Weather Details and Aloha Paragraphs

0.60 MOUNT WAIALEALE, KAUAI
0.07 NUUANU UPPER, OAHU
0.00 MOLOKAI
0.00 LANAI
0.00 KAHOOLAWE
1.10 ULUPALAKUA, MAUI
0.11 MOUNTAIN VIEW, BIG ISLAND

Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map…showing high pressure systems located far to the NE and NW of our islands. These high pressure cells have lost their connecting ridge now, as low pressure to Hawaii’s north breaks through…with lowering wind speeds locally as we move through the weekend. 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


Beautiful Hawaii coast and clouds
Photo: Flikr.com

We’ve been having what could be considered fairly normal weather for this time of year here in the Hawaiian Islands. The month of June is known for its breezy trade winds, very warm temperatures near sea level, and relatively dry conditions. 2006 has flip flopped between normal and unusual weather thus far, with fairly large swings in both directions. The computer forecast models, for about the last week, have been hinting that we would be entering into another of those shifts back towards unusual starting this weekend. Now that we’re almost there, it looks like sure enough, we’ll be seeing some unseasonal weather conditions unfolding.

Those weather models have forecast a low pressure system developing to the north of the state, which we now see on the current weather charts. This area of low pressure will weaken our trade wind generating ridge of high pressure, which has been the connection between two high pressure cells for our NW and NE all week. This in turn will cause a softening of our local trade wind speeds through the next couple of days. The forecast keeps our trade winds lighter than normal through the first part of next week, which will probably cause our local atmosphere to start feeling rather sultry, especially down near the beaches. The point here is that it’s unusual to have the trade winds falter like this during this early summer period.

All of this will have some influence in terms of precipitation as well. Recently we’ve seen just the usual few passing showers falling along our windward sides, which is common. As this low pressure system to our north develops, the trade wind inversion will weaken and lift in height. This simply means that whatever clouds that around, will be able to grow vertically in a more pronounced fashion. Some of the models are suggesting, with colder air aloft, that we could see a few thunderstorms forming. This would be very unusual, in fact what I would call rare for late June! Backing off that extreme though, it looks like we could see some briefly heavy showers around here and there, not only on the windward sides, but also over and around the mountains during the afternoon hours…most notably over the Kauai end of the chain. We can look for the return of normal trade winds again around next Wednesday.

It’s early Friday morning here in Kula, Maui, as I start up on this last paragraph of today’s narrative. It was interesting to be writing about all of that unusual weather above. I couldn’t help but have in the back of my mind, that “this probably won’t happen, how could it during late June?” The thing about it though, is that during 2006 I had that same thought many, many times…and the weather just went ahead and did it anyway…bucking climatology like no ones business! At any rate, the most thin possible crescent moon rose this morning out of the eastern horizon, with Venus shining brightly just to the upper right of the sliver. It’s another perfect looking day here in Maui, with mostly clear skies for early risers. It’s almost the weekend, with just this one last day of work to move through, which is an exciting prospect. I hope you have a great Friday night wherever you happen to be spending it! I’ll be back early Saturday morning with your next narrative updates. Aloha for now…Glenn.