Weather Details & Aloha Paragraphs

May 3-4 2007

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

 
    The beautiful purple flowered Jacaranda Tree 

Photo Credit: Flikr.com

The peak of this week’s windy weather has occurred, with some slight moderation of the gusty conditions starting today, and continuing into the first part of the upcoming weekend. Today’s weather map shows a hefty 1030 millibar high pressure system in a location NE of the state of Hawaii. Ridges run from the east and west flanks of this trade wind producing high pressure cell, extending to the International Dateline, then over into the eastern Pacific Ocean…paralleling the west coast of the Baja Peninsula offshore. This anticyclone will keep moderately strong winds across our area of the north central Pacific today…although with still a few 40+ mph gusts in those locally windiest spots. This air flow has taken on a ESE or even SE direction as it enters the Hawaiian coastal waters now. This orientation sets up some degree of a split as the winds wrap around the Big Island. This in turn creates to some degree a wind shadow effect in the downstream islands. It also brings some volcanic haze (vog) up from the Big Island, to the islands of Maui County, and even as far as some parts of Oahu. Thus, our local winds have begun to soften a little in places, at least compared to what we saw blowing earlier this week. The small craft advisory in the coastal waters has been scaled back…now covering only the Alenuihaha Channel between Maui and the Big Island of Hawaii, and the leeward waters of the Big Island. This slightly lighter wind flow from the ESE and SE will remain fixed through the next couple of days. The long range computer models suggest that already by Sunday, a new high pressure system to the NW will move into range of Hawaii, triggering a new upsurge in our trade wind speeds then into next week. The trade winds are expected to continue through the rest of next week, and if we use climatology as a guide…through much of the rest of this month.

Showers will be few and far between, most notably falling along the windward sides during the night and early morning hours.  Mid-level high pressure ridging remains in place over the islands, which will keep our local atmosphere quite stable and dry. The leeward sides will remain almost completely dry, except for a few stray showers sneaking over the lower mountains on the smaller islands. There are no organized rain producing systems on our weather horizon at this time, so that these dry weather conditions will persist for quite some time…at least through the rest of this week into the early part of next week.

It’s early Thursday evening here in Kula, Maui, as I begin writing this sunset commentary. Each day as I drive home to Kula, I keep wondering if this is the peak day for the blossoming Jacaranda Trees? Today seemed to me that, indeed yes, they are in full bloom now…which is such a lovely sight to behold! When you drive up through the pasturelands between Pukalani and Kula, all along the road there they are, with their magnificent purple flowers standing out so distinctly against the green grass on the slopes all around. The flowers are dropping now too, with little drifts of purple flowers piled up like a recent snowfall. Visitors and residents alike stop their cars, getting out to take pictures of this lovely sight. If you live here on Maui, now is the time to make the trip upcountry for your own Jacaranda sighting…although it will be happening through the next several weeks as well. I’ve tried however to pinpoint the climax of this event, and I’m quite sure that the next several days will qualify for this special occasion. I’ll try and find another couple of pictures of these gorgeous trees over the next several days. I hope you have a great Thursday night wherever you happen to be spending it, luxuriating under the still very large first near full moon of this month! I’ll meet you back here first thing Friday morning, what we call "Aloha Friday" here in the islands, with your next weather narrative. Aloha for now…Glenn. 

TV weather show online now:  It’s not exactly like watching it on your television, but it’s a fairly close approximation. Each day’s new show will replace the previous days show (Monday through Friday) at some point between 10am and noon (HST) in Hawaii. If you click here, it will take you to the website where it can be viewed. I want to thank the kind folks at the Maui Media Lab, located in Paia, Maui for this opportunity to show what’s happening weatherwise here in Hawaiian Islands! By the way, you will need to have a quicktime viewer on your computer to view the feed…you can get the free download here if it’s not already loaded on your machine.