Weather Details and Aloha Paragraphs

July 18-19 2006

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

Lihue, Kauai – 85F
Honolulu, Oahu – 88
Kaneohe, Oahu – 84
Kahului, Maui – 85
Hilo, Hawaii – 86
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii – 85

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

Kaneohe, Oahu – 76
Hilo airport – 68

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

0.14 MOUNT WAIALEALE, KAUAI
0.04 AHUIMANU LOOP, OAHU
0.00 MOLOKAI
0.00 LANAI
0.00 KAHOOLAWE
0.01 KAHAKULOA, MAUI
0.03 KAMUELA, BIG ISLAND

Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map…showing high pressure systems located far to the NW and NE of our islands. Meanwhile, the trough associated with former tropical cyclone Bud is located to the north of the islands…which will continue moving westward. The winds will remain lighter today and Thursday, as the trough blocks the full measure of the trade winds. 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 (where Hawaii is) runs from June 1 through November 30. The latest storm information for the eastern Pacific can be found by clicking here. A storm tracking map for both the central and eastern areas can be found by clicking here . For the central Pacific, the latest storm information can be found by clicking here.

Secret cove here in the islands

A tropical wave, or more simply, the remnants of former tropical cyclone Bud, will be moving by to the north of the Hawaiian Islands through Wednesday. Bud, at the height of his week long career, was a hurricane in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It has long since lost its associated strong winds, and is now just an area of low clouds, being carried more or less westward by the low level winds. Whatever precipitation is still involved with Bud, will stay north of the islands. The one major influence on our local weather conditions will be a dropping off of our trade wind speeds. This will occur as the trough of low pressure with Bud moves in between our trade wind generating high pressure systems to the north, and the Aloha state. We’ll see several days of rather hot and muggy weather, with unusually light trade winds for this time of year.

The latest computer models show another unusual weather feature moving in right after Bud moves by. This will be the rare approach of a summertime cold front. The cold front will never make it to our shores, but stall some 500 or so miles NW of Kauai. Nonetheless, its associated trough of low pressure will keep our trade winds lighter than usual through at least the rest of this work week. As we move into the weekend time frame, we should start to see the return of light trade winds, providing some cooling and refreshing relief from the otherwise sultry atmospherics we’ll have until then. Despite the lighter winds, there won’t be many showers around. The most likely place for those few showers will be along the windward sides, and over and around the mountains during the afternoon hours. The moving by of Bud isn’t all that unusual, although the approach of the cold front during July is very uncommon!

Far to the east, we see another retired tropical cyclone, or at least the leftover clouds associated with Carlotta. We aren’t worried about her, with only a slim chance that whatever left over showers she may still have, could bring a chance of windward showers to the state early next week. Even further to the east, we find hurricane Daniel. It will likely weaken back into a tropical storm, or even all the way back down into a tropical depression, before getting into our central Pacific waters. It will however be the one that we’ll be keeping our eye on now. There’s yet another developing area of disturbed weather behind Daniel, which may become tropical depression 6E here over the next little while. Before anyone gets too nervous about all this, let me say this: there are no tropical spinning storms that pose any threat to our Hawaiian Islands at this time.

It’s early Tuesday evening here in Kula, Maui, as I begin typing out this sunset commentary. The great heat that certain parts of the U.S. is experiencing now, sounds pretty rough. Here in the islands, what with the softer trade winds blowing, we're feeling quite hot and muggy too. The hottest place in the islands today, as it has been the last several days, was the Honolulu airport, which struck 88F degrees for the second or third straight day. The record high temperature for the date there was 91F degrees, that occurred a couple of times back in the 1980's. Our high temperatures here in Hawaii never gets all that hot, due to the surrounding ocean, which often provides at least some cooling breezes. The hottest temperature ever recorded in Hawaii was 100F degrees on the Big Island, many years ago. It's just a little before sunset here in Kula, with the outside air temperature 67.6F degrees just outside my weather tower. Just 22 minutes down the Haleakala Highway, at the Kahului airport at the same time, it was a warmer 79F degrees. I got to the beach today in Kihei during my lunch break. The ocean is getting so warm, reaching almost 79F degrees now, which makes for a very pleasant dip into Pacific! I hope you have a great Tuesday night, and that you will join me here again on Wednesday. Aloha for now…Glenn.

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