March 12-13 2006

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

Lihue, Kauai – 76F
Honolulu, Oahu – 79
Kaneohe, Oahu – 76
Kahului, Maui - 81 
Hilo, Hawaii – 78
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii – 82

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

Kaneohe, Oahu- 74
Hilo airport – 67

Precipitation Totals — The following numbers represent the largest precipitation totals during the last 24 hours (as of Monday morning) on each of the major islands, including:

3.16 MOUNT WAIALEALE, KAUAI
0.59 NUUANU UPPER, OAHU
0.12 MOLOKAI
0.10 LANAI
0.00 KAHOOLAWE
1.91 WEST WAILUAIKI, MAUI
0.85 GLENWOOD, BIG ISLAND

Weather Chart — Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map…showing a 1033 millibar high pressure system to the north of the islands. At the same time, we find a trough of low pressure to the west. This will keep trade winds blowing today, becoming lighter and from the SE Tuesday. 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 Image of the islands to see all the clouds around the state 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. This next 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 animated radar image.

Aloha Paragraphs



Early mornings in Hawaii

The recent rains of late, some of which were heavy enough to flood, are now gone…at least for the time being. Saturday was actually quite a nice sunny day, which was much appreciated by visitors and residents alike! There were still some showers around, most noteably on the Kona slopes of the Big Island, and in a few other places too. It appears that we’ll see more or less nice weather Sunday and  Monday.

The latest computer forecast models have continued to indicate a deep trough positioning itself to our west by Tuesday…what else is new! This trough, with its destabilizing influence, will likely cause showers to increase, with some of them becoming locally heavy during the new week ahead. They will be fueled by moisture bearing SE winds once again. These clouds have a tendency to focus their heaviest showers, their flood producing downpours, in certain areas of the islands…especially where clouds become anchored by the physical terrain features.

If we were to totally believe what the models are saying, we would be pronouncing more flooding rainfall, which is being done by the NWS forecast office in Honolulu now. The soils in some parts of the state are saturated. This type of soil has a tendency to slip, and to allow water to run right over it, rather than sinking in….which contributes to flooding.  As always, we need to monitor this developing situation, and fine tune the weather prospects as we move forward. 

Those same weather models paint rather a gloomy picture for well into the future.  The aforementioned trough of low pressure to our west is shown to migrate eastward, and end up right over, or at least very near our islands for quite a prolonged period of time. If this were to happen as the models point out, we could see lots more rain falling in places across the Aloha state, with potential flooding in those wettest places. I will keep you posted with new information as it becomes available.

I’m surprised to find more rain on the weather horizon. As I mentioned the other day, if we look at this winter as a whole, it isn’t an abnormally wet one. Although, if we look at the last month or so, adding up rainfall totals for just that period of time, it would be much more rainy than usual! Not all the islands have received so much rain, and actually Maui County has seen very little of this excessive precipitation, which is often the case when we have SE winds blowing. It’s still too early to tell where this coming weeks rains will fall most intently.

It’s early Sunday evening here in Kula, Maui. This has been a fun day in my life, with the highpoint being an excursion to the south coast for a kayaking adventure. We paddled out one or two miles, before stopping…. as two whales swam by 50 or so feet in front of us! They spouted nearby and I could hear the sound perfectly, even tried to smell the moist exhaust from this large smooth Humpback…before a wide tail rose, the last sight before it dove deep, and  was gone. We were both totally blown away, in awe of being in close proximity to such a large marine creature. It was one of those occasions that would easily qualify as a spiritual experience in my life….graced actually. When we got back to shore a person invited us to eat lunch, out of the blue (the deepest blue ocean by the way), just…”here, have this sandwich, these potato chips, these pickles, this cold water, those chocolate chip cookies.” When I went into the health food store in Makawao on the way back home, the produce person told me how much he enjoyed my TV weather show. Let me say this: I feel honored to be weather’s representative to deliver weather news to you, on a daily basis. I want to acknowledge everyone who somehow or other logs onto this weather website, we make it what it is. The clouds just cleared, and as I look out the window, there it is! It is large enough to call full to me, friendly March full moon. Aloha for now…Glenn.
 
New Feature: Fact: this website receives between 6,000 and 12,000+ page impressions per day, depending upon the weather and the season. As of  early Monday morning, March’s total count has been 113,043. There’s  now a way that you can have a link go from this popular website, directly to yours. It may be a good way to increase traffic to your own webpages. This placement on the link list is available for $50 per month, with a three month minimum. That brings with it three months of possible higher than normal visiters to your business, or your own personal website, for just $150.  My hope is that it will provide an important way that you can greatly increase the presence of your site. A way to highlight your internet business to folks who may already be interested in most things Hawaiian. Please email me, or leave a message in the reply box below, if you have some interest in this proposal. A link to your site will be displayed along the left hand margin of all the pages on this website, in alphabetical order.