February 21-22 2006

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

Lihue, Kauai – 74F
Honolulu, Oahu – 80
Kaneohe, Oahu – 76
Kahului, Maui – 83
Hilo, Hawaii – 75
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii – 81

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

Kahului, Maui – 73
Hilo airport – 68

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:

7.44 MOUNT WAIALEALE, KAUAI
4.98 NUUANU UPPER, OAHU
0.17 MOLOKAI
0.02 LANAI
0.04 KAHOOLAWE
5.95 OHEO GULCH, MAUI
3.28 WAIAKEA UKA, BIG ISLAND

Weather Chart — Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map…showing a strong 1040 millibar high pressure system far NE of the islands. At the same time, a trough of low pressure is moving over the state from west to east.  The net result will be to see mostly light trade winds today into 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 only available during the daylight hours here in the islands…that is unless there’s a big moon rising just after sunset for an hour or two!

Satellite Images — To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with the Infrared Satellite Imageof the islands to see all the clouds around the state. This next satellite image is one that gives close images of the islands only during the daytime hours, and is referred to as a Close-up visible satellite image. The next satellite 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 radar image.

Aloha Paragraphs

Road to Hana, Maui
Photo: Douglas Peebles


An unstable atmosphere over and near the islands has kept locally heavy rain falling in places lately. The most recent outbreak of heavy showers, has been most focused on the Garden Isle of Kauai. Mount Waialeale, one of the rainiest places in the world, received over 17 inches during the last 24 hours! The NWS forecast office in Honolulu is keeping a flash flood warning active over some coastal areas on Kauai today, with a flash flood watch over Oahu and Molokai too. All the islands have picked up large amounts at times, with one gauge on Oahu showing 6+ inches…while 3+ inches have fallen in the wetter areas on Maui and the Big Island.


A trough moving over the Aloha state will keep the island chain shower prone into Wednesday…with some thunderstorms over the central islands. Meanwhile, light trade winds will make a temporary showing in Hawaii into Wednesday. This will help to stablize things a bit, although may also carry some showery clouds to the windward sides of the islands. February so far has been an interesting month for weather, with quite a bit of wet weather occurring off and on. It now appears that we’ll probably dry out some as we move into the Thursday through Sunday time frame.


The latest models show a low pressure system developing to the east of the state later this week. The counterclockwise wind flow around that low pressure cell will bring somewhat cooler north to NE winds into the state starting around Thursday. This will tend to bring drier air in our direction, with fairly decent weather conditions prevailing. The longer range models however suggest that we’ll see a cold front pushing down into the state Sunday into Monday. This will bring a batch of showers, with strong and gusty easterly trade winds blowing after the frontal passage into next week.


It’s early Tuesday evening here in Kula, Maui.  It was a completely cloudy day today, just about everywhere in the state of Hawaii. The islands of Kauai and Oahu were drenched at different times, with the latest round of heavy showers and downpours causing flooding in places on the Gathering Place island of Oahu. I made it to the beach during my lunch break, despite the cloudy conditions, as it was rather a warm day. The winds remained quite light too, so there were lots of people trying to get that next layer of tan…in the muted sunshine at best. It was a relatively warm day, although I’m it didn’t feel all that warm for the folks on Kauai and Oahu, where all the copious rain was falling!  The Reply Box just below isn’t working correctly yet, but hopefully will be fixed sooner than later. I apologize for any inconvenience….I was certainly enjoying hearing from all of you before it went on the blink. Here’s wishing you a great Tuesday night, and an invitation to join me here again Wednesday morning for the next narrative from paradise. Aloha for now…Glenn.