Weather Details and Aloha Paragraphs

September 14-15 2006

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

Lihue, Kauai – 84F
Honolulu, Oahu – 87
Kaneohe, Oahu – 85
Kahului, Maui – 87
Hilo, Hawaii – 83
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii – 87

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

LIHUE, KAUAI – 77
MOLOKAI AIRPORT – 70

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

Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map…showing a 1025 millibar high pressure center located to the NE of our islands Friday. At the same time, there’s a deep storm far to the NNW of the islands. This low, with its early season cold front, is keeping our trade wind generating ridge close to the islands. The winds will be light to moderately strong trade winds today into Saturday…gradually strengthening now.  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.

 

A nice looking rainbow here in the islands
Photo Credit: flikr.com

We’ll find pretty typical trade wind weather conditions through Friday. A high pressure ridge is still quite close to Kauai, forced southward by an early season storm far to the NNW of Hawaii. As this storm gradually moves northward, our ridge will migrate slowly northward in its wake later this weekend. Until then we’ll find light trade winds blowing…although a little stronger in those windier places through Saturday. The latest models show the ridge moving further north by Sunday, with the trade wind speeds picking up a notch or two then into early next week.

Whatever showers that fall will be mostly restricted to the windward coasts and slopes, and around the mountains. Those windward sides will see a few more showers falling now than we’ve seen for a while…although nothing heavy is expected. The leeward sides in contrast will likely remain quite dry, although there may be a few afternoon showers around in places. As the winds are picking up a tad now, we should see a minor increase in showers along those windward coasts and slopes as we move forward from here. The Kona slopes on the Big Island may see a few showers falling during the afternoon hours, and along the Haleakala slpes as well, but again not much is expected.

The waves here in the islands have been small this week, although with at least some small surf around in most places. There’s been a couple of deep storms that generated new swells, which are heading in our direction now. Last week in the area down near New Zealand, a swell began, which will arrive here along our leeward sides later Friday into the weekend. Another swell was formed by a fairly close by storm to the NNW of the Hawaiian Islands this week, which should bring up the surf along our north shores Friday into the weekend as well. The local surf community is looking forward to this stuff!

It’s early Thursday evening here in Kula, Maui, as I start writing this post sunset commentary.   I saw something as I was driving up the Haleakala Highway that I haven’t seen for some time…a rainbow! Satellite imagery shows a cloud and shower area moving into the state, nothing serious, although it should bring us a modest increase in moisture. There turned out to be more clouds than I expected today, with some mostly light showers falling here and there…particularly in the upcountry areas. We need more precipitation now, if for no other reason than to push back the fire danger that we have going on now. At the same time, Maui’s upcountry areas have a water restriction in force now, which means that we’re coming up against some drought conditions. So, I’m hoping that we will get some much needed water falling from the skies, but I don’t hold too much hope that it will be enough anytime soon. We’re now facing an El Nino sitution too, which typically means that we’ll see less than the normal amount of rainfall during the autumn and winter months coming up. I’ll talk more about that soon. I hope you have a great Thursday night! I’ll be back early Friday morning with more weather information. Aloha for now…Glenn.

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