justice.

I ended up seeing this film with four other friends, all of whom are intelligent, open minded people. I think most of us were looking forward to seeing this film, and had reasonably high expectations. There was one of us that found it terrible, and her first response upon leaving the theater was to give it a D- grade! The rest of us had better feelings about the film, with most of the grades coming in right around the B level for the most part. This film was totally a sci-fi thriller, with what I considered good acting. It was far from being one of the best films of the season, far…although I was personally entertained very adequately…no doubt about it. The special effects were very engaging, and I walked away from it feeling like the film hit the mark…in terms of what I was expecting. My personal grade for Robocop was a solid B, with no minus or plus involved. Just in case you’re interested, here’s the trailer for this film.

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.