Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Monday:
Lihue, Kauai – 85
Honolulu airport, Oahu – 88 (record for Monday – 92 in 1979, 1984, 1987, 1990, 1997)
Kaneohe, Oahu – 82
Molokai airport – 83
Kahului airport, Maui – 87
Kona airport 85
Hilo airport, Hawaii – 83
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 – 85
Kahului, Maui – 78
Haleakala Crater – 45 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 45 (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:
0.68 Kilohana, Kauai
0.79 Manoa Valley, Oahu
0.15 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.05 Kahoolawe
1.09 Puu Kukui, Maui
0.48 Kaloko- Honaunau, Big Island
Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a near 1030 millibar high pressure system to the northeast of our islands. Our local trade winds will remain moderately strong through Wednesday…strongest around Maui and the Big Island.
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 wind weather pattern…showers
will be locally heavy into mid-week
Large surf south and west shores
The trade winds will continue, moderately strong into this new week…locally stronger around Maui County and the Big Island. Glancing at this weather map, we find a near 1030 millibar high pressure system to the north-northeast of our islands. Our local trade winds will remain moderately strong…strongest around Maui County and the Big Island. The latest computer forecast models suggest that our trade winds may falter to some extent this weekend.
Our trade winds will remain active…the following numbers represent the strongest gusts (mph), along with directions Monday evening:
16 Lihue, Kauai – NE
22 Kahuku, Oahu – ENE
25 Molokai – NE
27 Kahoolawe – ESE
30 Kahului, Maui – NE
18 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 Monday night. Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we find low level clouds in some directions, mostly over the ocean. We can use this looping satellite image to see lower level clouds moving into the state from the east. There are areas of thunderstorms over the ocean, far to the southeast and southwest…and high cirrus to the west and northwest of the islands. Checking out this looping radar image we see that there are quite a few showers around tonight, some of which are moderately heavy.
Sunset Commentary: Despite all the inclement weather in many parts of the world now, or at least recently, our islands remain favorably inclined. The trade winds, which haven’t been too strong, or too light for that matter, continue. This trend should remain in place, with the usual somewhat stronger and somewhat weaker flow…from day to day through Friday. The computer forecast models are telling us that an upper atmospheric low pressure system, will be moving fairly close by…to our north.
The cold air associated with such an area of low pressure is much colder than what would be expected during our summer months. This in turn will cause instability in our air mass, which typically enhances whatever showers that happen to be around. This will occur soon, say from now through Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. The NWS office in Honolulu has been talking about thunderstorms flaring-up in the area not too far north of Oahu and Kauai.
The windward sides however will likely see the most of this enhanced rainfall. As the trade winds will be blowing briskly, or what could be considered moderately strong, some showers may be able to find their way to the leeward sides…on the smaller islands. As we move beyond the middle of this new week, conditions should gradually return to more normal realms. The one exception to this statement could occur this weekend, when our trade winds become noticeably lighter…perhaps even taking us into a convective weather pattern- more on that tomorrow.
Otherwise, the other thing of note will be the rising surf along our south and west facing beaches. Already the NWS has issued a high surf advisory for these larger than normal waves, starting this afternoon. This entire week is likely to be more active than usual, as this late winter season in the southern hemisphere has been active with storms, of which, this is the surf having been generated by one such strong storm near New Zealand. The largest part of this swell will occur between this afternoon and Wednesday…gradually diminishing Thursday into Friday. In addition to this south swell, we may see a much smaller swell coming into our west shores Thursday into the weekend…generated by tropical cyclone Talas in the western Pacific.
Here in Kihei, Maui at 530pm HST Monday evening, skies were partly cloudy, with evidence of instability. This simply means that the clouds are growing taller than normal, and can lead to heavier showers than usual too. This afternoon during my lunch break, I could see some clouds that were stacking up over the small island of Lanai, which looked a bit like cauliflower. We'll see what happens tonight, and during the day Tuesday, as far as seeing some locally generous rainfall here and there. ~~~ I'll be back early Tuesday morning with your next new weather narrative. I hope you have a great Monday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
Extra: A satellite animation of tropical cyclone Irene's entire life
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