Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha paragraphs / December 4-5, 2011

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

Lihue, Kauai –                   M
Honolulu airport, Oahu –   84  (record high for the date: 87F degrees in 1983)  
Kaneohe, Oahu –               79
Molokai airport –                80
Kahului airport, Maui          82
Kona airport                      82
Hilo airport, Hawaii –          77

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

Honolulu, Oahu – 80
Lihue, Kauai – 75

Haleakala Crater – 48 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea –        39 (over 13,500 feet on the Big Island)

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

0.21     Mount Waialeale, Kauai
0.03     Palisades, Oahu
0.00     Molokai
0.00     Lanai
0.00     Kahoolawe
0.05     Puu Kukui, Maui
0.74     Mountain View, 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 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. This web cam is 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. The Haleakala Crater webcam on Maui just came back online, after being on the blink for several weeks.

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
 
 
 

As this weather map shows, we find a very strong 1042 millibar high pressure system located far to the northeast of the Hawaiian Islands Sunday evening. This high pressure cell, which is offshore from the Oregon coast, has an elongated ridge that stretches down to the southwest…to the north of Hawaii. Winds will be light to moderate trade winds into the new work week.

The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph), along with directions Sunday evening:

24                 Port Allen, Kauai – E
23                 Honolulu, Oahu – NE
09                 Molokai – NE
20                 Kahoolawe – SE 
23                 Lipoa, Maui – ENE
06                 Lanai – NW
28                    South 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 Sunday evening Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we find that high and middle level cloudiness are located over the eastern end of the Hawaiian Islands. We can use this looping satellite image to see that the recent high cloud swatch, carried our way on the subtropical jet stream, is still around this evening. Checking out this looping radar image we see a few showers over the ocean, most of which are in the light to moderately heavy category…impacting the islands only in a few places. 

Sunset Commentary:  Light to moderately strong trade winds will continue on through the first half of the new week. There will continue to be those common passing windward biased showers through the middle of the week as well. We'll find another round of stronger and gusty winds towards the end of the new week ahead…starting around Thursday or so. These gusty trades will continue on through next weekend. There's nothing unusual about the next week's worth of weather, with just a late autumn trade wind weather pattern prevailing.

This past Friday evening after work in Kihei, I took the drive over to Kahului to see a new film. This one was called Hugo, starring Asa Butterfield and Chloe Grace Moretz, and Ben Kingsley…among many others. The synopsis: Hugo is a wily and resourceful boy whose quest to unlock a secret left to him by his father will transform him and all those around him, and reveal a safe and loving place he can call home. The critics are giving this new film a very high A- grade, while the film reviewing website rotten tomatoes, often a hard grader, is giving this film a high 93% approval…out of a top number of 100. This film, directed and produced by Martin Scorsese was excellent, hardly a bad thing about it! It felt like a long movie, and had a few slightly slow parts, otherwise I could heartily recommend it to everyone. The scenery, which took place in a large European city, was fabulous. The acting was wonderful, just everything was top notch. I can easily give this film an A-, as it was a total success for what it was. Here's the trailer for this film, just in case you would like to see it.

Here in Kula, Maui at around 530pm Sunday evening, skies were mostly cloudy, with an air temperature of 64.6F degrees. Using this satellite image, we can see that there are still clouds over Maui County down through the Big Island. We should finally see some reduction in our local cloud cover as we push into the new work week ahead. I don't see any drastic weather changes for the time being. ~~~ I had a great weekend, starting off with seeing the great film Hugo after work on Friday…as noted in the above paragraph. Saturday I went to the Waldorf Haleakala School crafts faire, which was a good social outing for me. I enjoyed the company of a friend who lives here in Kula Saturday night. Today was another day, starting off with a good long fast morning walk. I had a good breakfast, along with my usual espresso. This afternoon I took a fairly long bike ride with my neighbor, which will likely be the start of more bike riding, along with my ongoing walking. I made a nice big pot of vegetable soup, which I'll eat for dinner during the work week. I'm signing off for now, although will be back early Monday morning with your next new weather narrative from the wonderful Hawaiian Islands. I hope you have a great Sunday night until then! Aloha for now…Glenn.