Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha paragraphs / November 17-18, 2011

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

Lihue, Kauai –                   80
Honolulu airport, Oahu –   85   (record high for the date – 90 in 1995)  
Kaneohe, Oahu –               81
Molokai airport –                83
Kahului airport, Maui          82 
Kona airport                      82
Hilo airport, Hawaii –          79

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

Barking Sands, Kauai – 81
Kapalua, Maui – 75

Haleakala Crater –     M (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Loa Summit – 43 (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:

1.75     Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.16     Nuuanu Upper, Oahu
0.00     Molokai
0.00     Lanai
0.02     Kahoolawe
0.12     Puu Kukui, Maui
2.52     Glenwood, 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

  Partly to mostly cloudy, strengthening
trade winds – windward showers locally

As this weather map shows, we find a 1030 millibar high pressure system located to the northeast of the Hawaiian Islands Thursday night.  At the same time, there's a 1022 millibar low pressure system parked to the north of Hawaii, with its short cold front extending southward from its center…along with a trough of low pressure over the ocean well west of the islands. Our trade winds will build in strength Friday, which will remain on the stronger and gust into next week.

The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph), along with directions Thursday evening:

24                 Port Allen, Kauai – ENE
22                 Bellows, Oahu – NE
29                 Molokai – NE
33                 Kahoolawe – SE
28                 Kahului, Maui – NE
14                 Lanai – NE
35                    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 early Thursday night. Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we can't see any lower level clouds, due to the copious amount of cloudiness being carried overhead from the west and southwest. We can use this looping satellite image to see a counterclockwise rotating low pressure system well west of Kauai. This low is like a conveyor belt, dragging considerable amounts of high and middle level clouds over our island chain. Checking out this looping radar image we see  showers falling locally over the ocean, most of which are light, although a few are heavier to the southwest of Kauai. It appears that the Big Island continues to receive quite a few showers as well.

Sunset Commentary:   Despite the extensive cloudiness that overlies the island chain at the moment, not all that much precipitation is falling. This is primarily due to the higher altitudes that these clouds reside at the moment. These include the high icy cirrus, and the middle level altostratus varieties. These clouds generally aren’t known for their precipitating qualities, although are infamous to our local sun worshippers…for their sun muting and filtering capabilities. Nonetheless, there have been some showers around, falling from lower level clouds, especially over the Big Island, and to a lesser degree Kauai during the last 24+ hours.

This satellite image shows that there are lots of clouds around, in no uncertain terms! The majority of this multi-layered cloudiness is well southwest, south, and southeast of our islands at the moment.The northern fringe of this stuff extends over the state, and to the northeast. The source of this cloudiness is the deep tropics, scooped-up by the counterclockwise air circulation associated with an upper level trough/low pressure to our west. The computer forecast models are suggesting that this cloudier than normal reality will stick around likely through the rest of this week.

As for our winds, they will be generally from the NE to east, the trades. As this weather map shows, we still have a large 1030 millibar high pressure system to our northeast. It will provide gradually increasing trade wind speeds, with the gusts already topping 30 mph in a few of those windier locations around the state. The winds are anticipated to kick up even more on Friday into the weekend, thus we now find an active small craft wind advisory over those windiest places around Maui County and the Big Island. These winds will continue to be rather strong and gusty this weekend into at least early next week.

Looking further afield (I mean over the ocean), we have an area of disturbed weather active in the far eastern Pacific, offshore from southern Mexico. This satellite image, with an orange circle around this disturbance…has a 30% chance of developing into a tropical cyclone. It is the only such area of disturbed weather anywhere in the world at the moment. The computer models are showing it spinning up into something with time…we’ll see. It poses no danger to the Hawaiian Islands whatsoever.

Here in Kihei, Maui at around 530pm Thursday evening, there were lots of clouds that were blanketing all of the islands. This looping satellite image shows these clouds covering much of the Aloha state, with very few clear spots anywhere in sight. The most serious precipitation associated with these weather conditions remain over the ocean to the southwest of Kauai. This isn't leaving the islands high and dry, although Kauai and the Big Island have had the most rainfall thus far. As the stronger trade winds arrive Friday into the weekend, we will see a corresponding increase in showers along our windward coasts and slopes. There may be some light showers carried over into the leeward sides of the islands at times too. The main thing will be the continued presence of cloudy skies, with just a few breaks in the overcast here and there, into the weekend time frame. Hang in there folks, as we dig deeper into our autumn season, it could be worse. I'll be back early Friday morning with your next new weather narrative, here in our cloudy paradise of Hawaii. I hope you have a great Thursday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn. 

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Regulators hope to finalize the proposal by summer following a 60-day public comment period. The administration wants to give industry five years to develop fuel-saving technologies further and plan products before the rule would start taking effect in 2017.

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Current standards require automakers to raise efficiency from 27 mpg today to 35.4 mpg by 2016. Targets beginning in 2017 would require a 5 percent annual efficiency gain for cars and 3.5 to 5 percent for light trucks, which include SUVs, pickups and vans.

Thirteen major automakers, including General Motors Co, Ford Motor Co, Fiat SpA affiliate Chrysler Group LLC, Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co Ltd, have signed on to the fuel deal. Automakers – especially truck-heavy U.S. vehicle producers – consider the 54.5 mpg target ambitious and the proposal estimates it could cost them $157 billion to meet it.

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