Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Thursday:
Lihue, Kauai – 82
Honolulu airport, Oahu – 87 (record for Thursday – 90 in 1988, 1992, 1995)
Kaneohe, Oahu – 80
Molokai airport – 85
Kahului airport, Maui – 87 (record for Thursday – 91 in 1996)
Kona airport 86
Hilo airport, Hawaii – 82
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops…as of 7pm Thursday evening:
Barking Sands, Kauai – 82
Kaneohe, Oahu – 75
Haleakala Crater – 52 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 48 (over 13,500 feet on the Big Island)
Here are the 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Thursday evening:
0.42 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.01 Punaluu Stream, Oahu
0.00 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.01 Kula, Maui
0.14 Kawainui Stream, Big Island
Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing high pressure systems to the northwest and northeast of our islands. Our local trade winds will remain active Friday and Saturday…blowing generally in the light to moderately strong category during the days.
Satellite and Radar Images: To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with this Infrared Satellite Image of the islands to see all the clouds around 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. Finally, here's a Looping IR satellite image, making viewable the clouds around the islands 24 hours a day. To help you keep track of where any showers may be around the islands, here’s the latest animated radar image.
Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live web cam on the summit of near 13,500 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 web cams are available during the daylight hours here in the islands…and when there’s a big moon shining down during the night at times. Plus, during the nights you will be able to see stars, and the sunrise and sunset too…depending upon weather conditions.
Tropical Cyclone activity in the eastern and central Pacific – Here’s the latest weather information coming out of the National Hurricane Center, covering the eastern north Pacific. You can find the latest tropical cyclone information for the central north Pacific (where Hawaii is located) by clicking on this link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. A satellite image, which shows the entire ocean area between Hawaii and the Mexican coast…can be found here. Here's a tropical cyclone tracking map for the eastern and central Pacific.
Aloha Paragraphs
Good weather into the weekend
The trade winds will continue blowing through the rest of this week, generally in the light to moderately strong category…becoming more gentle this weekend into the July 4th holiday on Monday. Glancing at this weather map, we find our primary high pressure systems located to our northwest through northeast Thursday night. The placement of these areas of high pressure, and their associated ridges, will keep our trade winds blowing. There are no wind or surf advisories in our coastal or channel waters…with none expected until perhaps the middle of next week.
Our trade winds will remain active…the following numbers represent the strongest gusts (mph), along with directions Thursday evening:
24 Port Allen, Kauai – NE
22 Honolulu, Oahu – NE
27 Molokai – NE
29 Kahoolawe – E
24 Kahului, Maui – NE
20 Lanai – NE
24 Upolu Point, Big Island – NE
We can use the following links to see what’s going on in our area of the north central Pacific Ocean Thursday night. Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we find just one streak of high cirrus clouds to the west of Kauai. At the same time we see patches and lines of lower level cumulus clouds surrounding the islands…over the ocean for the most part. We can use this looping satellite image to see low clouds being carried towards our windward sides by the trade winds. We find those high cirrus clouds finally pulling away to the west. Checking out this looping radar image we see just a couple of light showers being carried along in the trade wind flow, taking aim on our windward sides tonight.
Sunset Commentary: As we head towards the upcoming three day 4th of July holiday weekend, weather conditions remain cooperative for outdoor activities. The overlying atmosphere will take on an even more stable character going forward, which will have several influences:
1.) Our trade winds will become lighter, likely reaching their lightest aspect Sunday into Tuesday. This will leave us small craft wind advisory free, until perhaps around next Wednesday, when the trade winds increase enough that we could see advisories going up in those windiest coasts and slopes around Maui County and the Big Island. In addition, we could see some health issues where fireworks smoke isn’t being ventilated away…as it is when the trade winds are blowing at more normal levels.
2.) As the trade winds lose power, we will likely feel warmer days, with slightly cooler early mornings, right down to the coastal waters. This already began to happen Thursday morning, when the Kahului airport reported a 62F degree low temperature. This was 8-13 degrees cooler than that Maui airport has been running for the last several weeks at least.
3.) Showers will be limited everywhere, as a cloud capping inversion layer will hold cloud tops from growing vertically. This doesn’t mean that there won’t be a few showers along the windward sides, but we can think generally in terms of the opposite of flooding problems! The lighter winds, especially during the holiday weekend, may prompt afternoon clouds to form in the leeward upcountry areas, with a few minor sprinkles up that way too.
In sum: nice weather conditions, beckoning folks to be outside for family and friend get-togethers…like bbq’s and such.
I'm sorry about the late updating of my website this evening, I was having database issues with my web service provider. They are good however, and as quickly as they could, provided a solution, which got us back in business here. I'll be back again early Friday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Thursday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Interesting: A baby boom in the Republic of Ireland has seen the population soar to a level not seen in about 160 years. Preliminary figures published by the Central Statistics Office yesterday show Ireland has a population of 4,581,269 people. The area which now makes up the Republic of Ireland has not had a population figure that high since 1851, after more than a million people died from starvation and disease in the Great Famine.
Another two million were lost through decades of emigration, a trend finally reversed in Ireland's Celtic Tiger boom years, when it attracted a host of foreigners. Although growth has slowed since Ireland became an early victim of the Great Recession in 2008, strong birth rates have made up for the number of people leaving Irish shores.
Interesting2: Twitter users are sending 200 million tweets a day, up from 65 million a year ago, the micro-blogging service says. "For context on the speed of Twitter's growth, in January of 2009, users sent two million tweets a day," Twitter said in a blog post on Thursday.
The San Francisco-based Twitter was founded in 2006. It has more than 200 million users. According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, 13 per cent of the online US adults aged 18 and older use Twitter, up from eight per cent in November 2010.
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