Hawaiian Islands weather details & Aloha paragraphs

1.27 MOHIHI CROSSING, KAUAI
3.48 OLOMANA FIRE STATION, OAHU
1.32 MOLOKAI
1.46 LANAI
0.16 KAHOOLAWE
5.88 KAUPO GAP, MAUI
1.37 UPOLU AIRPORT, BIG ISLAND

Weather Chart – A moderately strong 1035 millibar high pressure system is located to the NW of Hawaii Monday. As it moves closer over the next couple of days, the lighter winds Monday will gradually pick up in strength from the NE direction…behind a dissipating frontal cloud band. Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map. 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.

Aloha Paragraphs


Light winds in the islands through Monday
  photo credit: flickr.com

 

A low pressure system, with its associated weak cold front, moving by to the north of the islands, has weakened our local winds…and turned them to the ESE and SE Sunday evening. This low pressure system, has swung our local winds out of the trade wind direction, veering them now to the SE. This wind direction causes the wind flow to split around the Big Island, with the rest of the state in a wind shadow. This is the reason our local winds are lighter now, which will remain that way through Monday. As the dissipating cold front pushes down through the state Tuesday, our winds will swing back around to the north and NE through the remainder of the work week. This wind direction will bring slightly cooler air into the state, although with generally fair weather prevailing. 

The SE wind flow will finally allow many windward areas to dry out some, although cloud plumes reaching from one island to the other, in a down stream manner, will keep some showers falling locally. In general, the leeward sides will be mostly dry, and with somewhat less high cloudiness around now…should see warm sunshine beaming down at times through the days. The lighter winds will bring volcanic haze over parts of the southern islands. These lighter winds will allow the daytime heating of the islands to make for cloudy afternoons, with a few, mostly light showers to fall here and there.

It’s Sunday evening here in the islands, as I begin writing these last paragraphs of today’s narrative. As noted above, we have finally found some relief from the recent strong and gusty trade winds, and the near constant parade of passing showers in the windward areas. These two weather changes have been welcomed by the folks who live along those wet and windy windward sides. Looking at the latest satellite images, we find that there is still me high cloudiness to the southwest of the Aloha state, so that there will continue to be some cirrus clouds streaming overhead at times, especially during the afternoon hours. It would be wise to get to the beach during the morning hours, when the sunshine will be more plentiful in most areas.

~~~ Weather conditions will be quite nice despite the high clouds, and the localized showers falling here and there…although become quite volcanically haze over parts of the Big Island and all of Maui County. The weak cloud band, mentioned in the paragraphs above, won’t be much of a bother in terms of precipitation, and almost all of that will fall along the windward sides. The breezes will pick up behind the front Tuesday, and with the winds coming out of the north and NE, will feel slightly cool.

~~~ Sunday was a day characterized by increased cloudiness during the afternoon hours, with localized showers falling. Here in Kula, Maui, on the west facing slopes of the Haleakala Crater, it has been foggy, very foggy at times…with a few sprinkles falling. The air temperature at 5pm was a relatively cool 61F degrees up here at the 3,100 foot elevation, while down near sea level, at the same time, it was 73F degrees in Kahului…while the warmest report at that time was 78F degrees at Barking Sands on Kauai.

~~~ I’ll be back very early Monday morning with your next new weather narrative. I hope you have a great Sunday night wherever you happen to be reading from!  Aloha, Glenn.