Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha paragraphs / January 14-15, 2013

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

Lihue, Kauai –                         M  
Honolulu airport, Oahu –          78  
Molokai airport –                     80
Kahului airport, Maui –            83 
Kona airport     –                    81   
Hilo airport, Hawaii –           84

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops around the state…as of 430am Tuesday morning:

Kahului, Maui – 70
Port Allen, Kauai – 63

Haleakala Summit –   39       (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Loa Summit –  37      (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…if it's available.

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.  The 2012 hurricane season is over in the eastern and central Pacific…resuming on May 15th and June 1st 2013.

Aloha Paragraphs

High Surf Advisory…large waves on the north and east shores

Small Craft Advisory for all coastal waters…except
Maalaea Bay, Maui
 
Our winds will become northerly after a weak cold front
dissipates across the state today

~~~Air temperature at 530am HST Tuesday morning,
  cloudy and calm…at my upcountry Kula, Maui
weather tower: 59.9F degrees~~~

The following numbers represent the most recent top wind gusts (mph), along with directions as of Monday evening:

20       Mana, Kauai – NNW
33       Honolulu airport, Oahu – NW
27       Molokai – NW     
18       Kahoolawe – SW
32       Kula 1, Maui – SW 
17       PTA West, Big Island – NW

Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of late Monday evening:
 
1.97          Kalaheo, Kauai
1.75          Palehua, Oahu
0.49          Molokai
0.00          Kahoolawe
0.00          Lanai
0.07          Mahinahina, Maui
0.51          Pahoa, Big Island  

We can use the following links to see what’s going on in our area of the north central Pacific Ocean.  Here's the latest NOAA satellite picture – the latest looping satellite image…and finally the latest looping radar image for the Hawaiian Islands.

                   ~~~ Hawaii Weather Commentary ~~~ 

Our winds have been gusty in places today, blowing generally from the north on Kauai and Oahu…and from the southwest across the rest of the state.  Here's a weather chart still showing a strong, extra large 1040 millibar high pressure center, far to the northeast of Hawaii. Our local air flow is from the southwest ahead of a cold front…and will remain that way until the front moves through, with cooler northerly breezes following for several days. 

Here's a satellite image, showing clouds over most areas this evening, thanks to a dissipating cold front…and the band of clouds out ahead of it near Maui County.  Here's a larger satellite view showing the classic, comma-shaped cold front over Kauai at the time of this writing. There's a section of this cold front that extends out ahead of the main front, which was over Maui County. This area of pre-frontal showers brought rainfall to Kauai Sunday night, Oahu Monday morning, and reached Maui County during the afternoon into the evening hours. The actual cold front itself is weakening quickly, although what's left of it will push down into the state over Kauai, reaching Maui County Tuesday morning…where it will likely dissipate. Besides the showers this frontal boundary brings, it will usher in cooler northerly breezes for several days. 

Looking further ahead, the models continue pointing out another cold front, which will bring showers our way Friday into the weekend…with a rather impressive surge of cool north to northeast winds in its wake.  In sum: the cold front, with showers out ahead of it, will keep precipitation falling across parts of the state tonight into Tuesday. The front is reaching Kauai this evening, and will then slowly move over Oahu tonight, reaching Maui County tomorrow morning. This moisture will be very welcome, as many parts of the state need rainfall in a big way! Finally, our local winds, after being quite light for several days, are now back into the locally strong and gusty realms. These winds will veer to the north as the front falls apart, keeping slightly chilly weather in place over the state through Thursday. I'll be back early Tuesday morning, with more updates on this situation. I hope you have a great Monday night wherever you're spending it! Aloha for now…Glenn.

World-wide tropical cyclone activity:

Atlantic Ocean/Caribbean Sea:  There are no active tropical cyclones

Gulf of Mexico: There are no active tropical cyclones

Eastern Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones

Central Pacific Ocean:  There are no active tropical cyclones

Western Pacific Ocean:  There are no active tropical cyclones

South Pacific Ocean:  There are no active tropical cyclones 

North and South Indian Oceans:   Tropical cyclone 09S (Emang) remains active in the South Indian Ocean…located approximately 525 NM southeast of Diego Garcia. Sustained winds were 35 knots, with gusts to near 45 knots. This tropical cyclone will remain at this strength, then gradually intensify as it remains over the open ocean. Here's the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) graphical track map, along with a satellite image.

Interesting facts:  Because of its continuous volcanic eruptions, Hawaii is the only state in the nation to have an increasing land area / Hawaii is the only state in the nation that grows coffee, has tropical rainforests, and is made completely of islands / The only land snake to be found in the wild in Hawaii is the tiny Hawaiian blind snake, which is thought to have arrived in plant soil brought from the Philippines in 1929 to landscape the Kamehameha School grounds on Oahu.