May 2 – 3 2006

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

Lihue, Kauai – 79F
Honolulu, Oahu – 79
Kaneohe, Oahu – 78
Kahului, Maui – 79
Hilo, Hawaii – 78
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii – 84

Temperatures early Tuesday morning ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level at the 3 a.m. hour:

Kailua-kona – 72
Mololokai 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:

0.13 KOKEE, KAUAI
0.01 PUNALUU, OAHU
0.00 MOLOKAI
0.00 LANAI
0.00 KAHOOLAWE
0.11 WEST WAILUAIKI, MAUI
0.28 HAKALAU, BIG ISLAND

Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map…showing a low pressure system to the north of the islands. The placement of this low will keep the trade winds out of our area for the time being…gradually returning later Wedesday or 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 available during the daylight hours here in the islands…and when there’s a big moon rising just after sunset for an hour or two! Plus, during the nights and early mornings you will be able to see stars, and the sunrise too…depending upon cloud conditions.

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

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A beautiful sunrise in Hawaii



The low pressure system to our NE is drifting southeastward and southward to the latitude of the Islands while weakening. The closed low is gradually opening up and becoming an inverted trough in the trade wind easterlies. This trough will then move westward across the Islands during midweek with the present light northerly winds gradually changing from NE to E to SE over the next few days leading into the weekend. These winds will be mostly light with periods of calm. As long as the winds are from northerly quadrants, they will be cool and dry. Some increase in moisture and temperature is forecasted toward the end of the week.

The light winds presently over our area is causing good diving conditions along most shorelines. The windsurfing, however, is of course not the best under these conditions. As for surfing, an increase in surf along the south shores is expected beginning Wednesday courtesy a storm in the southern hemisphere a few days ago. This south swell should last several days. Even though winds are light here at the surface, the flow aloft is fairly fast. The northwesterly winds aloft on the west side of the low and trough to our ENE are extending down to the summit areas of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa with windy conditions there near 14,000 feet. Slightly breezy conditions can also be expected over Mount Haleakala at 10,000 feet.


We are now getting into the month of May and the sun is very powerful. Be sure to protect yourself against the harmful rays of the sun. At our latitudes near 20N, the sun is already almost vertical overhead at local noon, which is about 12:30 pm standard time. Let us take a minute to explain standard time versus solar time. By standard time, we mean that we have partitioned the earth into 24 time zones each 15 degrees longitude wide. The zero degree longitude was chosen as the one that runs through the Greenwich Observatory in London. The Hawaiian time zone is based on the 150W longitude line, or 10 hours from the Greenwich time. The International Dateline is close by to our west at 180 degrees W or E. Since each time zone is 15 degrees longitude wide, we theoretically have to add and subtract 7 1/2 degrees to get the width of the standard time zone. This in the case of Hawaii’s zone would be from 142.5W to 157.5W. Hilo is at 155W and Oahu at 157W and Niihau at 160W. Thus anything west of Oahu technically belongs within the next time zone centered on 165W. We would of course not want to split Kauai and Niihau off from the rest of the state, so their day is slightly skewed with respect to solar time with solar noon a few minutes after 12:30. Since the sun moves across 15 degrees longitude in 60 minutes, it will take 20 minutes to move the 5 degrees longitude from Hilo to Niihau. This way you can compute the time of local noon around the Islands. This calculation also works for sunrise and sunset times around the equinoxes. However, since the daylength increases northward in the summertime and decreases in that direction in winter, the calculations become slightly more complicated outside the times of the equinoxes, but as a rough approximation the sun rises and sets 20 minutes earlier in Hilo than on Niihau.

Much Aloha to you all from Hans substituting for Glenn.