Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs

Light to moderately strong trade winds will persist through this work week.  The latest weather map shows an area of high pressure far to the northeast of Hawaii…offshore from the San Francisco, California coast. Computer forecast models suggest that by this coming Friday into the weekend, our winds will get quite light. Low pressure in the middle latitudes of the central Pacific, will force our trade wind producing high pressure ridge down over the islands then. Our local winds will swing around to the southeast by Saturday and Sunday. Often when the air flow comes in from this direction we see volcanic haze move up over the Kona coast, and further up the island chain to Maui at times.

A high pressure ridge aloft will keep showers limited this week, and for the most part restricted to the windward coasts and slopes.  Whatever showers that do fall will be quite light, becoming most generous during the night and early morning hours. The south and west facing leeward sides will have a dry week, with lots of sunshine during the days. As the winds get softer this coming weekend, we will see some increase in clouds building up over and around the mountains during the afternoon hours. These interior clouds won’t drop many showers however, as the upper air ridge of high pressure will remain in place over the islands, limiting the showers then as well.

It’s Monday evening as I begin updating this last paragraph of today’s narrative.  This will be the first week in a long time that we could actually call fairly normal…in terms of weather at least. The one thing that remains somewhat unusual will be the long lasting period of trade winds that have blown this year so far. January was filled with trade winds, except for about a week…while February has seen trade winds blowing everyday so far. Typically, the trade winds would be less dominant during winter, with light and variable wind days, along with days with south to SW winds blowing more often here in Hawaii. Having said that, we’re expecting our winds to finally stop coming in from the trade wind direction this coming weekend. ~~~ As we embark on this new week, I see absolutely no problems, in regards to rainfall or strong winds. As a matter of fact, this should be a lovely week!  The leeward beaches especially will be in fine shape, making for very inviting conditions for our local residents, and of course all the visitors that are here as well. ~~~ The one thing that I notice that’s different this evening, compared to this morning, is the high level cirrus clouds that have moved in. This looping satellite image shows them dropping down from the north. As long as they’re around, we should have nice sunset and sunrise colors! ~~~ I’m starting to get excited about Valentine’s Day, as noted by the picture up the page. I like holiday’s in general, but Thursday is one of the more fun ones…having all to do with love and all! Love is… ~~~ I hope you have a good Monday night wherever you happen to be spending it! I’ll be back very early Tuesday morning, dark and early, with your next new weather narrative from paradise. Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting: It lived up to its name: The temperature in International Falls fell to 40 below zero Monday, just a few days after the northern Minnesota town won a federal trademark making it officially the "Icebox of the Nation.”  It was so cold that resident Nick McDougall couldn’t even get his car trunk lid to close after he got out his charger to kick-start his dead battery. By late morning, the temperature had risen all the way to 18 — below zero. "This is about as cold as it gets, this is bad. There’s no wind — it’s just cold,” said McDougall, 48, a worker at The Fisherman, a convenience store and gas station in the town on the Canadian border. "People just don’t go out, unless you have to go to work.”  Residents of the area use electric engine block heaters to keep their cars from freezing.  "You plug in your car, for sure, and you put the car in the garage if you can,” McDougall said. His garage is full of other things, so he had to park outside — a "big mistake.”  The previous record low in International Falls was 37 below, set in 1967, said meteorologist Mike Stewart at the weather service in Duluth. The cold was expected, he said: "When the winds finally died off and the skies cleared off, it just dropped.”