April 25-26 2006

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

Lihue, Kauai – 78F
Honolulu, Oahu – 82
Kaneohe, Oahu – 80
Kahului, Maui – 83
Hilo, Hawaii – 81
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii – 84

Temperatures early Wednesday morning ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level at the 4 a.m. hour:

Kailua-kona – 74
Hilo airport – 66

Precipitation Totals – The following numbers represent the largest precipitation totals during the last 24 hours (as of Wednesday morning) on each of the major islands, including:

1.36 MOUNT WAIALEALE, KAUAI
1.32 POAMOHO 2, OAHU
0.13 MOLOKAI
0.03 LANAI
0.00 KAHOOLAWE
0.81 WEST WAILUAIKI, MAUI
0.67 PIIHONUA, BIG ISLAND

Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map…showing a 1032 millibar high pressure system far to the NE of Hawaii. At the same time we find a cold front to the NW. This pressure configuration will keep light to moderate trade winds blowing today…gradually getting lighter through Thursday. Here’s a Weather Map Symbol page for clarification about what all those funny weather symbols mean.

Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of near 14,000 foot Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. The tallest peak on the island of Maui is the Haleakala Crater, which is near 10,000 feet in elevation. These two webcams are available during the daylight hours here in the islands…and when there’s a big moon rising just after sunset for an hour or two! Plus, during the nights and early mornings you will be able to see stars, and the sunrise too…depending upon cloud conditions.

Satellite Images – To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with the Infrared Satellite Image of the islands to see all the clouds around the state during the day and night. This next image is one that gives close images of the islands only during the daytime hours, and is referred to as a Close-up visible image. This next image shows a larger view of the Pacific…giving perspective to the wider ranging cloud patterns in the Pacific Ocean…out from the islands. To help you keep track of where any showers may be around the islands, here’s the latest animated radar image.

Aloha Paragraphs

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Sunset in Lahaina, Maui


High pressure to the NE of the islands will keep the trade winds alive and well today into Wednesday. However, weather maps show a cold front moving by far to the NW of Hawaii. The net result will be light to moderately strong trade winds Tuesday, getting gradually lighter into Wednesday. Tuesday’s winds will still be a little gusty in places, which will keep a localized small craft wind advisory in force around some areas on Maui and the Big Island during the morning hours.

This cold front won’t reach down into the tropics enough to directly influence the Aloha state. It will have at least one effect though, which will be to knock our trade wind speeds down some during the second half of the work week. The trade winds aren’t expected to go away entirely, but they will get softer…and there’s a chance we may see the breezes swinging around to the ESE or even SE with time. This sometimes brings an increase in volcanic haze to the Kona coast of the Big Island, and over Maui County as well.

The trade winds have been blowing steadily through all of the month of April. This is really the first time that they will have faltered much. These moderately strong trade winds have been carrying passing showers to the windward coasts and slopes. As the winds get lighter, we will see an increase in afternoon clouds over and around the mountains through Friday. These clouds may drop some showers where we haven’t seen many lately…although none of the windward or interior showers are expected to be heavy.

The computer forecast models are starting to suggest that we could see some weather changes cropping-up this weekend into early next week. They point out that an upper level trough of low pressure may set up shop to the NE of the state. This may create enough instability in our local atmosphere, that we could see some localized heavier showers then. This isn’t a sure thing yet, but the models have been tending in that direction for the last several days. I suggest that we take a “wait and see” attitude at this point.

It’s early Tuesday evening here in Kula, Maui, Hawaii, as I start writing today’s sunset commentary. It’s rather cloudy as the sun begins to set into the western horizon. This problem, if it can be called a problem, is the intrusion of high level cirrus clouds. These clouds thickened during the day, which filtered and dimmed our Hawaiian sunshine. This type of cloudiness doesn’t drop rain however, so on the other hand, it did help to moderate the afternoon heat, making for actually quite a nice day. The normal afternoon breezes didn’t arrive along the leeward coasts until late, which made for a pleasant beach experience during my lunch time visitation. I’m listening to internet radio again this evening, this time to a station called Groove Salad, with the current song by Allessandro Oliviero…called Gravy. The station plays what is being billed as ambient chill. It’s fun to skip around and try all sorts of music! At any rate, I cooked some Pacific Wild Salmon on the bbq this past weekend, which I’ll plate this evening with a small portion of fresh red sauce pasta that I also made Sunday afternoon. That’s suddenly sounding very enticing, I’d best be getting downstairs out of this weather tower, and having at it. I hope you have a great Tuesday night! I’ll be back before the crack of dawn Wednesday (at least here in the islands) with your next updated weather narrative from the Aloha state. Aloha for now…Glenn.

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