Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha Paragraphs / May 9-10, 2013

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

80  Lihue, Kauai
82  Honolulu, Oahu
81  Molokai
87  Kahului, Maui
85  Kona, Hawaii
84  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 Thursday evening:

Kailua Kona – 80
Hilo, Hawaii – 73

Haleakala Summit –   46 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 36 (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

Wind Advisory…Big Island summits

Nice weather with just a few showers, light winds…
returning trade winds late Friday into the weekend

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

21  Mana, Kauai – NW
22  Kuaokala, Oahu – NNE
09  Molokai – SE
09  Kahoolawe – NW
12  Lipoa, Maui – NE
15  Kaloko-Honokohau, Big Island – NW

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

0.07  Kokee, Kauai
0.16  Luluku, Oahu
0.00  Molokai
0.00  Kahoolawe
0.05  Hana airport, Maui
0.47  Glenwood, 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 ~~~

We’re nearing the end of this prolonged period of light winds. Here’s a weather chart showing high pressure centers far to the northeast and to the northwest of the state. At the same time, we find many low pressure systems to the north, with the tail-ends of associated cold fronts just to the northeast of the Big Island…and just north of Kauai. This keeps the islands sandwiched between these two very weak cold fronts, keeping light and variable winds in place into Friday, with returning trade winds later Friday into the weekend.

Satellite imagery shows more or less northeast to southwest cloud bands…stretched across the islands. As mentioned above, much of this cloudiness is around thanks to a couple of late season cold fronts in our area. Here’s the looping radar image, showing that despite this cloudiness, there are very few showers falling anywhere in the state. The Big Island was the one exception, as clouds and showers are arriving there…coming up from the south at the time of this writing. 


We’ll remain in a light wind, convective weather pattern Friday morning, then trades return later Friday into the weekend. These trade winds will arrive first over the Kauai end of the state, and then work their way down into Maui County and the Big Island by Saturday morning. There will be cloudy conditions on the slopes of our mountains again Friday afternoon…with possibly more of those locally generous showers on the Big Island. As the trade winds rebound, they will begin carrying some windward showers our way. This uptick in windward biased showers will likely start Friday evening into the weekend…which will continue into the first part of next week. By the way, it will take the rebounding trade winds to help clear the thick vog from many parts of the Big Island. Unfortunately, the trade winds will carry the volcanic emissions over to the Kona coast and slopes.

Here on Maui [530pm Thursday, HST]:  The day turned out to be another nice one, with the usual clouds over the slopes, and quite a bit of sunshine over the beaches. The trade winds are on the way, although won’t likely arrive here on Maui, and probably the Big Island too, before Friday night, and then continue well into next week. Showers will begin riding in on these trade winds, which may become quite numerous as we push into early next week, for several days…or more. This would be a great thing, as we need the water, badly. An upper level trough of low pressure is forecast to move over the eastern side of the island chain, our side of the state, which would wring out lots of showers from the clouds that around then. Interestingly, as I look down into the central valley from here in Kula, I see lots of what looks like vog! I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised, as our friends down on the Big Island have been over run with vog all week…and some of it seems to have slipped across the Alenuihaha Channel into our area again. Here in Kula, it was 72F degrees, while down at the Kahului airport at the same time, it was 83 degrees. I’ll be back with your next new weather narrative early Friday morning, I hope you have a great Thursday night wherever you happen to be 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 24S remains active in the South Indian Ocean…located approximately 820 NM east of Diego Garcia. Sustained winds were 40 knots, with gusts to near 50 knots. Here’s the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) graphical track map, along with a satellite image.

North Arabian Sea: Tropical cyclone 01B has formed in the Arabian Sea…located approximately 1009 NM south of Chittagong, Bangladesh. Sustained winds were 35 knots, with gusts to near 45 knots. Here’s the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) graphical track map, along with a satellite image.