Hawaiian Islands Weather details & Aloha paragraphs / January 25-26, 2012

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

Lihue, Kauai –                    80  
Honolulu airport, Oahu –      80
Kaneohe, Oahu –                 83
Molokai airport –                 81
Kahului airport, Maui –        83  (Record high temperature on this date – 86F – 1981) 
Kona airport –                    81 
Hilo airport, Hawaii –           80   

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

Kaneohe, Oahu – 80
Hilo, Hawaii – 75

Haleakala Crater –  50 (near 10,000 feet on Maui)
Mauna Kea –         36 (near 13,800 feet on the Big Island)

Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live web cam on the summit of near 13,800 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. Here's the Haleakala Crater webcam on Maui…which is working only sometimes lately.

 Aloha Paragraphs

 
    Light winds from the south to southeast –
showers locally – thick volcanic haze
 

As this weather map shows, we have deep low pressure systems located far to the northeast, along with an associated cold front draping southwest into a weak low pressure system to our west.  At the same time we have near 1032 millibar high pressure system parked out to our east-northeast, with its associated ridge running southwest to the north of Kauai. Our winds will be generally light from the south to southeast…with trade winds returning again later Friday into the weekend.

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

20                 Barking Sands, Kauai – S 
16                 Waianae, Oahu – SE
12                 Molokai – SSE
14                 Kahoolawe – SW 
10                 Lipoa, Maui – NW
04                 Lanai
25                    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 Wednesday evening.  Looking at this NOAA satellite picture we see scattered low level clouds over the ocean, some of which are stretching over the islands locally. We can use this looping satellite image to see a large area of clouds just to the west, northwest and north of the state. Checking out this looping radar image we see light to moderately heavy showers over the ocean, although coming in over the islands in a few places, carried along in the southeast to southerly breezes across the state…especially near the Big Island and to the west of Kauai.

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

2.21                 Moloaa Dairy, Kauai
1.96               Waiahole, Oahu
0.00               Molokai
0.00               Lanai
0.00               Kahoolawe
0.74               Kaupo Gap, Maui
0.31               Kona airport, Big Island

Sunset Commentary:   The cold front remains in place not far to the northwest of Kauai, along with a high pressure ridge located to the north of the Aloha state. This will keep our winds light, blowing from the south to southeast over the open ocean. There will be localized daytime onshore sea breezes, and overnight offshore land breezes over the islands. The larger scale south to southeast breezes will carry tropical air over us Thursday, which will bring isolated showers, some of which may become briefly heavy here and there.  The volcanic haze continues to spread across the state as well. The trade winds will rebound this weekend, which will help to ventilate away the poor air qualities then…and keep showers falling locally.

Here in Kula, Maui at around 530pm HST, it was calm, cloudy and volcanically hazy…with an air temperature of 66F degrees. The thick volcanic haze (vog) continues its infamous presence over all parts of the state. As I was mentioning above, the cold front to our northwest remains fairly active, and may eventually bring showers to Kauai and perhaps Oahu. The south to southeast breezes are carrying moisture up from the deeper tropics. The atmosphere has moistened quite a bit on the Kauai end of the chain, making that part of the state more shower prone. The winds will continue to be light enough, that we'll see daytime sea breezes, carrying moisture off the ocean into the upcountry areas, where it will condense into rather extensive clouds. These clouds will spread down towards the coasts in places, and may drop showers. The trade winds will return this weekend, keeping windward biased showers in our weather forecast. These returning trade winds will also help to ventilate the long lasting haze away then too. Once these trade winds become well established, by later Sunday into the first half of next week, they will be quite breezy…with small craft wind advisories going up in those windiest coasts and channel waters. ~~~ I'll be back early Thursday morning with your next new weather narrative from paradise. I hope you have a great Wednesday night until then, despite the thick vog that continues to envelop us at the moment! One more thing, as the clouds cleared after dark, we find a beautiful display of a crescent moon, with a large bright planet just to the upper left, a really nice celestial event. Aloha for now…Glenn.

Extra: Angry Sea youtube video!