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

Lihue, Kauai –                     72  
Honolulu airport, Oahu –      71   
Kaneohe, Oahu –                 73
Molokai airport –                  M
Kahului airport, Maui –      86  (Record high temperature for the date / 89 – 1953)
Kona airport –                     83
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 Friday evening:

Kailua-kona – 79
Princeville, Kauai – 68

Haleakala Crater –  34 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea –         30 (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 13,800 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…although this webcam is often not working correctly.

 Aloha Paragraphs

http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/RadarImg/hawaii.gif
 
  Localized showers/heavy rain on Kauai…perhaps Oahu 

Improvement Saturday into the new week, although still
a few windward biased showers locally…and windy

High Surf Advisory for the east shores

Wind Advisory for all islands except Lanai…
through Saturday at 6pm

Gale Warnings in the major channels and coastal
waters around Maui County and the Big Island

Water Consumption issue on Maui

As this weather map shows, we have high pressure systems far to the northeast and north-northwest of the islands. At the same time we have a low pressure system far to the northeast, with the tail-end of an associated cold front located over the ocean to the northeast. A trough of low pressure is over the Kauai end of the state. Our winds will be locally strong and gusty trades…into the weekend. 

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

30                 Lihue, Kauai – SE 
30                 Waianae Valley, Oahu – NNE 
32                 Molokai – E     
46                 Kahoolawe – ENE   
38                 Kaupo Gap, Maui – NNE     
14                 Lanai – SSW 
53                 PTA West, Big Island – SE

We can use the following links to see what’s going on in our area of the north central Pacific Ocean Friday evening.  Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we see lots of clouds surrounding the islands, with heavy rain producing clouds over some areas of the state at the time of this writing.  We can use this looping satellite image to see showery low clouds…along with those active heavy showers and thunderstorms centered around Oahu and Kauai for the most part at the time of this writing. Checking out this looping radar image we see showers, some locally heavy with thunderstorms, especially to the west of Oahu and around Kauai too.

Here are the 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Friday evening:
 
9.79              Hanalei, Kauai
8.15              Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu
1.01               Molokai
0.00               Kahoolawe
5.31              Puu Kukui, Maui
0.97               Kamuela, Big Island  

Sunset Commentary:  A counterclockwise rotating upper level low pressure system, over the ocean to the northwest of Kauai, is shown in this looping satellite image. At the same time, we find a trough of low pressure near Kauai. The two of these weather features, are what's left of our heavy rain producing agents here in the islands tonight. There is still that threat of flooding around Kauai, and to a lesser extent around Oahu, at least at the time of this writing. As this area of low pressure shifts westward away from the state Saturday and Sunday, our weather should begin to show some improvement…especially in terms of a less shower prone atmosphere. The main thing we're apt to notice most, besides the lack of thunderstorms for a change, will be the strong and gusty trade winds.

Satellite imagery shows a large area of heavy clouds and showers offshore to the northwest, north, northeast and east…as well as to the southwest of Oahu down through the Big Island, in other words…just about everywhere. This looping radar image shows this associated area of rainfall, with the yellow and red colors indicating the heaviest rainfall. I expect this locally heavy rainfall to remain active in an off an on manner through the night, with a drying trend this weekend. This should continue right on into the new work week ahead, and if things work out the way the computer models are showing now…we may be looking at a period of below normal rainfall coming our way starting later Monday! The trade winds will continue to blow into the new week, although will settle down into more normal conditions after the weekend.

I want to see the new film called John Carter, although as I've said here before, I try to skip the opening night of a new film…as is the case tonight. So, I'm going to see the film Wanderlust instead, starring Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd, which looks kind of cute. The synopsis: rattled by sudden unemployment, a Manhattan couple experiments with living on a rural commune where free love rules. The film rating website rotten tomatoes is giving this film a 60 rating out of 100, which isn't too bad. I'm willing to give it a try, after a very long week of weather coverage, it will be nice to just relax at the theater. I'll be sure to give you a review in the morning, when I'm back with your next weather narrative. Here's a trailer in case you're interested in taking a peek.

Here in Kula, Maui at 605pm HST, we had light breezes, with cloudy skies and no rain falling…and an air temperature of 65.3F degrees. To say the least, its been a very interesting weather week! Interesting may not be the right word, that is if you're a resident who saw flooding problems…or a visitor who simply wanted some sunny weather for crying out loud! We had an unusual array of weather features, including: waterspouts, a tornado that went ashore over the windward side of Oahu, 2-3 inch hail on that same Oahu coast, severe thunderstorms, a wind gust on the Big Island of over 60 mph, and then if that wasn't all enough…that copious rainfall which lead to incredible flooding in places! I expect things to mellow out this weekend, and then even more so during the upcoming new work week. I'll be back with your next new sunrise commentary Saturday morning. I hope you have a great Friday night, although watch out if a few leftover heavy showers happen to be falling where you are! Aloha for now…Glenn. 

Extra: Youtube music videos…Honolulu City Lights – Keola and Kapono Beamer

Interesting:  Is someone sending smoke signals from Mars? Sadly, no – but NASA's eagle-eyed Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has spotted a "dust devil" rising nearly a kilometer above the Red Planet's surface.

Dust devils are created when vortices of air – set in motion when warm air rises from the surface on an otherwise still day – pick up dust from the ground.

The dust reaches such great heights because of Mars's relatively low gravity. The devils were first seen on the Red Planet by NASA's Pathfinder rover in 1997 and are thought to be responsible for cleaning dust off the solar panels of the agency's Spirit and Opportunity rovers.

This dust devil was snapped on 16 February 2012 in an area in Mars's northern hemisphere known as Amazonis Planitia. Its sinuous shape comes from "a westerly breeze partway up the height of the dust devil", NASA says.