Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs / July 11-12, 2011

Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Monday:  

Lihue, Kauai –                    85                  
Honolulu airport, Oahu –     87 (record for Monday – 91 in 1985)
Kaneohe, Oahu –                81
Molokai airport –                 84
Kahului airport, Maui –             86   
Kona airport                       84  
Hilo airport, Hawaii –           82

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops…as of 5pm Monday evening:

Barking Sands, Kauai  – 86
Hilo, Hawaii – 79

Haleakala Crater –     43 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 34 (over 13,500 feet on the Big Island)

Here are the 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Monday evening:  

0.39     Mount Wailuaiki, Kauai
0.33     Palisades, Oahu
0.08     Molokai
0.00     Lanai
0.00     Kahoolawe
1.23     West Wailuaiki, Maui
2.88     Waiakea Uka, Big Island

Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a 1035 millibar high pressure system to the north of our islands. Our local trade winds will remain active Tuesday and Wednesday.

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

Trade winds, off and on showers…locally generous
  Mango…ready to pick!

Moderately strong trade winds will prevail this week, perhaps accelerating later this coming weekend.  Glancing at this weather map, we find a moderately strong 1035 millibar high pressure system located to the north of the islands Monday night. This high pressure cell has ridges running both southwest and southeast from its center. This sprawling high dominates the Pacific from the International Dateline…across to the Baja California coast. There’s still no end in sight to our common summertime trade wind flow.

Our trade winds will remain active…the following numbers represent the strongest gusts (mph), along with directions early Monday evening: 

27                 Port Allen, Kauai – ENE  
23                 Honolulu, Oahu – NE 
30                    Molokai – ENE 
25                 Kahoolawe – E
28                 Kahului – SE
04                 Lanai – NE  
27                 South 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 Monday night.  Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we find cumulus clouds generally scattered, with lots open spaces between those clumps…with the greatest coverage around the Big Island and Maui to Oahu. We can use this looping satellite image to see low clouds being carried towards our windward sides by the trade winds. There are some moisture laden clouds around the islands, although none appear to be thunderstorms at the time of this writing. Thunderstorms are evident far to our southeast, southwest and west, out over the ocean. Checking out this looping radar image we see scattered showers being carried along in the northeast to easterly trade wind flow…although most over the ocean. There are heavier showers forming around the islands at times.

Sunset Commentary: Setting aside our ordinary July trade wind flow, the one weather feature of note is the cold air aloft over the state. This upper trough of low pressure has deepened our trades, making them an unusually deep at the moment. The air temperatures up high are cold enough to keep some degree of instability in our weather picture. There has even been some small talk in the met community about a chance of snow showers atop the summits of Mauna Kea/Loa on the Big Island.

This isn’t too surprising given the fact that the temperature fell into the upper 20’s early Monday morning…and were hovering at 32 degrees as of 5pm this evening. This cold air will allow taller than normal upward cloud growth, with the chance of localized heavy showers in turn. Just such heavy precipitation began falling this afternoon on the lee slopes of the Big Island, Maui and most recently Oahu. This radar image shows those showers falling at the time of this writing.

Looking a bit further into the week, things should fall back into place…for more normal weather conditions after mid-week. The trade winds will continue blowing, keeping some manner of passing shower activity around through the rest of this week, and as long as the trade winds are blowing for that manner. We’re in the heart of our summer trade wind flow now, which means that there isn’t any end point to this air flow well into the future.

There aren’t any tropical cyclones at the moment in the eastern Pacific, nor here in the central Pacific, which if they come close to our islands, or move by to our northeast and north…can abruptly stop the trade winds.  So, once we get through this couple of days of localized heavier showers at times, we should punch back into a very normal weather pattern…one that would match climatology quite well. Things can happen otherwise, and this year has been a good example of those sometimes surprising variations in a forecast theme.

Here in Kihei, Maui at 530pm HST Monday evening, skies were partly cloudy, many of which appear to be filled with a good amount of water! There were some locally heavy showers that fell in parts of Kula, Ulupalakua and Keokea, although they seem to be mostly over now. So, I'm taking off in a couple of minutes, for my drive back upcountry. I'll immediately be out on the road for my walk, if not sooner. I'll be back up and at em early Tuesday morning, preparing your next new weather narrative. I hope you have a great Monday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Extra: air temperature of 34F degrees at 5pm this evening, could we get some snow atop Mauna Kea on the Big Island today…in July?