Weather Details and Aloha Paragraphs

August 28-29 2006

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

Lihue, Kauai – 84F
Honolulu, Oahu – 84
Kaneohe, Oahu – 87
Kahului, Maui – 92
Hilo, Hawaii – 84
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii – 87

KANEOHE, OAHU – 79
HILO AIRPORT – 70

Precipitation Totals – The following numbers represent the largest precipitation totals (inches) during the last 24 hours (as of Tuesday morning) on each of the major islands:

Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map…showing a 1032 millibar high pressure center located far to the NNE of our islands. This high pressure cell will keep moderately strong trade winds blowing across our area through Wednesday.  Here’s a Weather Map Symbol page for clarification about what all those weather symbols mean on the map.

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.

Tropical Cyclone Activity – The eastern Pacific hurricane season runs from May 15 through November 30…while the central Pacific (where Hawaii is) runs from June 1 through November 30. The latest storm information for the eastern Pacific can be found by clicking here. A storm tracking map for both the central and eastern areas can be found by clicking here . For the central Pacific, the latest storm information can be found by clicking here.

 

  The warm ocean water in Hawaii
Photo Credit: flikr.com

The weather was rather sultry and unsettled this past weekend, although Maui and the Big Islands were the only places that ended up receiving locally heavy showers.  We saw low pressure systems both aloft and at the surface, which kept the prospect of showery weather active both days. Despite all the threatening conditions, showers turned out to be localized, although quite heavy here and there. The NWS forecast office in Honolulu issued flash flood advisories for the Big Island and Maui during the day Sunday. There were spotty thunderstorms that flaired up over the southern part of the state. We may see another round of afternoon clouds and showers Monday, but this will be coming to an end soon.

The low pressure system aloft that gave us our unstable atmospherics is in the process of moving away Monday.  Today will be a transition day, as we move back into a more normal trade wind weather weather pattern soon. As a matter of fact, the trade winds are already filling in from the east over the Big Island early Monday morning…and will overlap into the rest of the state into Tuesday. These returning trade winds will stick around through most of the rest of this week, contributing to favorably inclined late summer weather conditions. As the trade winds return, we’ll see sunny skies returning to the leeward coasts, with the usual showers falling most actively along the windward coasts and slopes during the night and early morning hours.

It’s early Monday evening here in Kula, Maui, as I start writing this sunset commentary.  It’s a much different situation here on the western flanks of the Haleakala Crater Monday evening…compared to Sunday evening. There are hardly any lower level clouds around, in contrast to the considerable clouds with thick fog swirling around yesterday…along with moderately heavy showers falling by the end of the day. There’s a bunch of high and middle level clouds streaming overhead this evening, which just started to arrive in the islands late in the afternoon. These will without a doubt light up into a beautiful sunset, with pretty pink and orange tints all around. I found calm beach conditions when I got down there at lunch, and as I was leaving again about 35 minutes later, the trade winds arrived, bringing their cooling relief from the high heat that had prevailed until then. Actually, the trade winds have been "on vacation" for the last several muggy days, which is rather unusual for this time of year. Too bad the webcam atop the Haleakala Crater doesn’t show color, so that you could see the high clouds light up. The Mauna Kea webcam does show color, but the high clouds hadn’t quite arrived there, at least when I just looked at 630pm. Both of those webcams are of course available for your viewing pleasure up in the weather details section of this page. I hope you have a great Monday night! Just like having the newspaper delivered to your front door, I’ll have your next weather narrative waiting for the reading on your computer screen first thing Tuesday morning. Aloha for now…Glenn.

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