Hawaiian Islands Weather Details & Aloha Paragraphs

I will be on vacation until December 23rd, and will return to begin my daily updates of this website…on the 24th.

In my absence, you can find the current weather forecasts for all of the state, by clicking on the individual islands in the upper left hand corner of this page (then click on the maps)…this area is located just below where it says Glenn’s Daily Weather Narrative.

All of the satellite images, and the radar image below will be the most current available.

Down this page, below the images, I’ll keep a travelogue, giving you updates on what’s going on during my vacation to New York and Europe.

Happy Holiday’s!

Aloha, Glenn James

Here’s the latest weather map, showing the Hawaiian Islands…and the rest of the North Pacific Ocean.

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.

Aloha Paragraphs

Here’s a wind profile…of the offshore waters
around the islands – with a closer view

  looping radar image

~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~

December 9 –  As I’ve been mentioning here the last week or so, I’m going on a last minute trip away from the islands. My friend Jeff invited me to join him for a visit to his daughter in New York, and then on to to Europe. He and I will fly out of Kahului, Maui this afternoon, arriving in Los Angeles this evening. We’ll soon thereafter board another jet for an overnight flight to JFK in New York, arriving tomorrow morning. We’ll rent a car and head north along the Hudson River, to the small town of Hudson, where his daughter Jill and her husband Clive live. This part of our trip will last three nights and four days, and should be fun…as they are very cool people. They have a store in Hudson called Watson’s Cabinet, which sells herbs and other good stuff. Then we drive back to JFK, for an overnight flight to Zurich, Switzerland. We’ll take a train north to Freiberg, Germany, where our mutual friend Svetlana lives and works…when she’s not on Maui. This Germany part of our adventure will last five days, and should be very enjoyable as well. Then, the three of us will head to Grindelwald, Switzerland, which is in the Swiss Alps! We’ll be ready to ski, as our stay there is at a Chateau for four days and three nights. We’ll then drive to Frankfurt, Germany for the long flight back to Maui, via London and Los Angeles. This is the broad brush agenda, and I’ll have my laptop with me along the way, so will be able to come back online most days…for daily updates on my activities. Talk to you next in New York, Aloha…Glenn.

December 10 – Jeff and I flew all night from Los Angeles to JFK, New York. It was an alright flight in most ways, although the turbulence was a bit rough at times. We both landed tired after flying 9 1/2 hours, with only a short layover in Los Angeles. We rented a car, and drove up through the Hudson Valley, to the small town of Hudson, where Jeff’s daughter lives and works. She and her husband own a small store there called Watson’s Cabinet…which sells organic teas and natural supplements. We had a nice lunch together at a place called La Perche, with really good salads and sandwiches. We hung around Jill’s shop during the afternoon, before driving over to Jill’s home about 10 miles outside of town. Jeff and I were both nodding off as we sat around in her front room easy chairs, although we both caught ourselves, and ended up having a great dinner with all of us…plus a couple of other friends we just met. I’m so tired now, and am about to retire for the night, and try and recapture some of my lost sleep soon. We all have plans to meet in town for breakfast together, before we all do something during the day. Hudson is a great place, and as far as I can see, I’d really like to do some more exploring in this general vicinity. The weather is holding up just fine, with what looks like generally pleasant weather continuing through the rest of our stay here in NY…before we fly out of JFK to the Zurich airport in Switzerland.

December 11 –  Hi again, I’m still here in Hudson, New York, and the weather has turned cloudy, although the weather is still unusually warm…running 57F degrees now at 317pm this afternoon. The low this morning was in the 30’s, with just a little scattered frost in a couple of places. I forgot to mention that we ate last night at a place called Wm. Farmers and Sons, which was so good! This morning we had breakfast at a little French place called Le Gamin…which was delicious. It’s interesting, when one travels they have all these opportunities to eat so many different kinds of food. I don’t often eat my meals out on Maui, other than Friday evening’s before I see a film. I also wanted to let you know where I’m staying here Hudson, it’s called St. Charles Hotel, which is quaint and clean…which is just what I was looking for. Speaking of food, this evening we’ve decided to eat dinner at a place called Swoon Kitchenbar, which looked good to all of us. I’m not sure what I’ll order, although the gallery of foods that comes up on their website sure looks good. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to tell you that we drove over to a place called Olana, and took a 45 minute tour…which was pretty interesting.

December 12 – This is my last day here in New York, as Jeff and I leave early this afternoon for the drive into New York City…actually the JFK airport. We’re going out to breakfast this morning with Jeff’s daughter, and Clive her husband. Then, we’ll all head over to a farmers market, which should be a good opportunity to see the local culture, and the folks who live here in the Hudson Valley area. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to write again, maybe later today if I have a moment, or perhaps tomorrow from Europe, after we take our long night flight to Zurich, Switzerland tonight. At any rate, I’ll stay in touch as I can, and here’s wishing all of you a great day, Aloha…Glenn.

December 14 – It’s 230am Monday morning here at my hotel in Freiburg, Germany, and I’m up writing…wide awake! I went to bed at around 9pm, then woke up at 1am…I guess this is jet lag working on me!? At any rate, yesterday was a big day, starting off by taking the long flight from JFK to Zurich, Switzerland. I didn’t think that I was able to sleep on the plane, although the flight seemed relatively short after I watched two films and had dinner in my seat. We landed in Zurich early in the morning, and it felt so good to get off the airplane and walk through customs, and on to catch several trains from Zurich to Freiburg. It was interesting to see several military police standing there when we got off the plane…who were carrying automatic rifles! So, we got to Freiburg, and our friend Svetlana picked us up. We stopped by her place to get grounded a bit, and to have a bite to eat, and best of all to take a nice warm shower. We than drove across the Rhine River into France, where we went to the most interesting Christmas Faire! This took place at the base of some nearby mountains, and there were throngs of Europeans walking up and down the narrow cobble stoned streets of this small village. Besides all the shops and things for sale, there was a big flock of geese that this man was parading around, they were somehow following this directions, and caused large crowds to circle them watching. I saw a couple of small camels, yes camels, and several donkey’s walking through the large crowded street too. This was the most fascinating part of my vacation thus far, as there was just everything happening in this village, and gave me such a great view of the older cultures that are still alive today. When we left there we drove back to Freiburg, where we had a nice dinner, and a small glass of red wine at a nice restaurant. We were all tired by then, so we all retired to our respective lodging for the night. We have plans to meet today for more fun…I’d better try and get to sleep now, as its 315am!

Hi again, it’s now 4pm – I woke up around 930am, got up took a shower, and went downstairs for breakfast here at the hotel. Afterwards I found a coffee house, and sat around for a little while drinking my espresso, and people watched…which I really enjoy doing. While I was sitting there sipping, I realized that I felt like laying down again, so I went back to my hotel and slept, or at least sort of (being that it was daytime), until 2pm. I got up again, still kind of groggy, and found a where I could get a big salad and soup for lunch. I repeated my earlier morning routine, getting more espresso and sitting out in the cold air watching all the local folks parade by. I love the way people dress here in Germany, very stylish…especially where I’m staying near the center of town. It’s interesting, every time I leave the hotel I get a little lost on the way back, although it’s gradually becoming less intimidating fortunately. My friends will pick my up around 5pm, and we’re going to some sort of small social event, kind of centering around art, as Svetlana is a painter…besides being a professor here in Germany, and the deputy director of an astronomy institute. I don’t know if anyone other than Jeff and Svetlana will speak English, although it will be interesting I’m sure. / As it turned out, it was a fun Christmas party, with lots of different kinds of foods, almost all of which were things I’ve never eaten before. There were all lady artists there, besides Jeff and myself, and their art teacher. I found it very interesting to hear all of them (10) speaking in either, German, Russian, or Swiss…and it didn’t matter at all whether I knew what they were saying. I’m back at my hotel again now, and like last night at this same time, my head is nodding. I’m hoping that I’ll stay asleep all night, rather than waking up later in the middle of the night for several hours.

December 15 – Hi again, it’s another day and the fair weather is holding fast here in southern Germany. I’m so glad that I had a good night’s sleep last night, which I suppose means that my jet lag is fading into the past. I had three very interesting dreams, none of which I can remember in the least however. I got up this morning at 945am, a far cry from the 425am that I rise at home on Maui. This morning, like yesterday, I went down and had the free breakfast here at the hotel, which consisted of scrambled eggs, croissant, sausage, yogurt, fruit…and a small shot of espresso. I decided that I wanted another little bit of espresso to wake up all the way, so went out on the town, picked up a cup, and sat outside to watch the stream of people walking by. I walked up this main street, and enjoyed seeing how well dressed people are here in Europe, especially many of the ladies. This prompted me to go into one of the department stores, where I saw many pieces of clothing and a pair of nice shoes, that I would have bought, if my carry on luggage wasn’t already so full. It’s such a difference from the dressing mode that we have in Hawaii, which is of course very casual and spare…being in the tropics.

December 16 – The days are flying by here in Europe, as they did in New York. Let’s see, where was I last? Yesterday Jeff and I ran into each other on the street, which was interesting, just like it was when we ended up having seats right next to each other on a couple of our flights…with no plans to do so! At any rate, after having lunch together, we walked over to the KIS Institute…where my friend Svetlana is one of the two co-directors. When Svetlana finished teaching a class there, she, Jeff and I drove over to a market place that was very festive, and drank a cup of traditional Glühwein. There were so many people milling around, all dressed up warmly, as these markets are all outside. The mood was very cheerful, and all the women were so beautiful…or was that just my imagination!? It only took one glass of this wine before the three of us were a little giddy, and we figured it was time to get a bite to eat. We walked to a small place called Burse, a cafe bar and restaurant, with a delightful fireplace bringing back warmth to our chilled bodies. I had what might have been my favorite meal of the vacation thus far, and the chocolate dessert was to die for as the saying goes. We walked back to the hotel, and all said good night until tomorrow…which of course is today. It was the end of a very pleasant day of enjoying this delightful country of Germany!

December 17 – This entry will include some of what I did yesterday…which will lead into today. Yesterday I had the whole day to just wander around by myself, walking here and there on a whim. I started off of course enjoying the wonderful hotel breakfast, which was part of the cost of my 4th floor room. This hotel is located at the center of Freiburg, and I’ve taken a liking to walking down the main boulevard, where 1000’s of locals walk…I have no idea where they are going to or coming from. I’ve vaguely been shopping, or at least looking at shoes and clothes in the numerous department stores that line this main thoroughfare. I walked into the shoe section of one of these stores, and happened upon a pair that I couldn’t pass up. They are a bluish-gray material, with somewhat pointed toes, which is a first for me…I feel very stylish when I wear them. I wore them out of the store, and immediately felt more in line with the culture, and was uplifted on some level. I now better understand why shopping for clothes is such a treat for so many folks around the world. I also needed a new lip balm, the one I use is called Burt’s Bees, beeswax lip balm. I had the most fun asking all the lady clerks in various shops if they carried this item. I found none anywhere, although after visiting many sort of health shops, I found one called Bee Natural, which I got. It was fun to have an excuse to talk to people, and without fail…everyone was very polite and helpful, as I think they enjoyed talking with someone that spoke English.

Later in the day I met Jeff and Svetlana for dinner, and another glass of that Glühwein in the crowded market place. I never seem to get tired of walking among the throngs of mostly young people who meet there for  drinks and dinner…served out of small take away shops. One of the favorites seemed to be something called Raclette, and when we tried some, I could see why. The cheese smelled a bit like limburger, which was a bit off putting, although the taste was better. Once again we got a little tipsy on the one glass of this sweet red wine, and figured it was time to put some food in our stomachs. We went to a small restaurant near a huge church, and we ended up sitting next to a a couple with a small child, who were from the United Kingdom…and we had lots of fun sharing a few stories over dinner. It was back to our various places for the night, and to a relatively good nights sleep for me. I woke up after about 1 1/2 hours of sleep, and for some reason was near wide awake again, although was able to fall off through the rest of the night thereafter. My dreams are frequent and as I vaguely remember, seemed very interesting again.

It’s now late afternoon on the 17th, and I joined those folks again at the Institute of Solar Physics, where Svetlana is the Deputy Director. Jeff gave an interesting talk to a room full of scientists and students. Most of this information floated right over the top of my head, as it was high level stuff geared for Solar Physicists. It was generally centered around the sun…and various measuring details associated telescopes. We went to lunch with a couple of professors, one from Brazil and the other from India. I came back to my hotel room afterwards, and this brings me up-to-date, as I write these words. The weather has turned perfectly clear after some clouds and a bit of showery weather recently, which allows me to see how very beautiful this area is! Soon, I’ll prepare myself for a Christmas Party at the Institute, where there will be about 60 scientists, professors and students gathering for dinner. Svetlana spoke for a minute after Jeff’s talk, introducing a few of us visitors, I was introduced as a meteorologist from Maui, Hawaii. She recommended that everyone ask us questions about our fields, so I may end up talking about weather in Hawaii this evening, which might be made easier over a glass or three of the flowing wine with dinner. I’ll let you know how this all goes, on this, our last full day here in Germany, before the three of us drive to our ski resort in the Swiss Alps tomorrow. / I had a good time at the party, talking with several people, eating a vegetarian meal, and actually singing Christmas carols after dinner…which was interesting. The time is now about 810pm, and I’m back at my hotel, although not feeling tired enough for bed yet. So, I’m going to take another walk towards the civic center, to take in one more evening in the out-of-doors, although deep in the city.

December 18 – It’s interesting to be out traveling, in many ways indeed, and particularly at night. When I’m at home I typically fall asleep shortly after crawling under my down comforter, almost without fail. However, for some reason my normal sleeping pattern has gone awry, at least it certainly has here in Germany. Fortunately, I’ve ended up getting enough sleep overall, thank goodness. Jeff tells me that he’s not been so lucky, and I sometimes see him dozing off briefly at the dinner table. We leave today for a drive up into the Swiss Alps, which apparently is just a couple of hours away. As it turns out, we had to cancel our reservations in Grindelwald, Switzerland…due to the lack of snow there. We would like to ski if possible, so Svetlana has us booked into another place elsewhere, I’ve forgotten the name of this ski resort at the moment. At any rate it’s onward and upwards today. My last minute impressions of Germany are all favorable, good food, good drinks, very clean and organized hotel, courteous and polite people, and lots of delicious sweet things to indulge in. As I’ve said before, and perhaps it simply has to do with coming out of the tropics into the north country, I very much enjoy the dressing modes. The one thing that caught my eye many times, was seeing people out in public smoking cigarettes, and for some reason many of them were the young attractive women…I hope they don’t think its such a cool thing to do! I just got back from my last walk around town before leaving, and with a couple of more reflections…you have to really watch your step as there’s lots of cobble stoned streets, and little curbs you don’t quite expect, not to mention the little streams of water flowing down the waterways on the sides of the streets too. I found it very enjoyable cruising along in the crowded avenues, just blending in, as if I was a local resident of Freiburg too.

We left Freiburg, and drove to Lucerne, Switzerland, and as we neared this famous city, I finally saw snow capped mountains nearby! We had a very nice lunch right along side of the Reuss River, which flows into a large nearby lake. It was wonderful to briefly stroll through the city, and hear all the various International languages being spoken. We all too soon got back into our rental car, and headed up into the Titlis Mountains…with the village that we’rel staying at the base. I just looked at the weather forecast through the next several days that we’ll be here, and it was absent of snow fall, in fact, nice sunny to partly cloudy weather is expected. Jeff, Svetlana and I are going to go down to the village soon, to grab a bite to eat for dinner. I’m beginning to get excited about trying out skiing tomorrow, which I haven’t done in many years. I believe that this picture is of the top of the lifts, and then one ski’s down to the slopes below. / I’ll catch up with you again later, either a little later this evening, or at some point tomorrow. Aloha…Glenn

December 19 – This has been a big, big day, starting off with a great breakfast at the hotel, as part of our rooms. Looking out the huge picture windows of our hotel, which by the way is called the Hotel Terrace Engleberg, we saw totally clear skies. We had the idea to ski today, and everything seemed lined up to do just that, so we walked down the snow covered few streets to the city center of this small village. We rented ski’s, boots and poles, and walked over to the bottom of the ski lifts, and bought our day pass to the slopes. This was all very exciting to me, as I haven’t ski’d in so many years. I used to be quite the hot shot back in the day, skiing mostly at Mammoth Mountain in California, although also in several other Lake Tahoe resorts, and around Big Bear Lake in southern California…plus Nevada, Colorado, and Utah. When I wasn’t surfing, I’d be up in the mountains on the snow, at least during my few years of going to Long Beach Junior College after high school. At any rate, the three of us had a great time skiing down the intermediate slopes, and riding up the mountain on various lifts. As it turned out, we are all more or less at the same level, so we were able to stick together nicely. I took one good fall on one of the steeper slopes, and slid down quite a ways, which was a little shocking. My feet weren’t used to the ski boots of course, so on the walk from the slopes, back to the rental shop at the end of the day…we were all feeling our feet pretty strongly. Now back at the hotel, I can also feel my lower back and butt too, thanks to that fall. We’re all going to meet soon, have a glass of wine, then go looking for dinner. By the way, when we got back to the  hotel, I ordered an espresso, and ended up just sitting by the picture windows, and watched the sun going down on the nearby mountain peaks. I love being in the Swiss Alps, I’ve always wanted to visit here, and now I have this under my belt so to speak. Rather than just admiring pictures of these incredible mountains, I have actually come to honor them personally now!

December 20 – Well, it was good news that all of us reported a deep sleep last night. We met downstairs at the hotel restaurant, and enjoyed sitting together to have a tasty and full-on breakfast. Jeff had a tele-conference to do, Svetlana wanted to get a massage, and I decided to take a long walk, so we all split off in different directions. I left the hotel, which is already on the slope above the village, and headed uphill. I had no idea where I was going, which is a fun thing for me to do. I ended up walking up a very narrow street, and then took to the stairs that wound-up through these various houses…which looked more like chateau’s to me. I walked really slow, which is one of my favorite things to do when in an unfamiliar area, and took in all the sights in every direction, all of which were captivating. At one point I got a little off track, and ended up heading down this narrow, and very steep gulch, until I happened on a small trail…which eventually lead back to the village. I walked over to a snow covered hill where they taught beginning snowboard and skiing lessons. I watched closely, and have a feeling that if I put a little time in, I could pretty easily get into snowboarding at some point. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do about lunch, although stumbled upon a CO-OP, that had an organic salad bar, and a tasty bowl of soup. I than slowly made my way back up here to the hotel, and am about to go down to get my late afternoon espresso, and enjoy watching the sun climb to the top of the nearby peaks. I’m sure that our small traveling group will meet up for a sunset drink…and then go out looking for dinner. Thus far this has been a wonderful day, taking a little time to be with myself outside, and do a little discovering on my own.

December 21 – It’s been a long day, although not as long as tomorrow will be. We left our ski resort this morning, and drove to Zurich, where we had lunch and walked through a very famous market and business district. We left Jeff off at his hotel there, as he has a different flight plan than us. Svetlana and I drove back to her place in Freiburg, so she could pack for her near month long stay on Maui. We then dropped off our rental car, and caught a train, actually a couple of trains to the Frankfurt Airport. We each have a room at the Hilton, which is connected to the airport. Our flight leaves for the Heathrow airport in London at 720am, and we’ll get in there about two hours later. My understanding is that because Svetlana travels so much, we’ll be able to go into the American Airlines lounge and get a good breakfast here in Frankfurt. She’s taking American to Los Angeles, while I’m booked on British Airlines to the same city. We get in more or less at the same time, and we are both on the same AA flight from Los Angeles to Kahului, Maui. We have a friend picking us up at the airport, and driving us up to Pukalani, to the Astronomy Institute. Then, Svetlana will drop me off at home in Kula, on her way a little further up the mountain…see lives up at 4,000 feet. It will feel very interesting to be home and in my own bed tomorrow night, after such a long journey away. By the way, tomorrow, or today, depending upon when you might be reading this entry, will be the transition day between autumn and winter, of course called the Winter Solstice. I’ll have several hours of waiting between landing in Los Angeles and taking off for Maui, so I might be able to give one more update there. Otherwise, I’ll catch up with you on the 23rd, when I unpack my computer, and get back into my normal updates. I’m not at all sure what kind of shape I’ll be in after all those hours in the air, and passing through all those time zones along the way!

December 23 – Hi everyone, I made it through that full-on day of travel, and actually it wasn’t at all difficult. My plane took off well over an hour late from Los Angeles, on my last let of the long flights home, so I didn’t get home until around 11pm…after starting my journey from Germany at 725am that same morning! The first thing I did was drive to Kihei to see my dermatologist Amy, and she gave me a clean bill of health…besides spraying that cold stuff on a few places here and there. It’s always a relief to not have to have a biopsy of something or other on my overly sunned skin. At any rate, I slept wonderfully in my own bed, and for some reason aren’t experiencing any jet lag. I’m still unpacking, and haven’t even gotten to my large pile of mail and Christmas gifts that arrived from afar. It’s almost lunch time, and yet I don’t feel the least bit hungry, as I think my body is used to being fast asleep while I was in Europe at this time of day. I’ll get to updating this website a little later this afternoon, as I’m looking forward to sticking my head back into the weather here in the islands. Thus far today however, just looking around from my weather tower here in Kula, it’s a lovely day! / I had planned on beginning my weather updates on this page today, as I mentioned. Although, as the day wore on, I started to run out of gas, so I think I’ll wait until Thursday morning…when I’m sure I’ll be more refreshed after a good nights sleep. I did however get it together to begin updating the Weather by Activity pages. Finally, have you seen that near full moon tonight!? Aloha, Glenn


Interesting:  Bison get Christmas gift from Governor of Montana – In a big step forward for wild bison and all Montanans, today Governor Steve Bullock agreed to expand year-round habitat for wild bison in Montana outside Yellowstone National Park.  Historically, thousands of wild bison have been hazed or slaughtered as they migrated from Yellowstone into Montana in the spring. This decision represents a significant change in bison management.

Following is a statement from Matt Skoglund, Director of the Northern Rockies Office at the Natural Resources Defense Council:

“Giving wild bison from Yellowstone year-round habitat in Montana is a welcome holiday offering from Governor Bullock. While I’d certainly love to see the state go further, this decision is a big step forward for wild bison in Montana, and it will show that wild bison and people can successfully share the Montana landscape outside Yellowstone National Park. When you consider this from a science, economics, public opinion, or common sense perspective, it makes sense for Montana to give wild bison from Yellowstone year-round habitat in the state.”

Wild bison have largely been blocked from staying in Montana year-round like other wildlife due to a concern by livestock interests that brucellosis, an introduced disease that can cause infected pregnant animals to miscarry, may spread to domestic livestock from the migrating wild bison, despite the incredibly small potential for infection and the management tools available to prevent such a transmission from happening. In fact, no documented transmission from wild bison to livestock has ever occurred. Interested stakeholders will now have the opportunity to begin to learn how wild bison will use the Montana landscape outside Yellowstone year-round.

This and other issues were addressed through a proposal to expand year-round bison habitat in Montana announced in July 2012, and a draft environmental assessment issued in July 2013. The proposal was partly in response to consensus recommendations from the Yellowstone Bison Citizens Working Group, a diverse group of landowners, business owners, livestock producers, hunters, wildlife advocates, and concerned citizens that worked together in 2011 and 2012 to provide citizen input on bison management in Montana.

In 2011, NRDC, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Sierra Club, and Defenders of Wildlife launched the Yellowstone Bison Coexistence Fencing Project, which has helped support over 30 fencing projects in the Gardiner and Hebgen Basins and helped mitigate potential conflicts between wild bison and landowners. The conservation groups have multiple new fencing projects lined up for 2016, and interested landowners can contact Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks or any of the conservation groups to learn more about it.