April 16-17 2006

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

Lihue, Kauai – 79F
Honolulu, Oahu – 81
Kaneohe, Oahu – 78
Kahului, Maui – 79
Hilo, Hawaii – 77
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii – 84

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

Lihue, Kauai – 73
Hilo airport – 67

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

0.64 MOUNT WAIALEALE, KAUAI
0.10 KAWAILOA, OAHU
0.05 MOLOKAI
0.00 LANAI
0.00 KAHOOLAWE
0.94 WEST WAILUAIKI, MAUI
1.07 GLENWOOD, BIG ISLAND

Weather Chart – Here’s the latest (automatically updated) weather map…showing a 1029 millibar high pressure system to the north of Hawaii. This high pressure cell will cause moderate to locally strong and gusty strong trade winds to blow today…slightly lighter Tuesday. 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
Hamoa Beach, Maui
Photo: Douglas Peebles


The trade winds remain a near-permanent part of our Hawaiian Island weather picture. This is thanks to a long lasting high pressure system, which remains nearly stationary far to the north of the Hawaiian Islands Sunday. Wind speeds will vary in strength, in general though, we’ll have rather breezy winds blowing across the Aloha state. These trade winds will range between about 10-25 overall, with gusts topping the 30 mph mark at times. The NWS forecast office in Honolulu is keeping the small craft advisory active across most of the coastal waters, and the major channels.

The latest computer forecast model output shows these trade winds blowing on this Easter Sunday, through the new week ahead. We should see them easing up a little starting Monday, bottoming-out in strength by Tuesday. They will continue to fan the islands right through next week as well…gaining strength again by Wednesday. As I’ve been pointing out the last few days, this is all pretty normal for this time of year. The spring, and summer months too, are well known for having breezy trade wind weather. Climatology would have us believe that this breezy air will stick around well into the future.

The windward sides will continue to see some passing shower activity. This too is quite common during the month of April. Those north and east facing shores and slopes have been rather moist the last coupld of weeks…although most of it has been rather light. The leeward beaches in contrast have been mostly dry…and will stay that way. Sunday and Monday will remain nice, especially along those resort beaches, where mostly sunny to partly cloudy weather will promote lots of tanning.

It’s early Sunday evening here in Kula, Maui, as I start this pre-sunset commentary. It was peaceful day here on Maui, at least from what I could see. A friend and I went kayaking and snorkeling on the south shore. It didn’t turn out to be one of our better days, for a number of reasons. The strong and gusty trade winds made the area we went to, choppy and full of white caps. The underwater visibilities weren’t that great along that part of the south coast, mostly because of the small SW swell waves breaking. We had lunch at a little fish and french fries place on South Kihei Road. I love sitting out and people watching sometimes, there was quite an array of different kinds of folks out and about, on this Easter Sunday. At the moment, the warm sunshine is flooding into this open windowed weather tower of mine. It feels so warm, and as I write, I’m sipping on a little something…a glass of Montepulciano, D’Abruzzo, 2003…in pure celebration of this major holiday! Here’s wishing you the most pleasant Sunday night, and a fresh invitation to join me here again Monday morning. I’m off to find a sunset ping pong partner, bye for now…Glenn.