Hawaiian Island weather details & Aloha paragraphs

A steady stream of fresh trade winds will continue over the Hawaiian Islands.  Weather maps show a 1031 millibar high pressure system a distance to the north of Hawaii Monday evening. This high will provide fresh trade winds across the north central Pacific through the next week. Those typically windiest areas will see strong and gusty conditions, especially during the afternoon hours. The winds remain strong enough now, that small craft wind advisory flags are active across all the major channels, and in some coastal waters around Maui and the Big Island. These blustery trade winds will likely begin to mellow out some Thursday into the upcoming weekend.
 
These trade winds will carry off and on passing showers to the windward sides As usual, under the influence of this trade wind weather pattern, showers will fall most readily along the windward coasts and slopes…most generously during the night and early morning hours. The leeward sides will remain dry in most cases, except in Kona  on the Big Island, which may see some late afternoon, or early evening showers falling locally. The latest computer forecast models show a couple of cold fronts approaching the state, although they won’t arrive…but may bring some modest increase in showers to the windward sides at times.

It’s Monday evening as I begin updating this last paragraph of today’s narrative. As we begin this new week, then embark into a new month on Tuesday, a fairly normal spring time trade wind weather will continue to dominate our Hawaiian Island weather picture. The trade winds will remain on the strong side of the wind spectrum, as they have been over the last several days. The only other thing, that catches my eye, and is typical for this time of year as well, is the shower activity that will occur along the windward coasts and slopes. As noted in the paragraph above, A couple of cold fronts will be moving by to the north of Hawaii, which may contribute some added showers. This is the time of year when we like to see showers driven in our direction by the trade winds. Spring trade wind showers help to cushion us against summer time drought conditions.  ~~~  Monday rose to its expectations, at least in terms of weather…being locally windy. Case in point, Maalaea Bay on Maui had wind gusts of 46 mph at 4pm!  I see no reason to think that Tuesday won’t be very similar to Monday, remaining blustery, although still quite dry in most areas. ~~~ I’ll be back very early Tuesday morning with your next new weather narrative from paradise. I hope you have a great Monday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.

Interesting2: There is a reason why April 1 is the beginning of Tsunami Preparation Month here in Hawaii: tomorrow is the anniversary of the deadliest tsunami in recorded Hawaii history. It was on April 1, l946, that an 8.6-magnitude earthquake near Alaska triggered the deadly wave that claimed the lives of 159 people in Hawaii.  The approach of a tsunami leaves little time to think, much less debate with neighbors about whether you should evacuate if you live near the ocean or streams that feed into the ocean. This is the time to heed the advice of longtime residents: Immediately run inland if you are near the ocean and begin seeing exposed reef as the water recedes to the sea. It WILL be back!  As a fairly new Haleiwa resident in the early ’70s, I was arrested by the sight at the beach one day — my favorite seaweeds were clearly visible on a now-exposed reef. Feeling so lucky, I walked down the steps and began to pick the tips of my favorites.  An elderly neighbor yelled at me but did not join me. She just got louder. Her expression grew intense as she motioned for me to join her. I walked up the steps, extending my bucket to show her all the seaweed I had collected. She was NOT interested. She led me up more steps. She might have saved my life. Had she not persisted, I could have been knocked over by the wave of water that followed. When we reached high ground, other neighbors came out and gave me the tsunami lecture. It’s a quick lesson — not easily forgotten. Take it from this poster child: If you are new to the islands and see the waters suddenly retreating from shore, run as fast and as far as you can toward higher ground.