Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha Paragraphs / May 7-8, 2013

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

79  Lihue, Kauai
81  Honolulu, Oahu
79  Molokai
85  Kahului, Maui
M   Kona, Hawaii
83  Hilo, Hawaii

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops around the state… as of 810pm Tuesday evening:

Kailua Kona – 78
Hana airport, Maui – 70

Haleakala Summit –   46 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 39 (13,000+ 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 working.

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

Generally clear, cool mornings, afternoon clouds around
the mountains…just a few showers

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

17  Mana, Kauai – NNW
20  Waianae Harbor, Oahu – NW
09  Molokai – SE
10  Kahoolawe – NW
09  Lipoa, Maui – NNE
17  South Point, Big Island – SW

Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Tuesday evening:

0.02  Lihue, Kauai
0.02  Kahuku, Oahu
0.00  Molokai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.52  Kaupo Gap, Maui
0.18  Kealakekua, 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 Narrative ~~~

Our local winds will remain generally on the light side, although locally a bit stronger from the north around Kauai. Here’s a weather chart showing high pressure centers to the east, and far to the northwest. At the same time, we find low pressure systems just to the north…and then further to the north and north-northwest of Hawaii…with an associated trough of low pressure nearly stationary between Maui and the Big Island. It appears that the trade winds won’t play a part in our local weather picture until Friday afternoon into the weekend.

Satellite imagery shows clear to partly cloudy skies over the island chain…with cloudy conditions over the mountains on some islands. We’ll find the greatest amount of those clouds over and around the mountains, during the afternoon hours, after generally clear and slightly cool mornings. Most of the state should continue to see quite a bit of sunshine, at least in most coastal areas. Here’s the looping radar image, showing hardly any showers around at the time of this writing.

We’ll remain in a convective weather pattern, likely lasting through Friday morning. This means that we’ll see generally clear, cool mornings, giving way to cloudy afternoons on the slopes of our mountains. There may be a few showers, although nothing significant. As for our trade winds, and their associated windward showers, we’ll have to wait for them until later Friday into the weekend. Considering climatology, we should see a trade wind weather pattern next week, we’ll see.

Here on Maui [510pm Tuesday, HST]:  This second day of the week turned out to be quite nice, especially down along our lovely beaches. The light winds, and the residual moisture from showers yesterday, teamed up to give the mountain slopes quite a few afternoon clouds…and a few light showers too. I’ve had two very short, and very light showers here in Kula, at my place this afternoon into early this evening. I strongly suspect that clouds will clear all of the land areas here in Maui County tonight, leading to another beautiful, and slightly cool morning on Wednesday. Wednesday will act a lot like today, so it should be another enjoyable day in paradise. Looking down into the central valley, it looks hazy, although I’m not sure if that might just be a few light showers falling between here and there? Here in Kula, the air temperature was 68.7F degrees, while at the same time down at the Kahului airport, it was 81 degrees. I’ll catch up with you early Wednesday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Tuesday night! 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: There are no active tropical cyclones