Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha paragraphs / August 31-September 1, 2011

Air Temperatures – The following maximum temperatures were recorded across the state of Hawaii Wednesday:  

Lihue, Kauai –                    86           
Honolulu airport, Oahu –     88  (record for Wednesday – 93 in 1984) 
Kaneohe, Oahu –                81
Molokai airport –                 84
Kahului airport, Maui –         88  (record for Wednesday – 97 in 1994)   
Kona airport                       85  
Hilo airport, Hawaii –           81

Air Temperatures ranged between these warmest and coolest spots near sea level – and on the highest mountain tops…as of 5pm Wednesday evening:

Port Allen, Kauai – 86
Kaneohe, Oahu – 76

Haleakala Crater –     54 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 39 (over 13,500 feet on the Big Island)

Here are the 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands as of Wednesday evening:

1.50     Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.74     Manoa Valley, Oahu
0.00     Molokai
0.00     Lanai
0.00     Kahoolawe
0.75     Puu Kukui, Maui
0.29     Kawainui Stream, Big Island

Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a near 1034 millibar high pressure system far to the north-northeast of our islands. Our local trade winds will remain moderately strong through Friday…strongest around Maui and the Big Island. 

Satellite and Radar Images: To view the cloud conditions we have here in Hawaii, please use the following satellite links, starting off with this Infrared Satellite Image of the islands to see all the clouds around 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. Finally, here's a Looping IR satellite image, making viewable the clouds around the islands 24 hours a day. To help you keep track of where any showers may be around the islands, here’s the latest animated radar image.

Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live web cam on the summit of near 13,500 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 web cams are available during the daylight hours here in the islands…and when there’s a big moon shining down during the night at times. Plus, during the nights you will be able to see stars, and the sunrise and sunset too…depending upon weather conditions.

Tropical Cyclone activity in the eastern and central Pacific – Here’s the latest weather information coming out of the National Hurricane Center, covering the eastern north Pacific. You can find the latest tropical cyclone information for the central north Pacific (where Hawaii is located) by clicking on this link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. A satellite image, which shows the entire ocean area between Hawaii and the Mexican coast…can be found here.  Here's a tropical cyclone tracking map for the eastern and central Pacific.

 Aloha Paragraphs

    Trade wind weather pattern continues
  
   
     
 

The trade winds will continue, moderately strong…locally stronger around Maui County and the Big Island into Friday.  Glancing at this weather map, we find a near 1034 millibar high pressure system far to the north-northeast of our islands. Our local trade winds will remain light to moderately strong…strongest around Maui County and the Big Island. The computer forecast models continue to suggest that our trade winds will falter quite a bit later this weekend into early next week.

Our trade winds will remain active…the following numbers represent the strongest gusts (mph), along with directions Wednesday evening: 

25                 Port Allen, Kauai – E  
22                 Kahuku, Oahu – ESE
29                 Molokai – NE 
33                 Kahoolawe – ESE
35                    Kahului, Maui – NE
07                 Lanai – ESE    
28                 Upolu Point, Big Island – NE

We can use the following links to see what’s going on in our area of the north central Pacific Ocean Wednesday night.  Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we find low level clouds coming in towards the Big Island and Maui, with an extensive area of clouds further to the east coming in our direction too. There are a few higher level clouds offshore to the southwest of our islands. We can use this looping satellite image to see a large area of lower level clouds moving in towards the state from the east. There are areas of thunderstorms over the ocean, far to the southeast through southwest…and high cirrus approaching from the west of the islands.  This approaching area of low clouds to our east will bring some showers to our windward sides tonight, although nothing significant. Checking out this looping radar image we see that there are a few showers being carried along in the trade wind flow…at least at the time of this writing.  

Sunset Commentary:  The primary focus areas, in terms of weather here in the islands at the moment…will continue to be:

High surf along our leeward sides – The high surf warning that we had up yesterday through the night into this morning…was changed to an advisory around noon today. This much larger than normal south swell was generated over a week ago in the southern hemisphere, down near New Zealand. The largest wave faces that I heard about were near 20 feet, which is pretty exceptional here in the Aloha state. This swell will continue to slowly drop in size through Thursday, although will remain locally intimidating for some of your public beach goers, especially during the morning hours. This on the other hand was exactly what the doctor ordered…for our local surfing community! These waves should calm down, or even dissipate to a large degree as we push into the weekend. Looking ahead, another late winter storm in the southern hemisphere will generate another south swell for our leeward beaches, which should arrive later next week around Friday or so.

A tropical disturbance to our south – This area of disturbed weather continues to spin slightly, well south of the islands. The main thing about this area is that it’s a good distance away, which is a positive thing. The other favorable aspect to this disturbance is that it’s being given a zero percent chance of developing into a tropical cyclone. I just spoke with the gentleman at the satellite desk (at the NWS forecast office), and he mentioned that it continued to have a very low chance of developing…he mentioned around 0%. There appears to be wind shearing going on to the west of this disturbance, which would act to limit its generation. However, it is in an area that warrants close monitoring, given its location to our south.

An area of low clouds approaching from the east – The area of clouds to our east look fairly impressive, although the bulk of them are stratocumulus. These typically form in a stable atmosphere, which usually limits their precipitating qualities. Nonetheless, they should be able to bring some showers to us, mostly generously along our windward sides, and during the night and early morning hours. As the trade winds are blowing now, a few might be able to ride over into the leeward sides here and there. This time of year, we’ll be happy to receive any showers, as we continue through our relatively dry summer season.

Here in Kihei, Maui at 530pm HST Wednesday evening, skies were clear to partly cloudy, with the trade winds blowing steadily. Actually, now that I took a walk over to the large windows looking up towards the Haleakala Crater, I can see that our local skies are mostly clear. By the way, none of those three items above will be of any particular threat, especially now that the high surf is beginning to lower in size. This will be the most critical situation, although fortunately it will drop below the high surf advisory levels later on Thursday, and be much smaller as we get into our upcoming holiday weekend. I'll be back early Thursday morning with your next new weather narrative, I hope you have a great Wednesday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.