Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Tuesday:
Lihue, Kauai – 86
Honolulu airport, Oahu – 89 (record for Tuesday – 92 in 1997)
Kaneohe, Oahu – 84
Molokai airport – 83
Kahului airport, Maui – 87
Kona airport 86
Hilo airport, Hawaii – 85
Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops…as of 5pm Tuesday evening:
Port Allen, Kauai – 86
Kaneohe, Oahu – 81
Haleakala Crater – 46 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 41 (over 13,500 feet on the Big Island)
Here are the 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Tuesday evening:
0.17 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.51 Manoa Lyons Arboretum, Oahu
0.10 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.00 Kahoolawe
0.89 Ulupalakua, Maui
0.29 Saddle Quarry, 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 winds through the week, strengthening Thursday –
Some increase in showers…locally tonight into Thursday
The trade winds will continue blowing in the light to moderately strong range through mid-week…then increase a some Thursday into the weekend. Glancing at this weather map, showing a near 1023 millibar high pressure system to the northeast of our islands. Our local trade winds will remain generally in the light to moderately strong realms Wednesday…gradually increasing Thursday.
Our trade winds will remain active…the following numbers represent the strongest gusts (mph), along with directions Tuesday evening:
14 Lihue, Kauai – NE
17 Kahuku, Oahu – NNE
20 Molokai – NE
22 Kahoolawe – NE
25 Kapalua, Maui – NE
04 Lanai – NE
23 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 Tuesday evening. Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we find just a scattered clouds…mostly over the ocean offshore from the islands at the time of this writing. There were some rather thick clouds stacking up over the interior sections on some of the islands too. We can use this looping satellite image to see the low clouds moving along in the easterly trade wind flow, although not many at the time of this writing. Meanwhile, there are impressive thunderstorms far to our south and southwest…with high cirrus being carried along in the strong high level winds…just south of the islands at the time of this writing. Checking out this looping radar image we see very few showers around, most of which are falling over and around the eastern islands, which should increase some tonight along our windward sides…into Wednesday morning.
Sunset Commentary: Besides the relatively cold air associated with an upper level low pressure system moving by to our north, and the possible increased showers associated with that…nothing much is going on at the moment. There certainly isn’t anything that is jumping up and down, trying to draw our attention. Late summer is often like this, especially when there’s no active tropical cyclones in the eastern or central Pacific. The closest such storm is way over in the far northwestern Pacific, whose name is Roke.
As far as any showers go, there seems to be a distinct lack of moisture, at least according to this latest radar image. There’s a few falling from the afternoon convective clouds that are stacking-up over and around the mountains locally. This satellite image confirms the scarcity of low level clouds being carried our way on the light to moderately strong trade wind flow. We can see lots of high cirrus approaching from the south, which are the tops of thunderstorms in the deeper tropics in this satellite picture.
Things could always change, although referring to both the Navy NOGAPS and GFS computer models, it appears that there will be no cold fronts approaching the islands from the northwest, or tropical cyclones from the east or southeast. This outlook holds up through the remainder of our late summer season, another nine days. The flow of air remains quite zonal far to our north, meaning that the air is moving generally from west to east. There aren’t any big buckles in the jet stream, which is what often drives cold fronts down towards our islands, especially as we get into the autumn season…which starts on September 22nd this year.
Here in Kihei, Maui at 530pm HST Tuesday evening, skies were pretty cloudy, especially over and around the mountains…although spreading down towards the coast too. There have been off and on showers falling on the slopes of the Haleakala Crater this afternoon, which are still happening at the moment. There weren't any showers down here in Kihei, although there might have been down towards Makena Beach. The bulk of those showers seemed to have been concentrating their efforts up towards Ulupalakua. The windward sides may finally get into the act, although as noted above, satellite imagery shows a lack of moisture upstream at this time. As the night progresses however, we may begin to see an increase in showers over that way. ~~~ Right now I'm getting ready to head back upcountry to Kula. As usual, I'll meet you back here at 530am, or at least I'll have your next weather narrative reading for the reading then. I hope you have a great Tuesday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
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