Glenn James
Hawaii Weather Today
Creator, Author, and Administrator for over 30 years

 

The latest update to this website was at 115pm Saturday afternoon HST


Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands Saturday afternoon: 

1.67  Kilohana, Kauai
1.09  Manoa Lyon Arboretum, Oahu
0.68  Puu Alii, Molokai
0.08  Lanai City, Lanai
3.97  Puu Kukui, Maui
2.87  Waiakea Uka, Big Island


The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph) Saturday afternoon:

27  Lihue, Kauai – NE
27  Kuaokala, Oahu – NE
25  Molokai AP, Molokai – NE
32  Lanai 1, Lanai – NE
36  Kealaloloa Rg, Maui – NNE
35  Puuloa, Big Island – NW


Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of our tallest mountain Mauna Kea (~13,800 feet high) on the Big Island of Hawaii. Here’s the webcam for the (~10,023 feet high) Haleakala Crater on Maui. These webcams are available during the daylight hours here in the islands, and at night whenever there’s a big moon shining down. Also, at night you will be able to see the stars, and the sunrise and sunset too…depending upon weather conditions.


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Big Blue…click twice for largest version

 

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 Cold fronts far north…thunderstorms in the deeper tropics


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Clear to variable cloudy over the island chain…showers arriving on the trades 

 

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Localized Showers 

 

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Please open this link to see details on any current Watches, Warnings and Advisories noted above




~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~

 

Glenn’s Saturday comments:  I’m at home here in upper Kula, Maui, Hawaii

622am, it’s mostly clear here at my place, the low temperature was 57.5 degrees, relative humidity is 86%…with calm winds

733am, it’s quickly turned cloudy here in upper Kula

924am, now it’s quickly turned back to sunny to partly sunny here on Maui

 

Interesting Weather web blog: Mauka Showers…The Wet Dry Season of 2026

 

Hawaii’s Weather Highlights…as of Saturday afternoon: A high pressure system will linger north of the Hawaiian Islands, producing moderate to breezy trades through the middle of next week, with minor fluctuations in speed. Brief pulses of enhanced showers will roll through on the trades during this time period, with showers favoring windward mountain areas in the overnight to early morning hours.

Short Term Update: This morning`s eruption of Kilauea ended at 903am. Therefore, the ash cloud should end shortly. Otherwise, isolated windward and mountain showers continued across each island. These should decrease as they continue into the afternoon, and will be joined by Kona showers. Moderate to breezy trades will be with us for at least the next several days.

Weather Narrative…as of Saturday afternoon: Satellite imagery shows the first of three easterly waves continues to slowly drift through the islands, enhancing shower activity through the early morning hours. Two additional weak atmospheric waves will drift from east to west across the islands on Saturday evening, and from late Sunday into Monday. Cloud and shower coverage will increase with each passing wave, favoring the overnight to early morning hours, with the highest rainfall amounts falling over the windward mountain areas of each island.

A wet trade wind pattern with pulses of showers affecting each island through Monday. A brief drying trend will develop by Tuesday, as the last of the easterly waves passes to the west of the state. Subsidence aloft will lower temperature inversion heights, with more stable trends reducing clouds and shower activity lasting through Wednesday. Look for the typical brief passing showers during the overnight hours over the windward mountain areas.

The long range forecast remains fairly uncertain as global models continue to struggle in finding a consistent solution, with a passing mid latitude trough passing just north of the Hawaiian Islands. The model solutions have flipped over the past few days, with the American (GFS) model now showing a drier high pressure ridge setting up north of the island chain, and the European (ECMWF) model showing a cold core low, cut off from the mid latitude westerly winds, deepening just north of the state.

The ECMWF solution would bring southeasterly to southerly winds over the islands, drawing up unstable tropical moisture from the deep tropics, and triggering a period of wet weather across the islands. While the American GFS model shows more typical easterly trade wind weather, with brief passing shower activity. Unfortunately these large scale differences are impossible to blend and we’ll have to wait a bit longer for our weather model solutions to converge on a more consistent solution.

Fire Weather:  Fire weather conditions will remain below critical fire thresholds into the first half of next week. Breezy winds and minimum humidity levels will not align to reach critical levels in any of our fire weather zones. The subsidence inversion heights near Maui and the Big Island will range from 9,000 to 10,000 feet elevation today.

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Here’s a near real-time Wind Profile of the Pacific Ocean – along with a Closer View of the islands / Here’s the latest Weather Map / Looping Surface Precipitation…through the next 8-days / Vog Map

 

Marine Conditions…as of Saturday afternoon: High pressure north of the islands maintains fresh to strong trades well into next week. The Small Craft Advisory (SCA) remains in effect for the typically windy waters around Maui County and the Big Island and has been expanded westward to the Kaiwi Channel. The SCA may need to be further expanded in areal coverage tonight as trades undergo modest strengthening.

A rather short period north-northwest swell peaked and will bring seasonable surf to north shorelines. This swell will slowly decline and shift to the north this weekend, as a smaller overlapping northwest swell moves through the area. Both swells lower on Monday and fade on Tuesday. Another small northwest swell is possible next Thursday or Friday.

A declining small, medium period south swell will maintain below average surf along south shorelines through next week.

Surf along east shores increases this weekend as trades strengthen. In addition, expect some wrap of north-northwest swell for exposed shorelines. Rough trade wind swell will produce above average surf for east shores through Tuesday, before declining with weakening trades mid-week.

 

>>> Highest Temperature Friday, October 16, 2026 – 99 degrees at Los Angeles, CA


>>> Lowest Temperature Friday, October 16, 2026 – 11 degrees at Foxpark, WY

 

9 Best Places To Visit On Gorgeous Kauai


World-wide Tropical Cyclone Activity

 



>>> Here’s a link to the latest Pacific Disaster Center’s Weather Wall



Atlantic Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones 

>>> Off the East Coast of the United States:

A strong non-tropical low pressure area is expected to form during the next day or two off of the eastern coast of the United States. This low is likely to move slowly and erratically through the middle of next week, and some subtropical development is possible during this time. Regardless of whether subtropical development occurs, this system will cause high winds, coastal flooding, and dangerous surf along portions of the U.S. East Coast.

* Formation chance through 48 hours…low…near 0 percent.
* Formation chance through 7 days…low…20 percent


Caribbean Sea: There are no active tropical cyclones


Gulf of America: There are no active tropical cyclones

 

Northeast Pacific

Tropical cyclone 21E (Trudy) is located about 115 miles south-southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico 

HURRICANE HUNTER AIRCRAFT FINDS THAT TRUDY IS A LITTLE STRONGER…FORECAST TO PASS NEAR THE COAST OF WEST-CENTRAL MEXICO TONIGHT AND SUNDAY

According to the NHC advisory number 18 

Trudy is moving toward the northwest near 10 mph. A general northwestward to north-northwestward motion is expected through Sunday, followed by a turn toward the west-northwest Sunday night. On the forecast track, the center of Trudy will approach the coast of southwestern and west-central Mexico this afternoon and pass near the coast tonight and Sunday. Reports from an Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft indicate that maximum sustained winds are now near 100 mph with higher gusts. Some additional strengthening is possible tonight. Weakening is expected to begin late Sunday or Sunday night. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 35 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 140 miles. The minimum central pressure estimated from the Hurricane Hunter aircraft data is 976 mb (28.82 inches).

cone graphic

 

>>> South of Southern Mexico:

An area of low pressure is forecast to form offshore of southern Mexico during the early to middle part of next week. Environmental conditions appear conducive for gradual development thereafter, and a tropical depression is likely to form during the latter half of next week while it moves generally westward to west-northwestward over the eastern and central portions of the East Pacific.

* Formation chance through 48 hours…low…near 0 percent
* Formation chance through 7 days…high…70 percent

 

Central North Pacific: There are no active tropical cyclones

Tropical cyclone formation is not expected during the next 7 days.

 

Northwest Pacific Ocean:

Tropical Cyclone 29W (Champi)…is located approximately 36 NM south of Andersen AFB                                                                                                   

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Tropical Cyclone 01P (Wati)…is located approximately 437 NM east of Pago Pago

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Southwest Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones

North and South Indian Oceans / Arabian Sea: There are no active tropical cyclones

 

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Here’s the link to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC)



Interesting:  Discovery Marks the First Detection of Variable Water Clouds Outside of Our Solar System

A Jupiter-sized world just 7.5 light-years away is cloudy, chemically complex, and, it turns out, more like home than anyone expected.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, Brittany Miles, assistant astronomer at University of Arizona Steward Observatory, led a team that spent 11 hours staring at WISE 0855, the coldest known brown dwarf, collecting a spectrum of its light every 15 minutes. The result is the most detailed time-series portrait ever taken of this frigid world – and the first direct confirmation that water clouds on another body are changing thickness over time, just like weather on Earth.

The study, published in The Astrophysical Journal, reveals that WISE 0855’s atmosphere is shaped by at least two distinct processes playing out simultaneously: water clouds at high altitudes that grow thicker and thinner as the object rotates, and deep chemical gases being dredged upward by convection from far below. Untangling those two signals – previously impossible with older telescopes – is what makes JWST data so powerful.

“This is the first time we’ve been able to confirm that water clouds are becoming thinner and thicker on a nearby world,” said Miles, a postdoctoral researcher at Steward Observatory. “Before JWST, we only had photometry, which mixed up the effects of clouds, chemistry, and temperature all together. Now we can actually distinguish them.”

Read More: University of Arizona

Image: Artist’s concept of a brown dwarf. Brown dwarfs begin their lives like stars but they never accumulate enough mass to fuse atoms steadily at their cores and ignite with starlight.