Weather Details & Aloha Paragraphs

March 14-15 2006

Lihue, Kauai – 76F
Honolulu, Oahu – 78
Kaneohe, Oahu – 79
Kahului, Maui – 85
Hilo, Hawaii – 72
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii – 81

6.15 LIHUE AIRPORT, KAUAI
3.45 KAHUKU, OAHU
0.12 MOLOKAI
0.15 LANAI
0.00 KAHOOLAWE
0.34 KAUPO GAP, MAUI
4.85 PALI 2, BIG ISLAND

Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map…showing a 1025 millibar high pressure system to the NE of the islands. At the same time, we find a gale low pressure system to the NW….with troughing to our west. This will keep light SE to south winds blowing today, becoming light ESE or east on Thursday. 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



Island Rainbow

The overall weather conditions across the state of Hawaii remain unsettled, and shower prone. The islands of Niihau, Kauai, and Oahu will be under the greatest threat of locally heavy rain at the moment. As we move through the next several days, the islands of Maui County, and the Big Island will take their turn getting wet too. We aren’t just talking about a few sprinkles here by the way! As a matter of fact, heavy, even torrential rains could fall in some of the most flood prone spots on each of the islands today through Thursday.

The NWS forecast office in Honolulu continues to have an active flash flood watch for the entire state through Thursday. This makes it perfectly clear, that locally heavy rains have a very good chance of making the next several days much wetter than normal. It goes hand in hand, that heavy rains spell out the high likelihood of flooding. Flash flooding will be most serious over the Kauai (western) end of the island chain Tuesday. The eastern end of the chain, what we call the Big Island side, will probably wait until Wednesday and Thursday to have problems.

As has been the case for the last three major heavy rain events, over the last several weeks…the culprit is a trough of low pressure to the west of the state. Low pressure to our west will keep our overlying atmosphere unstable, with lots of moisture laden air being directed right over the Aloha state. The meteorological dynamics will remain in place through Thursday for a continued threat of off and on heavy rains. The latest computer forecast models indicate that Friday and Saturday should bring a break from the heavy precipitation.

Unfortunately, they go on to point out yet another trough approaching the state Sunday, into early next week…Geez! This is still a bit too far out to totally “cement into place” just yet. However, the models have been doing a very good (or is it bad!) job of forecasting these rainy periods. Thus, we should probably plan for another round of potentially heavy rain late this coming weekend into the first day or two of next week at least. The problem here is that the soil will be very saturated by then, and for that matter is already super-saturated where the recent heavy rains have fallen, leading to potentially more flooding!

It’s early Tuesday evening here in Kula, Maui, as I begin today’s late sunset commentary. Here’s a satellite image, and a radar image link too, so that you can keep track of what’s going on with all this rainy weather. This Satellite image will let you know where the most dense, rain bearing clouds are focusing their efforts. This Radar image will show you specifically where the most intense rainfall is occurring. I just got home, about an hour later than usual. I had to stay late at the Pacific Disaster Center, my regular day job, as we were huddling over the best way to address supporting the State Civil Defense Agency, during this time of extreme flooding on Kauai. Kauai had at least one death today, as a dam breach occurred, with seven others still missing. One body was found in the ocean a mile offshore by the Coast Guard. As noted in the paragraphs above, the unfortunate thing is that another couple of days of inclement weather, with more potential heavy rains and flooding are in the forecast. Please, if you are here in the islands, use the utmost caution when driving, and be prepared to take evasive action if you get caught in flash flood conditions. I’ll be back with another new narrative first thing Wednesday morning, be well until then. Aloha for now…Glenn.

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