Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Monday:
Lihue, Kauai – 78
Honolulu airport, Oahu – 83 (record high temperature for the date…89F degrees – 1995)
Kaneohe, Oahu – 79
Molokai airport – 76
Kahului airport, Maui 80
Kona airport 80
Hilo airport, Hawaii – 76
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 – 81
Kapalua, Maui – 73
Haleakala Crater – 43 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea – 27 (near 13,800 feet on the Big Island)
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. Here's the Haleakala Crater webcam on Maui…which is working only sometimes lately.
Aloha Paragraphs
Less windy, localized showers…some heavy
Flash flood watch Oahu, Maui County, and the Big Island…
Flash flood warning over parts of Oahu
As this weather map shows, we find a 1026 millibar high pressure system located far to the northeast of the Hawaiian Islands Monday evening. This high pressure cell has an elongated ridge that runs from the center southwest, and generally westward across the International Dateline…into the western Pacific. This ridge is positioned to the north of the state, which will keep our trade winds blowing, although will be subdued to some extend by a trough of low pressure draped over the state now.
The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph), along with directions Monday evening:
33 Lihue, Kauai – NE
24 Waianae Valley, Oahu – NW
21 Molokai – NE
21 Kahoolawe – ENE
30 Kahului, Maui – NNE
18 Lanai – NE
21 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 evening. Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we find that high and middle level cloudiness stretches across Maui County and the Big Island, leaving Oahu and Kauai nearly clear at the time of this writing. We can use this looping satellite image to see this high level moisture streaming up from the southwest, over the eastern islands. This cloudiness masks the lower level showers that are being carried our way on the trade wind flow. Checking out this looping radar image we see showers over the ocean, most of which are in the light to moderately heavy category, the most active areas are coming into the windward sides…although there are showers falling elsewhere too.
Here are the 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Monday evening:
2.51 Mount Waialeale, Kauai
2.73 Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
0.01 Molokai
0.00 Lanai
0.01 Kahoolawe
1.79 Puu Kukui, Maui
5.44 Kawainui Stream, Big Island
Sunset Commentary: The last 24-48 hours found lots of rainfall in the state, at least in many areas. There were those especially wet spots that saw as much as 7.00″+ amounts of precipitation! This cloudy and wet reality was thanks to a rather complex set of circumstances…which included low pressure systems in our area, both at the surface and aloft. At the same time, blustery trade winds were blowing this past weekend, which acted as a conveyor belt, carrying fuel (in terms of moisture), which fed the numerous showers, and even a few thunderstorms that were present. All of this necessitated a flash flood warning, which was active over all the islands until early this morning.
The clouds are still around, although not as extensive as what we saw both Saturday and Sunday. This satellite image shows what’s left of the high and middle level cloudiness, which remain over Maui and the Big Island…leaving Oahu and Kauai mostly free of these upper clouds. Meanwhile, there are lower level clouds too, although they pale in comparison to what we’ve seen lately. In order to see those lower clouds, or at least the rainfall they are bringing to the state, we have to turn to this looping radar image. Meanwhile, there’s been snow falling atop the Mauna Kea summit on the Big Island…viewable again once the sun comes back up again early Tuesday morning.
Peering into the future a bit further, the threat of thunderstorms has faded now, and will remain absent through the rest of this week. This doesn’t mean that we won’t see a few heavier showers through say Tuesday, although thereafter we are likely to grade into drier and more stable weather by mid-week. This more typical weather pattern will stick around through Thursday, with lighter east to southeast breezes blowing in general. These may or may not carry some volcanic haze up over the smaller islands, from the vent on the Big Island into Friday. Then, the forecast calls for a mostly retired cold front to approach the islands from the north, bringing an increase in showers around Friday…mostly along our windward sides. As we get into the weekend, our trade winds will return with fairly routine weather conditions supporting one of the last weekend shopping periods before Christmas.
Here in Kihei, Maui at around 530pm Monday evening, it was partly to mostly cloudy…with clearing skies to the west. Our off and on showery weather conditions will continue, with locally breezy winds, and a few more locally heavy showers falling at times. The chilly air aloft continues to make the overlying atmosphere unstable and shower prone. The threat of heavy rains will continue to ease up a little more though. As we move into the middle of the week into Thursday, our weather will improve, with lighter winds, and likely drier conditions prevailing. As we reach Friday, we're scheduled to find a frontal cloud band bring increased windward showers. Then, this coming weekend should return to a trade wind weather pattern, with just the typically windward biased showers, and more sunshine for our leeward beaches. ~~~ As noted above, we see those pesky high and middle level clouds shifting eastward, perhaps finally leaving us alone by Tuesday. I have all these folks who keep asking me "when are we going to see the sunshine again Glenn?" Lets hope by tomorrow this will come to fruition, I'll address this issue first thing Tuesday morning, when I have your next new weather narrative available, right around 530am HST. I hope you have a great Monday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.
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