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

 

The last update to this website was at 4am Sunday HST


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

0.44  Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.17  Lyon, Oahu
0.01  Puu Alii, Molokai
0.00  Lanai
2.92  Puu Kukui, Maui
5.35  Honolii Stream, Big Island


The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph) Sunday morning:

13  Lawai, Kauai – ENE 
27  Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu – ESE
25  Makapulapai, Molokai – ESE 
24  Lanai 1, Lanai – NE
28  Maalaea Bay, Maui – NNW
22  Kealakomo, Big Island – NE


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.

https://weather.gc.ca/data/satellite/goes_gwdisk11_1070_100.jpg

Big Blue…click twice for largest version

 

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Thunderstorms in the far south…cold front passing by to the north

 

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Low clouds arriving on the gusty trade winds…high clouds just south

 

https://radar.weather.gov/ridge/standard/HAWAII_loop.gif

https://radar.weather.gov/ridge/standard/PHKI_loop.gif

https://radar.weather.gov/ridge/standard/PHKM_loop.gif

Showers locally 

 

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




~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~

 

Glenn’s Sunday comments:  I’m here at my friend Linda’s house in Corte Madera, Marin County, California, continuing on in my working vacation.

 

>>> Highest Temperature Saturday, May 2, 2026 – 101 degrees near Cibola, AZ
>>> Lowest Temperature Sunday, May 3, 2026 – 10 degrees at Peter Sinks, UT

 

>>> Interesting weather web blog: Mauka Showers…Waialeale’s Rainfall Trend

 

At the Lake – a poem by Mary Oliver

A fish leaps like a black pin-then-when the starlight strikes its side —
like a silver pin. In an instant the fish’s spine alters the fierce line of rising
and it curls a little-the head, like scalloped tin, plunges back, and it’s gone.

This is, I think, what holiness is: the natural world, where every moment is full
of the passion to keep moving.

Inside every mind there’s a hermit’s cave full of light, full of snow, full of concentration.

I’ve knelt there, and so have you, hanging on to what you love, to what is lovely.

The lake’s shining sheets don’t make a ripple now, and the stars are going off to their
blue sleep, but the words are in place-and the fish leaps, and leaps again from the black
plush of the poem, that breathless space.

 

Hawaii’s Broad Brush Weather Overview…as of Sunday morning: A broad high pressure ridge north of the islands, will produce moderate trade winds through Monday. Wind speeds will weaken from Tuesday through Thursday, as a weak cold front passes north of the island chain. Trade winds slowly return by the end of the upcoming week, reaching moderate wind speeds by next Sunday, as the stalled front north of the islands diminishes, and a broad ridge builds back into the area.

Weather Details for the Hawaiian Islands…as of Sunday morning: The infrared satellite imagery continues to show a a shallow cold front roughly 400 miles northwest of Kauai approaching the Hawaii region. This frontal cloud band will weaken and stall north of the state with no significant rainfall impacts.

Closer to the islands unstable cumulus clouds streaming into the eastern half of the state, are producing periods of showers across the windward Hamakua and eastern slopes of the Big Island, including portions of East Maui. The most recent upper air weather balloon soundings show a significant difference between subsidence temperature inversion heights between Kauai at 5,500 feet and Hilo at 10,000 feet elevation level. This means less stable and taller clouds are moving into the eastern half of the state, enhancing shower activity. More stable clouds are capped around 6,000 feet elevation across the western islands, producing only brief passing showers in the short term.

Trade wind speeds will decrease as the frontal trough breaks down the ridge north of the island chain. Light large scale winds over Hawaii from Tuesday through Thursday, will trigger an expansion of onshore sea breezes during the daylight hours, and offshore land breezes overnight. These light local scale winds are driven by diurnal thermal differences between ocean temperatures and island heating/cooling cycles. Isolated showers are possible as sea breezes build clouds over island mountain and interior sections, mainly during the afternoon hours. Rainfall amounts will be limited during this time period.

Trade winds gradually return as the frontal trough diminishes north of the islands, and the ridge builds back into the region from Friday into next weekend. A hybrid trade wind sea breeze pattern will develop through Saturday, until moderate trade winds finally reassert themselves by next Sunday. Brief passing showers favor windward and mountain areas in the overnight to early morning hours.


https://www.weather.gov/images/hfo/graphics/npac.gif


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 Environmental Conditions…as of Sunday morning: A cold front to the northwest of the islands continues to move to the east, disrupting a ridge to the north. Trade winds will gradually weaken over the next couple of days as the ridge is eroded by the front. By mid-week, winds are expected to be light and variable.

The current northwest swell (310-320 degrees) continues to be on the decline, and will continue to gradually fade tonight. Another small northwest swell is expected to arrive late tonight/early Monday morning, and will help to maintain elevated surf along north and west facing shores. A storm low near Japan is sending a long period northwest swell to the islands. This swell (320 degrees) is expected to arrive Thursday, surf is expected to peak below advisory levels.

The current south swell will hold, and then gradually decline Monday. As trades steadily weaken, wind waves and trade wind swell will follow with diminishing surf expected along east facing shores during the next several days.

 

 

Hanalei bay kauai hawaii


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

>>> Caribbean Sea: There are no active tropical cyclones

>>> Gulf of Mexico: There are no active tropical cyclones

Here’s the link to the National Hurricane Center (NHC)

 

>>> Eastern Pacific: There are no active tropical cyclones

Here’s the link to the National Hurricane Center (NHC)

>>> Central Pacific: There are no active tropical cyclones

Here’s the link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)

 

>>> Northwest Pacific Ocean:  There are no active tropical cyclones

>>> Southwest Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones

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



Interesting:  Earth’s Crust Is Tearing Apart off the Pacific Northwest—and That’s Not Necessarily Bad News

With unprecedented clarity, scientists have directly observed a subduction zone—the collision point where one tectonic plate dives beneath another—actively breaking apart. The discovery, reported in Science Advances, sheds new light on how Earth’s surface evolves and raises fresh questions about future earthquake risks in the Pacific Northwest.

Subduction zones are the sites of Earth’s most powerful tectonic events. They drive continents across the globe, unleash devastating earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and recycle the planet’s crust deep into the mantle.

But they don’t last forever. If they did, continents would endlessly collide and stack up, erasing oceans and wiping out the record of Earth’s past. The big question geologists have wrestled with is: how exactly do these mighty systems finally shut down?

“Getting a subduction zone started is like trying to push a train uphill—it takes a huge effort,” said Brandon Shuck, an assistant professor at Louisiana State University and lead author of the study. “But once it’s moving, it’s like the train is racing downhill, impossible to stop. Ending it requires something dramatic—basically, a train wreck.” Shuck conducted the research while he was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, which is part of the Columbia Climate School.

Read More: Columbia Climate School