March 13-14 2006

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

Lihue, Kauai – 77F
Honolulu, Oahu – 80
Kaneohe, Oahu – 77
Kahului, Maui – 86
Hilo, Hawaii – 71
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii – 83

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

Kaneohe, Oahu- 73
Lihue, Kauai airport – 66

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

6.88 MOUNT WAIALEALE, KAUAI
6.00 POAMOHO 2, OAHU
0.03 MOLOKAI
0.02 LANAI
0.00 KAHOOLAWE
4.24 KAUPO GAP, MAUI
2.77 PIIHONUA, BIG ISLAND

Weather Chart — Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map…showing a 1032 millibar high pressure system to the north of the islands. At the same time, we find a gale low pressure system to the WNW. This will keep light SE winds blowing today, becoming lighter on Wednesday. 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 morning sunshine in the islands!


It appears that we have yet another unusual week coming up, at least in terms of weather. Monday will be a transition day, as we still have the trade winds blowing. There will likely be some passing shower activity along the windward coasts and slopes. The entire state finds a mixture of high and middle level cloudiness however, which will keep the day partly to mostly cloudy. The chance for increasing clouds and showers will be more pronounced later today into the night.

The culprit for all the cloudiness around now, is a trough of low pressure to the west of the islands now. The computer forecast models continue to show this trough edging westward towards our islands. As this trough gets a little closer, we’re going to move into what looks like another off and on rainy week. The overlying atmosphere will become destabilized as the trough nears, which could trigger localized heavy showers starting later today into Tuesday.

The general outlook isn’t a particularly favorable one, as many parts of the state saw a rainy period the previous week…and the week before that too! This isn’t going to be a total wash out though, as the showers will be of the hit and miss variety. All the islands will find shower activity at times, but it’s not going to be raining constantly for days and days. On the other hand, it doesn’t look like this last week of winter is going to be a banner one in terms of dry sunny weather either!

The prospect for rainy weather is strong enough, that the NWS forecast office in Honolulu has issued a flash flood watch statewide…through Thursday. This is rather unusual, to have such a long lasting notice of flash flooding potential on all the islands. The winds during this time are expected to blow from the SE, and may come up from the south eventually. This will bring warm moist air over the Hawaiian islands, which will be used as fuel for the showers that will be falling locally…some of which will be heavy just about anywhere in the state.

I wish I had a brighter forecast this week, but unfortunately I don’t. What makes it even worse is all the cloudiness that we’ve had off and on over the last month. Some parts of the state have been wetter than others during this time, and in particular they’ve been Kauai, Oahu, and the Big Island. The islands of Maui, Molokai and Lanai haven’t seen such widespread precipitation. As long as the winds are coming up from the SE, Maui County may continue to sidestep the heaviest rains, although once they become southerly, then even these central islands will be wetter.

It’s early Monday evening here in Kula, Maui, as I start this evenings sunset commentary. Sunset…what sunset?! It’s simply getting darker, with a sky full of clouds. This Satellite image pretty much tells the story, with mostly cloudy weather stretched from one end of the state to the other. This Radar image showed that most of whatever showers were around, at least the heaviest, were near or over Niihau, and Kauai and Oahu. I had the Maui News call me today and ask “what’s up with the flash flood watch over the County?” I simply said that there’s a continued threat of locally heavy showers now through Thursday or Friday. It’s really turning out to be incredibly shower prone here in the islands now, after three other locally heavy rainfall events in the state during the last 3-4 weeks! Maui has missed the heaviest rains so far, although the pressure is on now. It certainly hasn’t been cold, as with the SE winds, the air is coming up from the deep tropics. During my lunch time beach walk and swim this afternoon, and despite the cloudy skies, it was warm as toast. I’ll be back first thing Tuesday morning, with more pertinent information about this potential heavy rain experience here in the islands. Aloha for now…Glenn.


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