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 Hawaii 

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. 

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. 

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.