March 31-April 1 2006


Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across Hawaii Friday:

Lihue, Kauai – 75F
Honolulu, Oahu – 72
Kaneohe, Oahu – 73
Kahului, Maui – 83
Hilo, Hawaii – 83
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii – 83

Temperatures early Saturday morning ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level at the 4 a.m. hour:

Kailua-kona – 74
Molokai airport – 68

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:

0.49 KALAHEO, KAUAI
4.10 WAIMANALO, OAHU
0.20 MOLOKAI
0.22 LANAI
0.01 KAHOOLAWE
1.59 WAILUKU, MAUI
0.14 KEAHOLE AIRPORT, BIG ISLAND

Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map…showing a low pressure system to the west of the islands. We also see a new high pressure system to our NE. This pressure configuration will keep mostly light winds around Saturday into Sunday…with light trade winds filling back into our area Sunday night or early 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 Image of the islands to see all the clouds around the state during the day and night. This next image is one that gives close images of the islands only during the daytime hours, and is referred to as a Close-up visible image. This next 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

http://www.citycliks.com/graphics/17_11.jpg

Hookipa Beach Park, Maui…


The Hawaiian Islands remain under a canopy of high and middle level clouds, the same kind that we’ve seen for most of the last month and more. This will continue to give us partly to mostly cloudy skies. What’s more important about this fact is that these clouds, or more specifically, the lower level clouds, are dropping showers in places. Each of the islands have been taking their turn at being on the receiving end of these showers, although Maui and the Big Island have had less lately, although those two islands could get wet any time!

All the ingredients are still in place to keep our overlying atmosphere prone for more showers. Those meteorological elements include: tons of rich tropical moisture; cold air aloft, and favorably inclined winds. These conditions will keep the threat of heavy showers around into the weekend. The NWS forecast office in Honolulu has continued its flash flood watch through Saturday afternoon. The most likely islands for heavy showers will remain Kauai and Oahu…although things could change quickly.

A low pressure system, the one that has been out to our west “forever”, is a big part of why our weather just can’t seem to get better. The prospect for more off and on showery weather remains in place today, and will likely stick around into the weekend. Fortunately it hasn’t been in the form of constant downpours. Actually, it has been a hit and miss situation, with many areas seeing no rainfall during the last 24 hours on Maui and the Big Island. The other islands haven’t been so luck!

The latest computer forecast models show that the trough to our west will keep pumping moisture into our area of the north central Pacific. It’s rather interesting, that a fairly constant stream of showery clouds have been moving over Hawaii. To the east and west, there are not so many clouds! Eventually we will dig ourselves out of this wet weather pattern, or should that be bail ourselves out!? I’d say we will be looking at better weather right after the upcoming weekend, at least that’s the latest thought in the meteorology field.

It’s late Friday afternoon here in Kihei, Maui. I just got off work, and am REALLY looking forward to having the weekend off! Just before I left work, I was interviewed by National Public Radio (NPR) about the extended period of heavy rainfall here in Hawaii during the month of March. I’ve been talking about, and describing this flooding rainfall event for the better part of six weeks now…and so am starting to sound like a broken record…at least to myself! I got to the beach today at lunch again, and besides the dirty water, from all the silt that has run off the island into the ocean, it was fun. There was actually some nice bodysurfing waves breaking, which always helps to make my day. As usual, the big question on everyones lips is: “when will this rainy weather stop!?” I believe we’re heading out of this mess now, although it may take another couple of days to break totally free. I’d say next week should be a much different story than this past week. I hope you have a great Friday night, I guess I’ll go see the new Sharon Stone film, called Basic Instinct 2, and then either go surfing or kayaking Saturday. I’ll be back first thing in the morning to update this page with the latest weather news. Aloha for now…Glenn.

p.s. As a way of thanking my link sponsors, and drawing your attention to the great sites on the left hand margin of all my webpages, I’m highlighting each of them individually. Today’s business is A Happy Maui Wedding…providing Maui Wedding Planning and Packages. “We are a small family operation. A fun-loving husband and wife team. We have more than 20 years of wedding and hospitality industry experience between the two of us. Happy Maui Weddings are simply, a way of life for us. We have no desire to be the biggest wedding company on Maui, we don’t even have a toll-free number or credit card acceptance ability. What we do have is a lot of heart, a desire to be innovative and a wealth of knowledge acquired here on Maui. We also have a low overhead, which translates into Happy Wedding Prices for you!”

This website receives between 6,000 and 19,000+ page impressions per day, depending upon the weather and the season. As of early Friday night, March’s total count has been 411,773. That’s a lot of folks looking at all the pages on this site, including the new and useful links on the left hand margin on all the pages of this website. This will be all the links that I’ll be taking until June…thanks to all the businesses who are sponsoring Hawaii/Maui Weather Today!