Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha paragraphs / October 11-12, 2011

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

Lihue, Kauai –                   84
Honolulu airport, Oahu –   88   (record high for the date – 93 in 1979)
Kaneohe, Oahu –               83
Molokai airport –                84
Kahului airport, Maui –        85  
Kona airport                      86
Hilo airport, Hawaii –          84

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

Barking Sands, Kauai – 83
Hilo, Hawaii – 78

Haleakala Crater –     50 (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:

0.40     Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.19     Manoa Lyon Arboretum, Oahu
0.00     Molokai
0.00     Lanai
0.10     Kahoolawe
0.33     Oheo Gulch, Maui
0.31     Kealakekua, 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 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. This web cam is 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. The Haleakala Crater webcam on Maui just came back online, after being on the blink for several weeks.

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…full moon
 
 

Our trade winds will remain locally breezy today although becoming gradually lighter through Thursday.  Glancing at this weather map, it shows a strong 1038 millibar high pressure system far to our northwest, with a weaker 1022 millibar high pressure cell to our northeast. There's an elongated cold front coming off the mainland, which runs southwest to near the International Dateline. We’ll start to get into a lighter wind flow going into and through the middle part of this week. This will occur due to the cold front pushing our trade wind producing ridge down closer to the Aloha state. The trade winds will increase again temporarily Friday and Saturday, pushing the cold front down into the state then. A slightly cooler air from the northeast will blow through Saturday night, giving way to yet another slow down in the wind flow….as a second cold front approaches from the north and northeast…prompting light southerly breezes ahead of that second cold front early next week.  

Trade winds continue…the following numbers represent the strongest gusts (mph), along with directions Tuesday evening:

18                 Port Allen, Kauai – NE
16                 Bellows, Oahu – NE
24                 Molokai – NE
21                 Kahoolawe – ESE
25                    Kapalua, Maui – NE
13                 Lanai – NE
25                    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 Tuesday evening. Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we find low clouds generally offshore of the islands…although they are being carried over the windward sides of the islands locally. We can use this looping satellite image to see those low clouds moving along in the trade wind flow. There are high level clouds located offshore, sweeping across the islands at the time of this writing…especially over the central islands and the Big Island too. Checking out this looping radar image we see a few showers over the ocean, moving along in the trade wind flow, impacting the windward sides in places.

Sunset Commentary:  The trade winds will continue, although will be going through some changes going forward. They are blowing in the light to moderately strong range at this point, and as such…the National Weather Service has discontinued their small craft wind advisories around Maui County and the Big Island. They will remain a bit softer than they have been into Friday. As we get into later Friday into Saturday they will pick up some, and in the process push a weak cold front down into the state. This in turn will increase our windward biased showers, and may even carry some of them into the leeward sides locally.

Following this frontal passage on Saturday, the air will dry out and may feel slightly cool for a short period.  It won’t be long before our local winds begin to veer from north-northeast or northeast, around to east…and perhaps all the way around to the south later Sunday or Monday. We haven’t seen southerly kona winds since way back earlier in the year, although this of course accompanies the beginning of our tropical rainy season. This second cold front might turn out to be the more generous of the two, in terms of precipitation. We still have time to fine tune the exact details over the next several days.

Here in Kihei, Maui at around 545pm HST Tuesday evening, skies were partly to mostly cloudy, with the trade winds blowing pretty swiftly. Despite the cloudiness, there weren't that many showers falling around the state, nor here on Maui. It looks like generally fine weather, albeit it a bit more cloudy than usual, will be present through the next few days. The trade winds will back off some, and that often prompts more than the normal amount of afternoon clouds, and a few showers over the interior parts of the islands. The Haleakala Crater has lots of clouds along the slopes this evening, evidence of this afternoon cloud increase. ~~~ Speaking of the Haleakala Crater, that's exactly where I'm headed now, as I take the drive back upcountry to Kula. I'll find tonight's October full moon shining brightly as I drive up that way, and shining in my weather tower windows all night too. I'll be back early Wednesday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Tuesday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting: Scientists have demonstrated a clear link between the 11-year sun cycle and winter weather over the northern hemisphere for the first time. They found that low solar activity can contribute to cold winters in the UK, northern Europe and parts of America.

But high activity from the sun has the opposite effect. The study helps explain why the UK has been gripped by such cold winters over the last few years: the sun is just emerging from a so-called solar minimum, when solar activity is at its lowest.

'Our research establishes the link between the solar cycle and winter climate as more than just coincidence,' says Dr Adam Scaife from the UK's Met Office, one of the study's authors.

The findings, published in Nature Geoscience also raise the tantalising possibility that the regularity of the solar cycle might help weathermen predict cold winter weather over the northern hemisphere.

'We've been able to reproduce a consistent climate pattern, confirm how it works, and quantify it using a computer model. This isn't the sole driver of winter climate over our region, but it is a significant factor and understanding it is important for seasonal to decadal forecasting,' says Scaife.

Up until now, researchers have only managed to see a weak link between solar activity and winter weather: when the sun is less active, we're more likely to see weak westerly winds during the winter in the northern hemisphere. This pattern suggests that easterly winds could bring cold weather from the continent to the UK.