March 2006
Monthly Archive
Posted by Glenn
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March 11-12 2006
Air Temperatures — The following maximum temperatures were recorded across Hawaii Saturday:
Lihue, Kauai – 79F
Honolulu, Oahu – 80
Kaneohe, Oahu – 78
Kahului, Maui – 84
Hilo, Hawaii – 76
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii – 81
Temperatures early Sunday morning ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level at the 4 a.m. hour:
Lihue, Kauai – 73
Hilo airport – 64
Precipitation Totals — The following numbers represent the largest precipitation totals during the last 24 hours (as of Sunday morning) on each of the major islands, including:
3.81 MOUNT WAIALEALE, KAUAI
0.19 POAMOHO 2, OAHU
0.01 MOLOKAI
0.00 LANAI
0.00 KAHOOLAWE
0.09Â HANA AIRPORT, MAUI
1.94 HONAUNAU, BIG ISLAND
Weather Chart — Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map…showing a 1030 millibar high pressure system to the NE of the islands. This pressure configuration will keep trade winds blowing across our area today and Monday…locally strong and gusty on the north and east shores. Here’s a Weather Map Symbol page for clarification about what all those funny weather symbols mean.
Hawaii’s Mountains — Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of near 14,000 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 webcams are only available during the daylight hours here in the islands…that is unless there’s a big moon rising just after sunset for an hour or two!
Satellite Images — To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with the Infrared Satellite Imageof the islands to see all the clouds around the state. This next satellite image is one that gives close images of the islands only during the daytime hours, and is referred to as a Close-up visible satellite image. The next satellite image shows a larger view of the Pacific…giving perspective to the wider ranging cloud patterns in the Pacific Ocean…out from the islands. To help you keep track of where any showers may be around the islands, here’s the latest animated radar image.
Aloha Paragraphs
Canoe Surfing
The recent rains of late, some of which were heavy enough to flood, are now gone…at least for the most part. Saturday was actually quite a nice sunny day, which was much appreciated by visitors and residents alike! There were still some showers around, most noteably on the Kona slopes of the Big Island, and in other places too. It appears that we’ll see more or less nice weather into Sunday, and perhaps the start of Monday.
It’s always noticeable when a person, especially in the weather forecasting business, uses the word "perhaps". I used it specifically to get your attention, to point out that by Monday things could start breaking down already. Going on further in the world of weather words, I would have to admit that saying "breaking down" doesn’t always bring up the most positive response in most peoples minds.
The latest computer forecast models have continued to indicate a deep trough positioning itself to our west…what else is new! This trough, with its destabilizing influence, will likely cause showers to increase, with some of them becoming locally heavy during the new week ahead. They will be fueled by moisture bearing SE winds once again. These clouds have a tendency to focus their heaviest showers, their flood producing downpours, in certain areas of the islands…especially where clouds become anchored by the physical terrain features.
If we were to totally believe what the models were saying, we would be pronouncing more flooding rainfall, which is being done by the NWS forecast office in Honolulu. The soils in some parts of the state are saturated. This type of soil has a tendency to slip, and to allow water to run right over it, rather than taking it in….which contributes to flooding. As always, we need to monitor this developing situation, and fine tune the weather leanings as we move forward.Â
It’s early Saturday evening here in Kula, Maui. Clouds formed over the mountains today, leaving many of the coastal areas basking in warm sunshine! Yes folks, the real thing, those golden rays that beam down from Heaven…or so it seems ofter such a long period of cloudiness. On another note, I was lucky enough to find good surf conditions over on the Lahaina side of West Maui. I had a ball, rode lots of waves, no shortage at all. I was riding with some friends out there, which always makes it nicer when there’s friendly vibes. Everyone, with about an equal mix of guys and gals, was being mellow. I toke off left on every wave, which just means that I was riding each wave heading in a left direction down the wave face. The waves were so fun, just the right size, although there were a couple of large waves, which reached 4 feet…or what is also referred to as an 8 foot wave face. I was out there for about two hours, and thoroughly enjoyed it, oh yes!! It’s a little before sunset, with that glorious golden light on the trees around here at the moment. I really need to get out there and enjoy it. So, I’ll see you on Sunday, with more weather commentary, and updates to the temperatures and precipitation values in the morning before I head out kayaking. One last thing, I just noticed the near full moon, now that the clouds have parted way. Aloha for now…Glenn.
New Feature: This website receives between 6,000 and 12,000+ page impressions per day, depending upon the weather and the season. As of early Sunday morning, March’s total count to this website has been 104,533. There’s been set up a way that we can have a link go from this popular website, directly to yours. It may be a great way to increase traffic to your own webpage. This offer is available for $50 per month, with a three month minimum. That makes three months of exposure to your business, or even to your own personal website, for just $150…which is a great way to highlight your internet presence to folks who may already be interested in almost anything Hawaiian. Please email me, or leave a message in the reply box below, if you have some interest in this proposal. A link to your site will be displayed along the left hand margin of all the pages on this website, in alphabetical order.
Posted by Glenn
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March 10-11 2006
Air Temperatures — The following maximum temperatures were recorded across Hawaii Friday:
Lihue, Kauai – 77F
Honolulu, Oahu – 79
Kaneohe, Oahu – 78
Kahului, Maui – 86Â
Hilo, Hawaii – 76
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii – 82
Temperatures early Saturday morning ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level at the 4 a.m. hour:
Kailua-kona – 74
Lihue airport – 66
Precipitation Totals — The following numbers represent the largest precipitation totals during the last 24 hours (as of Saturday morning) on each of the major islands, including:
14.61 MOUNT WAIALEALE, KAUAI
7.50 POAMOHO 2, OAHU
0.00 MOLOKAI
0.00 LANAI
0.00 KAHOOLAWE
1.51 KAUPO GAP, MAUI
3.68 GLENWOOD, BIG ISLAND
Weather Chart — Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map…showing a strong 1031 millibar high pressure system to the NE of the islands. At the same time, we find a trough of low pressure to the west of the islands. The interaction between these two weather features will keep ESE to east winds blowing across our area today and Sunday…locally strong and gusty. Here’s a Weather Map Symbol page for clarification about what all those funny weather symbols mean.
Hawaii’s Mountains — Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of near 14,000 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 webcams are only available during the daylight hours here in the islands…that is unless there’s a big moon rising just after sunset for an hour or two!
Satellite Images — To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with the Infrared Satellite Imageof the islands to see all the clouds around the state. This next satellite image is one that gives close images of the islands only during the daytime hours, and is referred to as a Close-up visible satellite image. The next satellite image shows a larger view of the Pacific…giving perspective to the wider ranging cloud patterns in the Pacific Ocean…out from the islands. To help you keep track of where any showers may be around the islands, here’s the latest animated radar image.
Aloha Paragraphs
Incoming clouds and waves…
The islands of Kauai, Oahu and the Big Island have all taken their turns at getting soaked the last couple of days! Maui, Molokai, and Lanai have been positioned in a more or less dry slot between these rainy ends of the island chain. This was the case during last weeks major flooding event as well. The atmospheric dynamics remain favorable for more rain on Kauai and Oahu, and the Big Island today. Rich tropical moisture continues to flood into the state from the SE and east, with the most likely downpours expected on those western islands, and the windward side of the Big Island.
Kauai and Oahu, at least some parts of those two islands, have had enough rain already…no doubt about that! A trough of low pressure remains anchored to the west of Kauai. This is keeping that side of the Aloha state more shower prone, with still the chance of more localized heavy showers, or even a random thunderstorm popping up today. The rest of the state will see some showers, although they won’t be as heavy or long lasting.The once exception will be the continued showers falling along the windward side of the Big Island.
The latest computer forecast model output shows that the rain producing trough of low pressure will be moving away soon.  Unfortunately, that guidance now shows yet another trough approaching the state in its place. This of course is not good news for those folks who have seen the worst of the rainy weather. This now suggests that the islands will remain in an area subject to more showers, some of them will be locally heavy. I realize that this is a change from the previous forecast outlook, and apologize for this unexpected weather news!
It’s early Friday evening in Kula, Maui, as I start this sunset commentary. There’s still lots of clouds overlying the islands of Hawaii, as you can see from this satellite image. It stretches from Kauai and Niihau, down the island chain to the Big Island. Looking at this radar image however, we see what looks like much less showers surrounding the islands of Kauai and Oahu….which is a good thing. I decided to skip Borders Books and a film after work, and came home. Instead, I invited a friend to join me for dinner at the Kula Lodge. I want to get up early Saturday, in order to update my website, have breakfast and coffee, before heading over to the Lahaina side for a surf session. Today at lunch I had good fun bodysurfing. Kids are so great! While riding waves in Kihei, these two kids, who were here on vacation from Salem, Oregon, started chatting me up. We had so much fun together, as if we had known each other for a long time. I made up a game where we tried to see who could get the longest ride…ending up on the sandy beach. When I got home this evening, it was lightly raining and totally cloudy, very mellow kine. I hope you have a great Friday night, and that goes along with an invitation to meet me here again Saturday for more weather news from the islands. Aloha for now…Glenn.
P.S. we continue to have more businesses signing up for the list of links on the left hand margin…there’s more about that offer just below:
New Feature: This website receives between 6,000 and 12,000+ page impressions per day, depending upon the weather and the season. As of early Friday evening, March’s total visitor count to this website has been 94,669. There’s been set up a way that we can have a link go from this popular website, directly to yours. It may be a great way to increase traffic to your own webpage. This offer is available for $50 per month, with a three month minimum. That makes three months of exposure to your business, or even to your own personal website, for just $150…which is a great way to highlight your internet presence to folks who may already be interested in almost anything Hawaiian. Please email me, or leave a message in the reply box below, if you have some interest in this proposal. A link to your site will be displayed along the left hand margin of all the pages on this website, in alphabetical order.
Posted by Glenn
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March 9-10 2006
Air Temperatures — The following maximum temperatures were recorded across Hawaii Thursday:
Lihue, Kauai – 75F
Honolulu, Oahu – 77
Kaneohe, Oahu – 77
Kahului, Maui – 82Â
Hilo, Hawaii – 74
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii – 82
Temperatures early Friday morning ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level at the 4 a.m. hour:
Kailua-kona – 75
Hilo airport – 67
Precipitation Totals — The following numbers represent the largest precipitation totals during the last 24 hours (as of Friday morning) on each of the major islands, including:
8.62 MOUNT WAIALEALE, KAUAI
8.25 POAMOHO 2, OAHU
0.07 MOLOKAI
0.00 LANAI
0.04 KAHOOLAWE
2.41 KAUPO GAP, MAUI
6.29 GLENWOOD, BIG ISLAND
Weather Chart — Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map…showing a strong 1038 millibar high pressure system to the NNE of the islands. At the same time, we find a deep storm low to the NW of the islands. The interaction between these two weather features will keep SE to ESE winds blowing across our area today and Saturday…locally strong and gusty. Here’s a Weather Map Symbol page for clarification about what all those funny weather symbols mean.
Hawaii’s Mountains — Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of near 14,000 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 webcams are only available during the daylight hours here in the islands…that is unless there’s a big moon rising just after sunset for an hour or two!
Satellite Images — To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with the Infrared Satellite Imageof the islands to see all the clouds around the state. This next satellite image is one that gives close images of the islands only during the daytime hours, and is referred to as a Close-up visible satellite image. The next satellite image shows a larger view of the Pacific…giving perspective to the wider ranging cloud patterns in the Pacific Ocean…out from the islands. To help you keep track of where any showers may be around the islands, here’s the latest animated radar image.
Aloha Paragraphs
Big surf on outrigger canoe
Printsellers.comÂ
The islands are in store for off and on rain through Friday. Some of this precipitation will be locally heavy, with thunderstorms not out of the realm of possibilities. This particular set of weather circumstances often leads to flooding, which had already begun during the day Wednesday, into Thursday. At this time, it appears that the Big Island and the island of Oahu and Kauai have the greatest threat of those heaviest, most prolonged showers. Although anywhere in the state could see rain, some of which could be gully washers!
The computer forecast models have been “right on” in predicting this wet weather episode. Actually they started pointing out this increase in showers last week. Looking at the latest weather maps, we find a strong 1042 millibar high pressure system to the north of the state. At the same time we find a low pressure system to the NW of Hawaii. The interaction between these two systems are causing a deep layer of rich tropical moisture to flow into the state on brisk SE to ESE winds. This stream of cloudiness is providing the copious rainfall.
Meanwhile, the low to our NW has an associated trough of low pressure, which extends southward, now located to the west of Hawaii. The relatively close proximity of this trough is helping to destabilize our local atmosphere. This simply means that whatever showers that are around, are being enhanced, or coaxed to drop heavier showers than would be the case without the trough around. The dynamics will remain ripe for locally heavy rain through Friday. We’ll see variably cloudy skies, although there may be a few breaks in the otherwise cloudy weather…along not many!
This low will begin to move away later Friday, which will be good news for those flood prone areas around the state. As this happens, we’ll see the return of trade winds. This will be a good thing for the leeward sides of the islands, as we should begin to see improving weather this weekend. The windward sides however may continue to see passing shower activity, with some form of wet trade winds continuing into early next week. The latest forecast models suggest that we’ll see a favorable trade wind weather pattern sticking around well into next week…that is once it starts.
It’s early Thursday evening here in Kula, Maui, as I start this evening’s sunset commentary. Looking at the latest satellite imagery, and this looping radar picture too, it becomes immediately apparent that we have lots of clouds around, and that some of them are dumping locally heavy rainfall! The island of Kauai, at the moment, is under the greatest threat, although Oahu and the Big Island aren’t too far behind in that regard. The islands of Maui County, seem to be sandwiched between all the rain to the NW and to the SE. This happened last week too, with not a lot of rain falling on Maui. That is, other than around the Kaupo Gap area, out along the remote SE flank of the Haleakala Crater. As I look out of my weather tower windows, all I see is clouds, and hazy conditions too, as Thursday quickly draws to an end…with little fanfare, at least in terms of a sunset. There’s no wind, dead calm actually, with not a drop of rain falling here in the upcountry area of east Maui. Those folks on the other islands have a different reality going on, and I want to send good luck to those in the more rainy areas! I’ll be back early Friday morning with the next narrative, I trust we will all have a pleasant night. Aloha for now…Glenn.
P.S. we continue to have more businesses signing up for the list of links on the left hand margin…there’s more about that offer just below:
New Feature: This website receives between 6,000 and 12,000+ page impressions per day, depending upon the weather and the season. As of early Friday morning, March’s total visitor count to this website has been 86,822. I’ve set up a way that we can have a link go from this popular website, directly to yours. It may be a great way to increase traffic to your own webpage. This offer is available for $50 per month, with a three month minimum. That makes three months of exposure to your business, or even your own personal webpage, for just $150…which is a great way to highlight your website to folks who may already be interested in almost anything Hawaiian. Please email me, or leave a message in the reply box below, if you have some interest in this proposal. A link to your site will be displayed along the left hand margin of all the pages on this website, in alphabetical order.
Posted by Glenn
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March 8-9 2006
Air Temperatures — The following maximum temperatures were recorded across Hawaii Wednesday:
Lihue, Kauai – 80F
Honolulu, Oahu – 83
Kaneohe, Oahu – 79
Kahului, Maui – 88 new record for the date
Hilo, Hawaii – 74
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii – 83
Temperatures early Thursday morning ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level at the 4 a.m. hour:
Kailua-kona – 76
Honolulu airport – 70
Precipitation Totals — The following numbers represent the largest precipitation totals during the last 24 hours (as of Thursday morning) on each of the major islands, including:
1.57 MOUNT WAIALEALE, KAUAI
5.62 POAMOHO 2, OAHU
0.87 MOLOKAI
0.05 LANAI
0.02 KAHOOLAWE
3.46 KAUPO GAP, MAUI
7.54 MOUNTAIN VIEW, BIG ISLAND
Weather Chart — Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map…showing a strong 1042 millibar high pressure system to the NNE of the islands. At the same time, we find a deep storm low to the NW of the islands. The interaction between these two weather features will keep SE to ESE winds blowing across our area today and Friday…locally strong and gusty. Here’s a Weather Map Symbol page for clarification about what all those funny weather symbols mean.
Hawaii’s Mountains — Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of near 14,000 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 webcams are only available during the daylight hours here in the islands…that is unless there’s a big moon rising just after sunset for an hour or two!
Satellite Images — To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with the Infrared Satellite Imageof the islands to see all the clouds around the state. This next satellite image is one that gives close images of the islands only during the daytime hours, and is referred to as a Close-up visible satellite image. The next satellite image shows a larger view of the Pacific…giving perspective to the wider ranging cloud patterns in the Pacific Ocean…out from the islands. To help you keep track of where any showers may be around the islands, here’s the latest animated radar image.
Aloha Paragraphs
Snow covered Mauna Kea from the coast…on the Big Island of HawaiiÂ
Changes in the pressure patterns are taking place in the central north Pacific Ocean. These will begin to influence the Hawaiian Islands now into Friday. The latest weather maps show a storm low pressure system developing to the NW of Kauai. This low pressure cell has a trough/frontal cloud band extending southward from its center, which puts it to the west of Hawaii. At the same time, we find a moderately strong high pressure system located far to the NE of here.
The first signs of change here in the islands, will be the onset of SE winds across our latitudes. This has already started to happen, and will likely continue through about Friday or so. SE winds bring warm moist air up from the deeper tropics. At the same time, the Kona coast and Maui County often start to see volcanic haze spreading through the atmosphere. Often we find very warm temperatures in the leeward sides of the mountains, with Kahului on Maui in particular, sometimes reaching near 90F degrees!
We’ll be mostly ok Wednesday, although the SE sides of the islands will have showers falling…some could be heavy enough to cause localized flooding. Hilo on the Big Island reported heavy rain early Wednesday morning, while the north and east shores of Oahu saw heavy showers Wednesday afternoon too. The winds will wrap around the Big Island and Maui, leaving some parts of the state in a wind shadow, with lighter winds blowing now. The combination of the moisture being brought up on these SE winds, and the daytime heating of the islands, may aslo cause some afternoon interior showers as well.
The real action will begin Thursday. This action that I’m referring to will be the good chance of off and on rains over the western side of the island chain, and over parts of the Big Island too. The trough of low pressure, mentioned in the first paragraph, will have moved closer to Kauai Thursday. The instability associated with the trough being closer, and the rich tropical moisture moving over the state on the SE winds…will spell another round of heavy, potentially flooding rainfall in places.Â
This wet weather picture for the islands, will continue into Friday. Although the most intense part of this precipitation event will be focused on Thursday. As the weekend rolls around, the winds will switch from SE to NE, which will put an end to the moisture laden stream of air coming into the state from the SE. The NE winds can however keep a parade of showers marching into the windward sides of the islands, so that we may see a period of wet trade winds continuing in places Saturday into early next week.
Before all you visitors who may be here on vacation, or arriving soon, start “jumping off cliffs” in despair…wait a minute! This isn’t going to be a constant rainy period. There will be off and on showers, and yes, some of those could be locally heavy here and there. There very well may be sunny periods though, and certainly breaks in the showers at times too. Some areas probably won’t see any of these showers at all! I know that you folks on Kauai and Oahu have just come through some rainy weather, so that you may have cause for concern in places. I think everyone should take a deep breath, because as we all know, it can sound kinda bad, and then turn out to be not that quite as bad as all of that! At the same time, just about anywhere could see some localized heavy showers, so we should be prepared for that eventuality.
It’s Wednesday evening here in Kula, Maui. I’m running behind this evening, as it’s well past sunset at the moment. Looking out the window, with what little light there is left in the sky, all I can see is low hanging clouds. I can just barely see Maalaea Bay below, while fog is cutting off the tops of trees above. The steps up to my weather tower are a little wet, so that there must have been a brief shower recently. The wet weather outlook looks to still be very much on track, as locally heavy rains are already falling in various parts of the state. It looks like there’s no way to avoid more flooding rainfall, which will be occurring tonight into Thursday here and there. As noted above, the worst part of this inclement weather should be ending Friday, with improved weather by the weekend, at least along the leeward sides. I suggest that if you are here in the islands, that you drive carefully if you are on the road during the next 24-36 hours, as there may be ponding of water in places along roadways. I’ll be back early Thursday morning with more weather updates, and a new narrative. Aloha for now….Glenn.Â
New Feature: This website receives between 6,000 and 12,000+ page impressions per day, depending upon the weather and the season. As of Wednesday afternoon, March’s total visitor count to this website has been 72,537. If one does a google search for Hawaii Weather or Maui Weather, this site comes up number one on the list. I’ve created a way that I can have a link from this popular website, go directly to yours. It may be a great way to increase traffic to your own webpage. This offer is available for $50 per month, with a three month minimum. That makes three months of exposure to your business, or even your own personal webpage, for just $150…which is a great way to highlight your website to folks who may already be interested in almost anything Hawaiian. Please email me, or leave a message in the reply box below, if you have some interest in this proposal. A link to your site will be displayed along the left hand margin of all the pages on this website, in alphabetical order.
Posted by Glenn
No Comments
March 7-8 2006
Air Temperatures — The following maximum temperatures were recorded across Hawaii Tuesday:
Lihue, Kauai – 78F
Honolulu, Oahu – 81
Kaneohe, Oahu – 77
Kahului, Maui – 85
Hilo, Hawaii – 79
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii – 81
Temperatures early Wednesday morning ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level at the 4 a.m. hour:
Kailua-kona – 73
Kahului airport – 67
Precipitation Totals — The following numbers represent the largest precipitation totals during the last 24 hours (as of Wednesday morning) on each of the major islands, including:
1.35 MOUNT WAIALEALE, KAUAI
2.81 POAMOHO 2, OAHU
0.02 MOLOKAI
0.01 LANAI
0.00 KAHOOLAWE
0.83 KAUPO GAP, MAUI
4.30 LAUPAHOEHOE, BIG ISLAND
Weather Chart — Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map…showing a 1033 millibar high pressure system to the NE of the islands. At the same time, we find a developing storm low to the NW of the islands. The interaction between these two weather features will keep SE winds blowing across our area today and Thursday. Here’s a Weather Map Symbol page for clarification about what all those funny weather symbols mean.
Hawaii’s Mountains — Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of near 14,000 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 webcams are only available during the daylight hours here in the islands…that is unless there’s a big moon rising just after sunset for an hour or two!
Satellite Images — To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with the Infrared Satellite Imageof the islands to see all the clouds around the state. This next satellite image is one that gives close images of the islands only during the daytime hours, and is referred to as a Close-up visible satellite image. The next satellite image shows a larger view of the Pacific…giving perspective to the wider ranging cloud patterns in the Pacific Ocean…out from the islands. To help you keep track of where any showers may be around the islands, here’s the latest animated radar image.
            Aloha Paragraphs
Rainbows offshore from Maui
There’s been essentially no change in the weather outlook for the islands since yesterday. The weather will remain pleasantly warm, with a late winter trade wind pattern in place for now. The windward sides of the islands will continue to see off and on showers arriving, which are common when the trades are in force. The leeward sides will find partly sunny weather during the days, along with warm temperatures for all outdoor activities. A high pressure system to our NE will keep the trade winds blowing Tuesday.
The computer forecast models continue to show changes occurring right after Wednesday. As a matter of fact, there seems to be some close similarities between what’s coming up…and what happened last week on Kauai and Oahu. Last week’s weather was wet on those two islands, and we may see another round of heavy showers arriving there by Thursday into Friday. It’s still a little too early for exact details, although it looks like the second half of the work week will be showery for at least Kauai, and perhaps Oahu again too.
As was the case last week, the eastern islands of Maui and the Big Island should remain on the dry side of this deep moisture to the west. Current satellite imagery and weather maps show a trough of low pressure to the west of kauai now. As this trough edges closer after Wednesday, the chances of rain will increase first for Kauai, and then perhaps for Oahu Friday. As I mentioned in the above paragraph, the particulars with this forecast will have to be fine tuned as we move through the next couple of days. It looks from here like the weekend may turn out to be just fine though.
As far as the winds go, the trade winds will prevail through Tuesday. As the trough of low pressure moves closer to Hawaii, our winds will gradually swing around to the SE. This will likely bring more volcanic haze to some parts of the state, and in particular around Kona, and then on up to the islands of Maui County. At the same time, SE winds bring warmer air into the state as well, so we could see another record high temperature at the Kahului airport, like last week’s 88F degree readings for two straight days!
It’s early Tuesday evening here in Kula, Maui. The first thing I noticed when I walked out of the air conditioned office where I work in Kihei, was how pleasantly warm the air was at around 530pm. I stood around by my car for a few moments, and basked in the 80F degree temperature. It’s so desert-like along the south coast of Maui, that is outside the irrigated areas, where it’s lush and green. It didn’t take me long to notice all the dark clouds hugging the Haleakala Crater though. As I was driving home I saw lots of showers falling along the windward sides, especially up above Makawao, in the Piiholo and Olinda areas. There were several beautiful rainbows shining brightly, which captured my attention, as they do everyones I’m sure. I’m home now, having just come in from watching the sun set into a cloud bank out west, looking down towards the ocean. It’s a great place to live, here in the wonderful state of Hawaii! I hope you have a peaceful Tuesday night, and can join me here again on Wednesday, for the next completely updated weather narrative. Aloha for now…Glenn.Â
New Feature: This website receives between 6,000 and 12,000+ page impressions per day. Through the first 7 days of this month, the total visitor count to this website has been 65,200. If one does a google search for Hawaii Weather or Maui Weather, this site comes up number one on the list. I’ve created a way that I can have a link from this popular website, go directly to yours. It may be a great way to increase traffic to your own webpage. This offer is available for $50 per month, with a three month minimum. That makes three months of exposure to your business for just $150…which is a great way to highlight your website to folks who may already be interested in almost anything Hawaiian. Please email me, or leave a message in the reply box below, if you have some interest in this proposal. A link to your site will be displayed along the left hand margin of all the pages on this website, in alphabetical order. Check out the businesses that signed up recently…interesting and valuable information.
Posted by Glenn
No Comments
March 6-7 2006
Air Temperatures — The following maximum temperatures were recorded across Hawaii Monday:
Lihue, Kauai – 77F
Honolulu, Oahu – 80
Kaneohe, Oahu – 77
Kahului, Maui – 83
Hilo, Hawaii – 78
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii – 82
Temperatures early Tuesday morning ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level at the 4 a.m. hour:
Kaneohe, Oahu – 73
Molokai airport – 62
Precipitation Totals — The following numbers represent the largest precipitation totals during the last 24 hours (as of Tuesday morning) on each of the major islands, including:
0.33 MOUNT WAIALEALE, KAUAI
0.56 MANOA LYON ARBORETUM, OAHU
0.00 MOLOKAI
0.00 LANAI
0.00 KAHOOLAWE
0.39 WEST WAILUAIKI, MAUI
0.15 HONAUNAU, BIG ISLAND
Weather Chart — Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map…showing a 1031 millibar high pressure system to the NE of the islands. This high pressure cell will keep the trade winds blowing today…gradually swinging around to the SE into Wednesday. Here’s a Weather Map Symbol page for clarification about what all those funny weather symbols mean.
Hawaii’s Mountains — Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of near 14,000 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 webcams are only available during the daylight hours here in the islands…that is unless there’s a big moon rising just after sunset for an hour or two!
Satellite Images — To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with the Infrared Satellite Imageof the islands to see all the clouds around the state. This next satellite image is one that gives close images of the islands only during the daytime hours, and is referred to as a Close-up visible satellite image. The next satellite image shows a larger view of the Pacific…giving perspective to the wider ranging cloud patterns in the Pacific Ocean…out from the islands. To help you keep track of where any showers may be around the islands, here’s the latest animated radar image.
Aloha Paragraphs
Pueo….the Hawaiian Owl
The weather here in the islands will be quite pleasant, with a late winter trade wind pattern in place for the time being. The windward sides of the islands will continue to see off and on showers arriving, which are common when the trades are blowing. The leeward sides will find partly sunny weather during the days, along with warm temperatures for beach excursions. A high pressure system to our north will keep the trade winds blowing through Tuesday.
The computer forecast models continue to show some changes occurring by mid-week. As a matter of fact, there seems to be some similarities between what’s coming up…and what happened last week on Kauai and Oahu. Last week’s weather was wet on those two islands, and we may very well see another round of showers arriving there by Thursday. This locally wet weather could conceivably remain in place into the weekend time frame. It’s still a little too early for exact details, although it looks like the second half of the week could be showery.
As was the case last week, the eastern islands of Maui and the Big Island may remain on the dry side of this deep moisture to the west. The models show a trough of low pressure setting up to the west of kauai. As this trough edges closer after Wednesday, the chances of rain will increase first for Kauai, and then for Oahu by Friday. As I mentioned in the above paragraph, the particulars with this forecast will have to be fine tuned as we move through the next couple of days. It isn’t certain yet whether the shower line will stop before reaching the entire state, so stay tuned for more on this unfolding sitation.
As far as the winds go, the trade winds will prevail through Tuesday. As the trough of low pressure moves closer to Hawaii, our winds will gradually swing around to the SE or even south in places. This will likely bring more volcanic haze to some parts of the state, and in particular around Kona, and then on up to the islands of Maui County. At the same time, SE and south winds bring moisture from the deeper tropics, which help to feed the showery clouds that will be around then. SE and south winds bring warmer air into the state as well, so we could see another record high temperature at the Kahului airport, like last week’s 88F degree readings for two straight days!
I had a good weekend, starting off with the sci-fi film Ultrviolet Friday night. Saturday’s surfing trip to the Lahaina side was fun. Sunday a friend and I went kayaking below the Pali on the way to Lahaina out of Maalaea Bay. Then it was the ping pong tournament with my neighbors last evening, while watching the nice sunset. There was a lot of physical exercise involved, which I enjoy a lot. My health is good, and my body serves me well, which I feel very fortunate about! Speaking of health, my Father is feeling pretty good, and will take the next test this Wednesday, and our hopes are that they will finally determine where the internal bleeding is happening…and then be able to fix the problem.
I asked our friend Hans Rosendal, recently retired NWS lead forecaster at the Honolulu office, to comment upon the recent very heavy, flooding rainfall event on Oahu. By the way, I’m honored that he would grace us with his amazingly deep understanding of the weather not only here in the islands, but worldwide! Here’s what he has to say about it:
Glenn asked me to comment and help explain the cause of the recent wet weather along the windward slopes of the Koolau mountain range of Oahu here in late February and early March. The wet weather occurred over several days as more than 2 feet of rainfall fell in spots from Kaneohe northward to Kahuku. We may ask what kind of atmospheric conditions are needed to produce such heavy rainfall?Â
First of all we need to have a lot of water vapor present in the local atmosphere. We can perhaps blame some of it on our newly developed La Nina situation with its cold water on the equator to the south of us that pushes the peak moisture band of the tropics a little north of its usual latitudes and also changes the large scale flow patterns enough to often produce wet weather here in Hawaii. The La Nina pattern in the atmosphere was slow in kicking in here in our part of the world with the flow pattern actually quite dry and more reminding us of an El Nino dry pattern during the early part of the winter.
We measure the moisture content of the air in precipitable water content. We may talk about a nearly saturated air mass with precipitable water values of 2 inches or 50 mm or more. That is, if you were able to wring out all the water in the air over a large area you would end up with 2 inches of rainfall. Obviously with as much as 12 to 24 inches of rain reported in some areas in the recent storms, the rainfall was very unevenly distributed with most areas getting little or nothing. That is often the case during flooding situations. The thunderstorm clouds and heavy rain producing cells are anchored to some terrain features, such as a coastline or mountain slope, and a moist stream of convergent low level air out of the southeast feeds this moisture continuously into the updraft region where a divergent outflow aloft in the upper southwesterlies removes the air minus the condensed moisture precipitated on the way up.
Helicity is a term used to characterize the vertical wind flow in this sort of nearly stationary supercell thunderstorms where southeast winds at the bottom of the atmosphere becomes more southerly and southwesterly with height with gradually increasing wind speeds. Sort of like a helix or a screw. The momentum of the air remains nearly constant with height, as the stronger winds are counter balanced by the lower density of the air as you ascend in the atmosphere. The tornado producing thunderstorm cells on the Great Plains of Kansas and Nebraska are often of this type of high helicity cells and thus may move or develop erratically to the right of the mean flow direction.
What makes the flow latch on to the terrain during these helicity situations and drop the rain in such concentrated fashion over favored areas? The Koolau mountain range on Oahu is a favored place for this to occur during southeast surface flow and upper level southwesterlies. The surface flow is basically parallel to the island chain and to the windward shoreline of Oahu in these situations. Some increased convergence of low level moisture is likely taking place already before the flow gets to Oahu  within these downwind island plumes such as the Molokai plume.
On the larger scale we likely have a troughy region of light winds to the lee of the chain with say 20 kt southeast winds some distance offshore along the windward side. We are thus located along the western edge of the High centered between here and California.  Winds may thus be nearly calm along the shoreline itself. We therefore have cyclonic shear vorticity in the surface layers along this strip of shoreline from Waimanalo to Kahuku in spite of the flow at large being slightly anticyclonically curved. The property of vorticity is very conservative and thus do not quickly form or dissipate. There are however ready exchanges taking place between cyclonic shear and cyclonic curvature vorticity. Thus small low pressure centers do develop in these terrain favored spots out of the cyclonic shear and cause the convergence and anchoring mechanism.
Cyclonic vorticity in the boundary layer along the slope of the Koolaus means convergence and heavy rain in the otherwise fairly neutral flow vorticitywise. The upper southwesterly flow east of the trough located to the west of the islands will result in upper divergence due to the positive (cyclonic) vorticity advection (PVA) which in turn supports and induces the low level convergence and rising motion at mid levels, These synoptic effects seemed to favor Oahu during this particular situation. As an example, the island of Kauai has a more rounded shape than Oahu and the flooding at Anahola in December 1991 was a somewhat similar only stronger pattern where the bulk of the rain fell within a 12 hour period rather than over two days or so in this case.
Thus as long as the large scale pattern of low level convergence and upper level divergence stays fairly stationary, this terrain anchored rainfall can continue over several days. A blocking pattern with a strong 1040 to 1050 mb high far northwest of us near 45N 180W with a cutoff low near 30N 180W or just north of Midway Island was a part of this large scale synoptic weather pattern. This pattern has not entirely gone away yet so there is still a chance of more wet weather for the Islands during the next week or two.
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It’s early Monday evening here in Kula, Maui. I just came in off the weather deck, watching the gorgeous sunset…all the while listening to the resident Mockingbird singing its heart out atop the Norfolk Pine next door. The sunset lit up all the high cirrus clouds around now, and in the process turning the waters of Maalaea Bay pink in color. As I was driving up through the pasturelands on the way home from work, I happened to see two Hawaiian Owls, also called Pueo here in the islands. I always think of this as a special occasion, and without fail put my palms together in acknowledgement of their presence. Just now as I was sitting outside, I saw a third one in the pastures just down the hill from my weather tower! I hit the beach again today, with the sunshine so deliciously warm on my bare back. The ocean was just the right temperature, and with no waves breaking, my swim was great. I hope you have a great Monday night! I’m pleased to see quite a few local businesses taking advantage of the link advertisement offer (details just below), as I think of it as a win-win-win situation: it helps businesses with a web presence, its helps the folks who are looking for special deals, or good things to buy or do here in the islands, and it helps me too! I’ll be back early Tuesday morning with the next completely updated weather narrative from paradise. Aloha for now…Glenn.
New Advertising Feature: This website receives between 6,000 and 12,000+ page impressions per day. Sunday, March 5th’s total visitor count to this website was 8,504. If one does a google search for Hawaii Weather or Maui Weather, this site comes up number one on the list. I’ve created a way that I can have a link from this popular website, directly to yours. It may be a great way to increase traffic to your own webpages. This offer is available for $50 per month, with a three month minimum. That makes three months of exposure to your business for just $150…which is a great way to highlight your website to folks who may already be interested in almost anything Hawaiian. Please email me, or leave a message in the reply box below, if you have some interest in this proposal. A link to your site will be displayed along the left hand margin of all the pages on this website, in alphabetical order. Check out the businesses that signed up recently…interesting and valuable information.
Posted by Glenn
[4] Comments
March 5-6 2006
Air Temperatures — The following maximum temperatures were recorded across Hawaii Sunday:
Lihue, Kauai – 77F
Honolulu, Oahu – 79
Kaneohe, Oahu – 77
Kahului, Maui – 81Â
Hilo, Hawaii – 78
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii – 83
Temperatures early Monday morning ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level at the 4 a.m. hour:
Lihue, Kauai – 71
Hilo airport – 65
Precipitation Totals — The following numbers represent the largest precipitation totals during the last 24 hours (as of Monday morning) on each of the major islands, including:
0.26 MOUNT WAIALEALE, KAUAI
0.20 MANOA LYON ARBORETUM, OAHU
0.04 MOLOKAI
0.00 LANAI
0.01 KAHOOLAWE
1.07 WEST WAILUAIKI, MAUI
1.07 HONAUNAU, BIG ISLAND
Weather Chart — Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map…showing a 1029 millibar high pressure system to the north of the islands. This high pressure cell will keep the trade winds blowing through Tuesday. Here’s a Weather Map Symbol page for clarification about what all those funny weather symbols mean.
Hawaii’s Mountains — Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of near 14,000 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 webcams are only available during the daylight hours here in the islands…that is unless there’s a big moon rising just after sunset for an hour or two!
Satellite Images — To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with the Infrared Satellite Imageof the islands to see all the clouds around the state. This next satellite image is one that gives close images of the islands only during the daytime hours, and is referred to as a Close-up visible satellite image. The next satellite image shows a larger view of the Pacific…giving perspective to the wider ranging cloud patterns in the Pacific Ocean…out from the islands. To help you keep track of where any showers may be around the islands, here’s the latest animated radar image.
Aloha Paragraphs
Kaneohe Bay, Oahu
Photo: Douglas Peebles
The locally wet weather that parts of Hawaii experienced during the past week, is now mostly over. The long lasting trough of low pressure to our west, which was the culprit for the inclement weather, is now through influencing our weather. Some areas of the state had exceptionally wet weather, with many areas of flooding noted…particularly on Kauai and Oahu. The other islands had some rain too, although not as much by any means.
Sunday will be a decent day weatherwise in most areas. There has still been some leftover moisture around though, which has been keeping some showers falling along the windward sides of the islands. The leeward areas have had clouds at times too, although not many showers falling. This more or less favorable weather will continue into the new week ahead. We should see at least some sunshine, with fewer showers overall.
As the trough of low pressure moves away, we find the trade winds returning. This is a good thing, as it will help to clear our atmosphere of moisture, and any leftover haze that we might have had. We’ll find ourselves in a pleasant late winter trade wind weather pattern. This usually brings partly sunny dry weather to our leeward beaches, with still some passing showers to the windward coasts. The next threat of rain looks like the middle of the new week ahead, at which point we could see periods of showers around into next weekend.Â
It’s early Sunday evening here in Kula, Maui. It was a great day here in the islands, although it looked showery on the windward sides in places. I had a great kayaking excursion today, paddling near the base of the cliffs along the Pali after Maalaea going towards Olowalu and Lahaina. We saw whales breaching and spouting, with lots of clear water visibilities. I just came in from a rousing session of ping pong out on my weather deck, where I keep an outdoor table set up. The sunset was nice too! I’d best be going down for a tasty dinner now. I’ll be back early Monday morning with more weather writing then, I hope you can join me again soon. Aloha for now…Glenn.
New Advertising Feature: This website receives between 6,000 and 12,000+ page impressions per day. Friday, March 3rd’s total visitor count to this website was 12,737! If one does a google search for Hawaii Weather or Maui Weather, this site comes up number one on the list. I’ve created a way that I can have a link from this popular website, directly to yours. It may be a great way to increase traffic to your own webpages. This offer is available for $50 per month, with a three month minimum. That makes three months of exposure to your business for just $150…which is a great way to highlight your website to folks who may already be interested in almost anything Hawaiian. Please email me, or leave a message in the reply box below, if you have some interest in this proposal. A link to your site will be displayed along the left hand margin of all the pages on this website, in alphabetical order. Check out the businesses that signed up recently…interesting and valuable information.
Posted by Glenn
[6] Comments
March 4-5 2006
Air Temperatures — The following maximum temperatures were recorded across Hawaii Saturday:
Lihue, Kauai – 77F
Honolulu, Oahu – 77
Kaneohe, Oahu – 76
Kahului, Maui – 81Â
Hilo, Hawaii – 78
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii – 81
Temperatures early Sunday morning ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level at the 4 a.m. hour:
Lihue, Kauai – 72
Hilo airport – 65
Precipitation Totals — The following numbers represent the largest precipitation totals during the last 24 hours (as of Sunday morning) on each of the major islands, including:
1.87 MOUNT WAIALEALE, KAUAI
1.08 LULUKU, OAHU
0.04 MOLOKAI
0.02 LANAI
0.02 KAHOOLAWE
1.04 WEST WAILUAIKI, MAUI
1.13 PIIHONUA, BIG ISLAND
Weather Chart — Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map…showing a 1030 millibar high pressure system to the north of the islands. This high pressure cell will keep the trade winds blowing through Monday. Here’s a Weather Map Symbol page for clarification about what all those funny weather symbols mean.
Hawaii’s Mountains — Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of near 14,000 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 webcams are only available during the daylight hours here in the islands…that is unless there’s a big moon rising just after sunset for an hour or two!
Satellite Images — To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with the Infrared Satellite Imageof the islands to see all the clouds around the state. This next satellite image is one that gives close images of the islands only during the daytime hours, and is referred to as a Close-up visible satellite image. The next satellite image shows a larger view of the Pacific…giving perspective to the wider ranging cloud patterns in the Pacific Ocean…out from the islands. To help you keep track of where any showers may be around the islands, here’s the latest animated radar image.
Aloha Paragraphs
Leis on outrigger canoe – Hawaii
Photo: Douglas Peebles
The locally wet weather that parts of Hawaii experienced during the past week, is now mostly over. The long lasting trough of low pressure to our west, which was the culprit for the inclement weather, is now done with us. Some areas of the state had exceptionally wet weather, with many areas of flooding noted…particularly on Kauai and Oahu. The other islands had some rain too, although not as much by any means.
Saturday will be a much improved day weatherwise in most areas. There was still some leftover moisture around in the morning, which was keeping some showers falling along the windward sides of the islands. The leeward areas had some early clouds too, although were mostly dry. This better weather will continue through the weekend into the new week ahead. We should see lots of sunshine, with fewer showers overall.
As the trough of low pressure moves away, we find the trade winds returning. This is a good thing, as it will help to clear our atmosphere of moisture, and any leftover haze that we might have had. We’ll find ourselves in a favorable late winter trade wind weather pattern. This usually brings sunny dry weather to our leeward beaches, with still a few passing showers to the windward coasts. The next threat of rain looks like the middle of new week ahead, I’ll speak more about that during the next couple of days.
It’s early Saturday evening here in Kula, Maui. Today was a little too cloudy, at least compared to what most folks here in the islands might have liked…showery in places too. This considering the wet and more than normally cloudy weather we’ve had during the last week. It was just fine with me, and actually a little too sunny, while out surfing this morning. I went by my favorite health food store, Mana Foods in Paia, on the way home. I picked up a large bag of food…cooked Thai shrimp one of the choice items. I’ll plate heated shrimp with Jasmine rice, and steamed organic broccoli for dinner. As my wind chimes sing a little tune to the light trade winds blowing through just now…I’ll take another sip from my Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. A friend will arrive soon, and it will be fun standing out on the weather deck looking downcountry towards the ocean before kaukau (eating). I’ll be on my way to the west side again to kayak Sunday morning, although not before returning here for more weather updates. Let’s have a safe and peaceful night, no matter where we are, or what we’re doing. Aloha for now…Glenn.
New Feature: This website receives between 6,000 and 12,000+ page impressions per day. Friday, March 3rd’s total visitor count to this website was 12,737! If one does a google search for Hawaii Weather or Maui Weather, this site comes up number one on the list. I’ve created a way that I can have a link from this popular website, directly to yours. It may be a great way to increase traffic to your own webpage. I’ve decided to offer this for $50 per month, with a three month minimum. That makes three months of exposure to you for just $150…which is a great way to highlight your website to folks who are already interested in almost anything Hawaiian. Please email me, or leave a message in the reply box below, if you have some interest in this proposal. A link to your site will be displayed along the left hand margin of this page. There’s limited space on that left hand margin, so that availability will be on a first come, first serve basis. Check out the businesses that signed up yesterday…interesting and valuable information.
Posted by Glenn
No Comments
March 3-4 2006
Air Temperatures — The following maximum temperatures were recorded across Hawaii Friday:
Lihue, Kauai – 79F
Honolulu, Oahu – 77
Kaneohe, Oahu – 75
Kahului, Maui – 88 – tied recordÂ
Hilo, Hawaii – 73
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii – 84
Temperatures early Saturday morning ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level at the 4 a.m. hour:
Lihue, Kauai – 73
Hilo airport – 66
Precipitation Totals — The following numbers represent the largest precipitation totals during the last 24 hours (as of Saturday morning) on each of the major islands, including:
4.01 MOUNT WAIALEALE, KAUAI
3.19 LULUKU, OAHU
0.05 MOLOKAI
0.00 LANAI
0.00 KAHOOLAWE
0.19 WEST WAILUAIKI, MAUI
1.60 MOUNTAIN VIEW, BIG ISLAND
Weather Chart — Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map…showing a 1032 millibar high pressure system to the north of the islands. This high pressure cell will keep the trade winds blowing through Monday. Here’s a Weather Map Symbol page for clarification about what all those funny weather symbols mean.
Hawaii’s Mountains — Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of near 14,000 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 webcams are only available during the daylight hours here in the islands…that is unless there’s a big moon rising just after sunset for an hour or two!
Satellite Images — To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with the Infrared Satellite Imageof the islands to see all the clouds around the state. This next satellite image is one that gives close images of the islands only during the daytime hours, and is referred to as a Close-up visible satellite image. The next satellite image shows a larger view of the Pacific…giving perspective to the wider ranging cloud patterns in the Pacific Ocean…out from the islands. To help you keep track of where any showers may be around the islands, here’s the latest animated radar image.
Aloha Paragraphs
Famous Waikiki Beach on Oahu
Photo: Douglas Peebles
Many areas around the state saw their first taste of sunny weather yesterday. This comes after a prolonged period of cloudy weather, much of which consisted of the sun dimming high cirrus clouds. The high clouds took a break, with sunshine pouring in for a change. I say many areas, although that left out other areas of course. The island of Oahu wasn’t so fortunate, with rain pouring in rather than that sunshine! The Gathering Place Island of Oahu has been catching copious rainfall, with major flooding in some of the wettest places. The windward sides of that island have received incredible amounts of heavy rains the last few days.
There are several factors which have kept some parts of Oahu under this virtual “waterfall” of rain. An over-simplified explanation would include: the rich tropical moisture being carried into the state on our SE winds; the orientation of the Koolau Mountains on Oahu, SE to NW; and the rainfall enhancing trough of low pressure to the west of Hawaii. This set of unusual conditions have continued to give soaking rainfall to that lovely island, one of my favorite in terms of natural beauty. I have many friends on that island, and I know for a fact, that they are ready for some dry sunny weather about now!
Elsewhere in the state, there have been other locally heavy showers too. The most common areas seem to be along the east and SE coasts and slopes, where this SE air flow has helped deposit lots of precipitation at times. Each of the islands have taken their turn in being wet, with Kauai having had many days recently with localized flooding rainfall. The Hana, Kipahulu, and Kaupo Gap areas here on east Maui, had a round of very heavy rainfall recently as well, with road closures noted there on Thursday. The windward side of the Big Island hve had their fair share of rain too, with many areas like, Piihonua, Glenwood, Mountain View, Waiakea Uka, and Pahala getting very wet at times.
It appears that we’ll have one more day with the threat of localized heavy rain. The trough of low pressure to our west will be moving further away soon. At the same time, our winds will be shifting from SE to more normal trade winds soon as well. Both of these facts will definitely help to stop this unusually long period of rain. I anticipate that the weekend will be looking a lot better from a weather perspective. The windward sides may continue to see some passing shower activity, although that is normal. The ground is totally saturated along that windward side of Oahu, so ideally we’d like to see a complete stop to the showers there! Meanwhile, the leeward sides of the islands will likely return to mostly sunny to partly cloudy weather, with great beach conditions…along with an out of season SSW swell for the local surf community.
It’s early Friday evening here in Kihei, Maui. It was another sunny day for the most part here on the Valley Isle. The temperature at the Kahului airport reose to 88F degrees again today, while Kihei and Lahaina towns rose to near that very warm level too. When I went to the beach in Kihei at lunch, the sand was hot on the bottom of my feet, but didn’t cause me to sprint to the water. There were the first signs of a new south swell running, so that I was able to do some bodysurfing, which is always such a pleasure. I’m going to see a new film this evening, called Ultraviolet. The write up about it says: “Action babe Milla Jovovich heads the cast in this futuristic sci-fi action adventure. She’s one of the survivors of an epidemic that imbues certain people with super powers, dividing the world into those who have them and those who don’t. Her mission, should she decide to accept it, is to save the world. Cameron Bright, Nick Chinlund and William Fichtner co-star; Kurt Wimmer directs.” This is right down my alley, I like sci-fi a lot. I’ll be going surfing on the west side Saturda morning, although before I go I’ll be back here for more weather updates. I hope you have a great Friday night! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Doug Levin Says:
March 3rd, 2006 at 2:51 am e
Glenn, I’m interested in posting a link as you discussed. It’s a nice way of supporting your work and possibly getting a benefit too! Please let me know where to send the check, and whether or not you need any graphics or text to go with the link on your site. Thanks very much, Doug Levin, CPA
Hi Doug, thanks for being the first “customer†to have a link from my pages to your website! There’s nothing else you have to do, as you provided me with your website address. I’ll have your link on the left hand margin soon. I’ll send you the address of where to send the check offline. Aloha…Glenn
Hello Mr. James, I have been a big fan of your site and morning weather program for years. Like many of your readers I often look at your site when I am away from the island just to keep in touch with what is happening. (In fact one time you were kind enough to respond to my e-mail question about the Makena Cloud) I would like to take you up on your offer to post a link to my webpage on your site. I just fixed up a nice little condo in South Kiehi for vacation rentals and have a website at – www.mauilanikai.com. We have a pretty tasteful website with some nice photos of Maui and I think it would be a great addition to your site. I’m ready to sign up for 3 months as soon as you let me know how to pay. (I’m on Maui for another week, I can pay cash or check right away) Thanks, much Aloha! Rob Jenneve
Hi Rob, thanks for being the second website to sign up for a link from this website to your business! I’ll be back to you shortly, to confirm this arrangement. Aloha, Glenn
New Feature: This website receives between 6,000 and 10,000+ page impressions per day. If one does a google search for Hawaii Weather or Maui Weather, this site comes up number one on the list. I’ve created a way that I can have a link from this popular website, directly to yours. It may be a great way to increase traffic to your own webpage. I’ve decided to offer this for $50 per month, with a three month minimum. That makes three months of exposure to you for just $150…which is a great way to highlight your website to folks who are already interested in almost anything Hawaiian. Please email me, or leave a message in the reply box below, if you have some interest in this proposal. A link to your site will be displayed along the left hand margin of this page. There’s limited space on that left hand margin, so that availability will be on a first come, first serve basis.
Posted by Glenn
[3] Comments
March 2-3 2006
Air Temperatures — The following maximum temperatures were recorded across Hawaii Thursday:
Lihue, Kauai – 72F
Honolulu, Oahu – 81
Kaneohe, Oahu – 72
Kahului, Maui – 88
Hilo, Hawaii – 74
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii – 82
Temperatures early Friday morning ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level at the 4 a.m. hour:
Kailua-kona – 73
Lihue airport – 67
Precipitation Totals — The following numbers represent the largest precipitation totals during the last 24 hours (as of Friday morning) on each of the major islands, including:
4.08 MOUNT WAIALEALE, KAUAI
12.39 PUNALUU PUMP, OAHU
0.02 MOLOKAI
0.01 LANAI
0.00 KAHOOLAWE
11.59 KAUPO GAP, MAUI
4.66 PIIHONUA, BIG ISLAND
Weather Chart — Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map…showing a 1020 millibar high pressure system to the NE of of the islands. At the same time we have low pressure troughs situated to the NW through SW of the islands…keeping our winds east through SE across the state. The trade winds will fill in more fully by Saturday. Here’s a Weather Map Symbol page for clarification about what all those funny weather symbols mean.
Hawaii’s Mountains — Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of near 14,000 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 webcams are only available during the daylight hours here in the islands…that is unless there’s a big moon rising just after sunset for an hour or two!
Satellite Images — To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with the Infrared Satellite Imageof the islands to see all the clouds around the state. This next satellite image is one that gives close images of the islands only during the daytime hours, and is referred to as a Close-up visible satellite image. The next satellite image shows a larger view of the Pacific…giving perspective to the wider ranging cloud patterns in the Pacific Ocean…out from the islands. To help you keep track of where any showers may be around the islands, here’s the latest animated radar image.
Aloha Paragraphs
Kailua-kona, Big Island
Photo: Douglas PeeblesÂ
The long lasting low pressure system, with its associated trough to the west of Hawaii, is still there today. It has done an incredible job of keeping the western end of the Hawaiian Island chain wet most of this week. Kauai and Oahu have both taken their turns in coming under the “waterfall”, with Mount Waialaelae on Kauai picking up an incredible 11+ inches during the last 24 hours! A rain gauge on Oahu, Punuluu pump, picked up over eight inches of the wet stuff, which was no sprinkle either!
Weather maps and satellite imagery are finally suggesting we’re nearing the end of this wet weather event however. This low pressure system is in the process of moving NE away from our islands now. This will be the last day of heavy rainfall, with the threat diminishing greatly as we move into Friday. As we move forward, the trade winds will return, with drier air and less wet conditions in general. The windward sides may continue to see some passing showers, although nothing like what we’ve been putting up with recently.
The rest of the state, from Molokai, Lanai, Maui, down to the Big Island, has seen much less rainfall. There have been some showers around, mostly along the east and SE sides of those islands…some of which could be pretty generous at times. This was caused by the moisture being carried into the state on the returning trade wind flow. These SE breezes have kept voggy haze in place over Maui County, and some places on the Big Island too…especially the Kona coast. At the same time, there has been considerable amounts of sun dimming high and middle level clouds around, which has given most areas muted sunshine at best this week.
As the low and its trough move away towards the NE, we should see an end to the extremely cloudy conditions of late. Friday into the weekend will find the return of warm Hawaiian sunshine. The trade winds will clear the haze too, giving islanders a pleasant weekend. The only spoiler may be the passing shower activity along the windward coasts and slopes at times. In contrast, the leeward sides should finally get back to their favorite weather conditions…sunny beach weather! This “good stuff” will last into early next week.
It’s early Thursday evening here in Kula, Maui. There was actually quite a bit of sunshine today here on Maui, at least along the leeward beaches. It was warm too, case in point…the Kahului airport reached a summery 88F degrees today! That temperature beat the record by one degree for this date, which was 87F degrees back in 1950. The afternoon hours got cloudier, and there were some showers that fell here and there. Looking upslope here from my weather tower just before sunset, there is dense fog hanging in the tree tops a short distance away. I made it to the beach at lunch, which is always a GOOD thing to do. I saw lots of people very much enjoying the warm sunshine, and finally able to get that much sought after tan. I plan on surfing this weekend, and try to get out kayaking again as well, which I did last weekend. It’s warm this evening, 70F degrees inside my weather tower, and a relatively warm 64.4F degrees just outside. I hope you have a great Thursday night, and that goes along with an invitation to join me here again on Friday, for the next completely updated weather narrative here in the islands. Aloha for now…Glenn.
p.s. I spoke with my Father on the phone this morning, he was released from the hospital last evening, and is home again. He has a doctors appointment tomorrow, and an important test next week. So, the family is relieved for the time being, and is hoping for the best. Thanks for all your caring comments recently, I really appreciate all your positive feedback!
New Feature: First of all, let me inform you that this website receives between 6,000 and 10,000+ page impressions per day. If one does a google search for Hawaii Weather or Maui Weather, this site comes up number one on the list. I’ve created a way that I can have a link from this popular website, directly to yours! It may be a great way to increase traffic to your webpage. I’ve decided to offer this for $50 per month, with a three month minimum. That makes three months of exposure for just $150…which is a great way to highlight your website to folks who are already interested in almost anything to do with Hawaii. Please email me if you have some interest in this proposal. A link to your site will be displayed along the left hand margin of this page, the most often visited page of my website~~~on second thought, I’ve decided to put those business links on all the pages of my website! There’s limited space on that left hand margin, so that availability will be on a first come, first serve basis.
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