Weather Details and Aloha Paragraphs

1.49 MOUNT WAIALEALE, KAUAI
0.37 Poamoho 2, OAHU
0.06 MOLOKAI
0.00 LANAI
0.01 KAHOOLAWE
0.26 OHEO GULCH, MAUI
0.45 PAHOA, BIG ISLAND

Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map…showing a 1033 millibar high pressure system located far to the NE of our islands. This high pressure cell, with its connecting ridges, will keep our local trade wind speeds in the moderate to fresh category Tuesday…calming down just a touch Wednesday. 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.

Tropical Cyclone Activity – The eastern Pacific hurricane season runs from May 15 through November 30…while the central Pacific runs from June 1 through November 30. The latest storm information for eastern Pacific can be found by clicking here. A storm tracking map can be found by clicking here. For the central Pacific, the latest information can be found by clicking here.

Aloha Paragraphs

Strong trade winds blowing now
Photo Credit: Flikr.com

As is often the case during the month of June, and in what we could call late, late spring, our trade winds will be the primary weather feature in our Hawaiian Island weather picture. We find high pressure systems located far to the north and NE of the islands, which are the source of our moderately strong to fresh trade wind flow. These winds are still strong enough that there are small craft wind advisory flags active over the windiest spots around the islands of Maui and the Big Island. These winds will begin to mellow -out some around mid-week, dropping down into what could be considered normal realms. These classic trade winds will remain active through the rest of this week into the next.

We will find a fairly normal distribution of passing showers falling along our north and east facing windward coasts and slopes. Nothing unusual in terms of precipitation is expected through at least the first half of this week. The arrival of these passing showers will occur during the cooler night and early morning hours for the most part. Meanwhile, the leeward sides will be mostly dry, with only a couple of random sprinkles being carried over the lower mountains on the smaller islands here and there. The upslope Kona coasts may see a couple of late afternoon or evening showers too. The latest computer forecast charts show an upper low forming to the NW of the state later this week, so we may see some increase in the windward showers then.

The official start of summer 2006 occurs this Wednesday, called the summer solstice. That’s why in the first paragraph above, I was calling this period late, late spring. Late spring and early summer brings of course warm to very warm weather conditions in the tropics. Air temperatures are reaching into the 80F’s everyday now along the leeward beaches, with some of the hottest spots, like Kihei and Lahaina on Maui, zooming right up into the lower 90F’s some days. The nights are seasonably warm at sea level, typically dropping down to the lower 70F’s. The upcountry elevations, like here in Kula, Maui, are cooler, with high temperatures getting into the lower 70F’s most days, then dropping into the 50F’s at night.

It’s early Monday evening here in Kula, as I begin this sunset commentary. It was rather hazy today, with lots of high cirrus clouds above (which will make for a gorgeous sunset!), and what appears to be dust and probably some sea spray that was lifted by the strong trade winds. This mix is making for rather hazy conditions, although there was lots of very warm sunshine beaming down along the leeward beaches. There seems to be a new area of clouds that have moved over the windward sides, with perhaps some showers in store for those areas. It was hot today in Kihei and Lahaina, where afternoon air temperatures hit at least 90F and probably a degree or two higher than that. Here in Kula, at 645pm, the temperature is 69.3F, while down in Kahului at the airport, it was near 78F at the same time…with winds in gust to near 38 mph. It was a nice day for the most part, with the strong and locally gusty trade winds making the headline weather news in the islands now. I hope you have a great Monday night. I’ll be back very early Tuesday morning with the next weather narrative. Aloha for now…Glenn.

By the way, here’s that story about hurricanes in Hawaii, the one that I was interviewed for last week, which appeared in the Maui News Sunday…although not with the picture of me that was in the paper edition.