Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs

A high pressure system to our northeast is weighing in at a robust 1039 millibars Sunday evening,certainly strong enough to keep breezy trade winds blowing into Monday. These winds are blustery enough to keep a small craft wind advisory active in those windiest areas around the state. These late winter trade winds are expected to remain active through the next week. The latest computer models show an unusually strong high pressure system forming around the middle of the new week, which will keep the trade winds strong and gusty through Friday…gradually tapering off a little by next weekend.  
 
There will be some showers carried into the windward sections on these gusty trade winds, especially on the Big Island end of the state. An upper level trough of low pressure has edged into the area around the Big Island. This will help to destabilize the atmosphere, enough to enhance the incoming showers along the windward sides. The cold air aloft, associated with the trough aloft, may spark a few thunderstorms over the Big Island as well. As the trade winds are quite strong, a few showers may be carried over into the leeward sections here and there. 

It’s Sunday evening as I begin writing this last paragraph of today’s narrative. There appears to be no end to the trade wind episode that now is well established here in Hawaii. These winds are currently quite strong, thanks to the hefty 1039 millibar high pressure system far to the northeast of the islands. The computer forecast models show an even stronger 1040+ millibar high pressure system taking shape by Tuesday into Wednesday. If this high pressure cell manifests as the models point out, we would see gale warnings in some of the major channels around Maui and the Big Island. There could even be wind advisories over the islands in places. This is of course not to mention the current small craft wind advisory that is already up across all of Hawaii’s marine environment! ~~~  Satellite imagery shows that there are clouds being carried our way on the trade winds, which are blowing at the lower levels of the atmosphere. Here’s a looping radar image, which will identify showers as they occur over and around the islands too. At the same time, we see high cirrus clouds, being carried over us by the high altitude winds. The combination will keep our local skies somewhat more cloudy than usual. The leeward beaches will have the best opportunity for sunshine, although in those areas where the high clouds are streaming overhead, it may be limited there as well. ~~~ Sunday was quite a cloudy day, thanks in large part to the ice crystal cirrus clouds that are getting a free ride over the islands, carried by the jet stream level winds aloft. There were off and on showers spilling from the lower level cumulus and stratocumulus clouds along the windward sides. I spent most of the day at home, luxuriating in the free time off from work. I took a quick drive down through the pasturelands between Kula and Makawao, to do some shopping. Mostly though, I just read and talked on my cell phone, enjoying the opportunity to just hang out in the peaceful reality of Kula, Maui. I must say, or forget the must, I would say that the upcountry area of east Maui is certainly one of the greatest places on Earth to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon. ~~~ I will make a corn and potato soup soon, which is the first time I’ve ever really done that. I have all the organic ingredients, and will see what I can do as I go down the stairs from this weather tower into my living area below. As I finish off this second narrative of the day, I’m listening to the great song Stairway to Heaven, played by Led Zeppelin…what better song is there really!?  I hope you have a great Sunday night wherever you are spending it, and that you will meet me here again on Monday. I will get up around 4am Monday morning to prepare your next new weather narrative from these most beautiful Hawaiian Islands of ours! Aloha for now…Glenn.

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s life may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.