Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha paragraphs / September 6-7, 2011

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

Lihue, Kauai –                      85  (record for Tuesday – 88 in 1959)         
Honolulu airport, Oahu –    85  (record for Tuesday – 94 in 1988) 
Kaneohe, Oahu –               82
Molokai airport –                84
Kahului airport, Maui –       85   (record for Tuesday – 93 in 1953) 
Kona airport                      84  
Hilo airport, Hawaii –          84

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

Honolulu, Oahu – 82
Port Allen, Kauai – 75

Haleakala Crater –     52 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea Summit – 48 (over 13,500 feet on the Big Island)

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

0.34     Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.49     Punaluu Stream, Oahu
0.20     Molokai
0.00     Lanai
0.13     Kahoolawe
0.18     Kula, Maui
0.68     Waiakea Uka, Big Island

Marine Winds – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map showing a weak 1018 millibar high pressure system to the northwest of our islands. Our local trade winds will be generally on the light side both Wednesday and Thursday.

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

    Light winds…afternoon showers locally   
 
 

The winds be quite light through much of this week…rebounding some later this weekend into next week.  Glancing at this weather map, we find a weak high pressure system just to the northwest of our islands.  High pressure ridges run northwest from its center, and east-northeast and northeast into another weak high pressure cell far to the northeast…offshore from the northern California coast. The forecast continues to suggest that our winds will remain quite light through most of the rest of this week. 

Our winds will be lighter through most of the week…the following numbers represent the strongest gusts (mph), along with directions Tuesday evening: 

09                Barking Sands, Kauai – SE  
12                Kahuku, Oahu – NE
10                Molokai – NNE 
14                Kahoolawe – E
16                Kapalua, Maui – NE
00                Lanai  
18                   Upolu airport, Big Island – NE

We can use the following links to see what’s going on in our area of the north central Pacific Ocean Tuesday evening. Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we find that the clouds that gathered around the state Monday are quickly dissipating as night falls…the high cirrus clouds across our skies are thinning quickly as well. We can use this looping satellite image to see the recent high cirrus clouds moving away towards the northeast. Checking out this looping radar image we see that there are very few showers around this evening…having dissipating after the daylight heating ended.

Sunset Commentary:  The forecast that the computer models laid out for the state last week, are coming true this week…at least so far. Those models saw a deep storm setting up shop in the Gulf of Alaska, which is up there now, as this weather map shows.  This low bottomed-out at around 960 millibars yesterday, and now has filled a bit to 968 millibars. We can see a classic, nearly comma shaped cold front stretching from Alaska, down through the middle latitudes…almost into the subtropics this evening. 

Before we move on, the counterclockwise air rotation around this storm, which by the way had hurricane force winds on its east side Sunday, has generated a north-northwest swell in our direction. It will take a couple of days to arrive along our north shores, although will be one of the first early season swells to grace these north facing beaches…arriving Thursday.

Now then, back to the cold front…which is sliding southward towards our islands. This frontal boundary won’t be able to get close enough to bring showers to Hawaii, not this early in the season…as we're still in late summer. It will however push any high pressure systems, and their associated ridges south and southeast. This in turn is what’s making our local trade wind speeds slow down now.

This effectively takes us out of our normal summer trade wind weather pattern, which is happening now. In its place we have a convective weather pattern over our islands. This is quite early in the season, given its still summertime, for this to be happening. Nonetheless, it is occurring, and will influence our local weather conditions through the rest of this week. We still see a bit of the trade wind flow still around, especially around Maui and the Big Island, being furthest away from the high pressure ridge.

A convective weather pattern will shift the emphasis for showers, away from the windward coasts and slopes…over to the upcountry leeward slopes during the late mornings, into the afternoon time frame.  It will likely take until Sunday or next Monday for the trades to return…and they should become quite breezy as we push through the first half of next week. As we move into early autumn, around September 21st, this sort of faltering of the trade winds will become more frequent.

Here in Kihei, Maui at 530pm HST Tuesday evening, skies are mostly clear, with just a few leftover clouds from earlier in the day. The clouds over the Haleakala Crater gathered during the morning hours, and got thick during the early afternoon. The clouds dropped quite a few showers from around Kula out towards Ulupalakua. It didn't look to be all that heavy, at least looking up that way from down here in Kihei. The way it looks at the time of this writing, almost all the clouds will be gone by sunset, which should remain the case overnight. If the clouds stay away, we should see a relatively cool early morning Wednesday. I'm certainly not talking cold, but perhaps a few degrees cooler than normal. Wednesday's clear skies will give way to cloudier skies during the day, leading to a few localized showers once again. This routine should last through most of the week, clear nights and early mornings, with cloudy afternoons and a few showers here and there…mostly along our leeward upcountry slopes. ~~~ I'll catch up with you again early Wednesday morning, when I'll have your next new weather narrative ready for the readin'. I hope you have a great Tuesday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.