Weather Details and Aloha Paragraphs

November 16-17 2006

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

Lihue, Kauai –  82F
Honolulu, Oahu –  87
Kaneohe, Oahu –  83
Kahului, Maui –  87
Hilo, Hawaii –  84
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii –  85

Kaneohe, Oahu – 78F
Kahului airport – 64F

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

0.81 MOUNT WAIALAELAE, KAUAI
0.52 OAHU FOREST NWR, OAHU
0.00 MOLOKAI
0.00 LANAI
0.00 KAHOOLAWE
0.02 OHEO GULCH, MAUI
0.09 WAIAHA, BIG ISLAND

Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map…showing weak high pressure centers to the ENE and north of the islands, with trade winds blowing this morning. Our winds will gradually become SE later today into the weekend.  Here’s a Weather Map Symbol page for clarification about what all those weather symbols mean on the map.

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.

 

A remote coast on the island of Kauai
Photo Credit: flikr.com

  

Returning breezy trade winds today will help to ventilate the local atmosphere of the humid and hazy conditions of late. A high pressure system, with its associated ridge, now located to the north of the state, will bring back a fairly normal late autumn day of weather. This bout of trade winds will be brief at best though, as already the next approaching cold front will start to veer our local winds to the SE starting later Friday. This will bring back the hazy conditions, and with the arrival of high cirrus clouds too, we’ll be looking at a muted sunshine reality as we get into the weekend.  

As we move into that Saturday and Sunday time frame, our winds will swing around further towards the south, bringing back what we call Kona winds here in Hawaii.  These winds are very efficient at carrying humid conditions into the Aloha state, as they come up from the deeper tropics to our south…along with some increase in showers then too. The cold front mentioned above is still the wild card, in regards to what it will do. Some of the computer models bring it into the state, and others stall it before arriving. At this point it looks like it will come down through the state as a shearline cloud band, pushed across the islands by strengthening trade winds early next week. 

It’s well past sunset as I try and capture the nature of the day here on Maui.  One thing for sure, the returning trade winds cleaned up our local atmosphere greatly! The air visibilities were vastly improved, with lots of fine detail on the valleys and ridges of the West Maui Mountains, and out to sea as well. It reminded me of a spring or summer day, as the trade winds got breezy during the late morning through afternoon hours. There were reports of gusts to near 30 mph in those windiest spots on Maui and the Big Island, which did a great job of eliminating just about all the residual haziness of the last several days. There were some clouds clinging to the slopes of the Haleakala Crater around Kula as I drove home from work, but all along the Hana coast looked almost completely clear. It was one of those days that marks a total turn around from the day before!  The leeward beaches had a few too many clouds I’m quite sure, at least for those diehard sun worshippers, and a bit breezy too…enough so that the Kihei beaches had white caps chalking-up the ocean surface in the afternoon. All things considered though, it was a fabulous late autumn day! Tomorrow’s Friday, and that of course starts the weekend, that is after 5pm for this working guy. I’m going to see the film The Prestige after work…but more about that later. I hope you have a good Thursday night, and that you are moved to drop by again for the Friday edition of this weather narrative from paradise. Aloha for now…Glenn.