Air Temperatures – The following high temperatures (F) were recorded across the state of Hawaii Saturday…along with the low temperatures Saturday:
78 – 62 Lihue, Kauai
81 – 67 Honolulu, Oahu
76 – 66 Molokai
79 – 60 Kahului AP, Maui
81 – 66 Kailua Kona
78 – 67 Hilo AP, Hawaii
Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands Saturday evening:
0.11 Moloaa Dairy, Kauai
0.75 Ahuimanu Loop, Oahu
0.29 Molokai
0.15 Lanai
0.02 Kahoolawe
0.96 West Wailuaiki, Maui
0.94 Papaikou Well, Big Island
The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph) Saturday evening:
28 Port Allen, Kauai
29 Kuaokala, Oahu
23 Molokai
24 Lanai
31 Kahoolawe
23 Maalaea Bay, Maui
31 Waikoloa, Big Island
Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of our tallest mountain Mauna Kea (nearly 13,800 feet high) on the Big Island of Hawaii. Here’s the webcam for the Haleakala Crater on Maui. These webcams are available during the daylight hours here in the islands, and at night whenever there’s a big moon shining down. Also, at night you will be able to see the stars — and the sunrise and sunset too — depending upon weather conditions.
Aloha Paragraphs
High pressure north and east of the state
A ragged cold front well north and northwest
Clear to partly cloudy leeward…low clouds windward
A few showers – Looping image
~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~
Small Craft Advisory…Maalaea Bay, Pailolo and Alenuihaha Channels, Big Island leeward and southeast waters
Broad Brush Overview: The trade wind flow over the islands will be quite dry this weekend, continuing through the upcoming week. A slight increase in shower activity over windward and mountain areas, along with lighter trades…will occur temporarily Monday through Tuesday.
Details: A drying trend along with increasing trades will occur this weekend, as high pressure builds north of the state. The bulk of any moisture will fall along the windward and mountain areas. The trades will become briefly stronger over the windier locations tonight through Sunday.
The trades will trend down again Monday, due to the ridge of high pressure weakening in response to a cold front passing by well north. Increased moisture associated with an old front pushing in from the east…should also bring a modest increase in showers over windward locations.
Looking Further Ahead: The latest model guidance remains in support of a dry trade wind pattern Tuesday through the end of the new work week. In sum, we’ll find a relatively quiet start to our first week of 2018, with the trade winds maintaining their control…although not carrying many showers our way.
Here’s a wind profile of the Pacific Ocean – Closer view of the islands / Here’s the vog forecast animation / Here’s the latest weather map
Marine environment details: A Small Craft Advisory (SCA) is expected in the typical windier areas near Maui County and the Big Island beginning tonight. These SCA winds winds will continue through Sunday…before tapering off some Monday.
Small to moderate west-northwest swells are expected through Sunday, with surf heights remaining below advisory levels. A larger northwest swell is due to arrive late Monday and peak Tuesday near advisory levels for north and some west facing shores. This swell is expected to decline late Wednesday through Thursday.
As the trade winds build this weekend, look for increasingly rough surf along east facing shores, which will then continue for much of the following week. Surf along south facing shores will decrease to more typical winter levels as we move into 2018.
World-wide Tropical Cyclone activity
>>> Here’s the latest PDC Weather Wall Presentation, covering a tropical disturbance being referred to as Invest 94S in the South Indian Ocean…and another being referred to as Invest 99W in the western Pacific
>>> Atlantic Ocean:
>>> Caribbean Sea:
>>> Gulf of Mexico:
Here’s a satellite image of the Caribbean Sea…and the Gulf of Mexico
Here’s the link to the National Hurricane Center (NHC)
>>> Eastern Pacific:
Here’s a wide satellite image that covers the entire area between Mexico, out through the central Pacific…to the International Dateline.
Here’s the link to the National Hurricane Center (NHC)
>>> Central Pacific:
Here’s a link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)
>>> Northwest Pacific Ocean: No active tropical cyclones
>>> North and South Indian Oceans / Arabian Sea: No active tropical cyclones
Here’s a link to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC)
Interesting: 25 Interesting Facts About the New Year –
1. Some people wear adult diapers while celebrating New Year at Time Square due to the lack of toilets.
2. Ethiopia has 13 months. Their current year is still 2006 and they celebrate New Years on September 11.
3. Until 2006, the Space Shuttle never flew on New Year’s day or eve because its computers couldn’t handle a year rollover.
4. In an effort to reduce drunk driving, every New Year’s Eve the AAA will tow your car and give you a lift home for free, even if you’re not a member (not available in all states)
5. Beethoven’s 9th Symphony was introduced to Japan by German POWs in WWI (who played it for them), and it is now a national tradition to perform it every New Year’s
6. When religion was suppressed in Soviet Russia, Santa/St. Nick was replaced with Grandfather Frost, called the spirit of winter, who brought gifts on New Year’s and placed them under the “New Year tree” –
7. In Korea and some other Asian countries, when you are born, you are considered one year old and everyone’s age increases one year on New Year’s. So if you were born on December 29th, on New Year’s day, you will be considered 2 years old.
8. In 2010, a “Black Widow” suicide bomber planned a terrorist attack in central Moscow on New Year’s Eve, but was killed when a spam message from her mobile phone operator wishing her a happy new year received just hours before the planned attack triggered her suicide belt, killing her, but nobody else.
9. On New Year’s Day in 1976, a man named Danny Finegood changed the Hollywood sign to “Hollyweed” as a college prank in order to celebrate the decriminalization of marijuana and got an “A” for it.
10. The ancient Hawaiian New Year was four months long, war was forbidden, people stopped working, and the people spent time dancing, feasting and having a good time.
11. There is a music festival every New Year’s eve in the Antarctic called ‘icestock’
12. In Thailand, they celebrate their traditional New Year’s Day with a state sponsored multiple day water fight.
13. Prior to 1753, Britain and its possessions celebrated the New Year on March 25 (Annunciation Day). Furthermore, 1752 only lasted nine months, as the dates from 01/01 to 03/24 (as well as September 3 to 13) were skipped in order for 1753 to begin on 01/01 like in other countries.
14. Russians celebrate the New Year twice, once on January 1st and then again on January 14th.
15. On New Year’s Day in Akita, Japan there is a tradition where men dress as mountain demons, get drunk, and terrorize children for being lazy or disobeying their parents.
16. Every December 25th a town in Peru celebrates “Takanakuy”. Men, women, and children settle grudges with fistfights. Then everyone goes drinking together, ready to start the New Year with a clean slate.
17. Instead of lowering a giant ball of lights on New Year’s Eve, Brasstown, North Carolina lowers a possum. It’s known as “The Possum Drop”
18. There are only 14 possible calendars. In 2014, you can re-use calendars from these years: 2003, 1997, 1986, 1975, 1969, 1958, 1947, 1941, 1930, and 1919.
19. After the French revolution, France briefly used a new calendar based on a decimal system; 10 days a week, 10 hours a day, 100 minutes per hour and 100 seconds per minute, and starting at Year 1.
20. North Korea does not use the normal Gregorian calendar like most of the world. Instead it uses a different calendar system called the Juche calendar for numbering the years and year one of this calendar began on Kim Il Sung’s (The founder of North Korea) birthday.
21. Hogmanay is the term for New Year’s Eve in Scotland. In a place called Stonehaven, it is honored through fireballs swinging and first-footing into a friend or neighbor’s threshold.
22. There is a 1000-year-long song in the making known as “Longplayer.” The song began on Jan. 1, 2000 and will continue until Dec. 31, 2999, where it will come back to the starting point of the song and begin again.
23. On New Year’s Eve, residents in a small neighborhood in Johannesburg, South Africa collect old appliances, carry them up to apartment building rooftops and toss them down to the streets far below. –
24. The Reykjavik (capital of Iceland) fireworks display on New Year’s Eve is one of the largest in the world, and most fireworks sales fund rescue operations in the country.
25. Since New Year’s Eve 2008, the city of Mobile, Alabama raises a 12 foot tall lighted mechanical Moon Pie to celebrate the coming of the New Year.
Email Glenn James: 
Steve Says:
Aloha Glenn, not sure why all the mainland folks are having a cow over the cold weather. I think people are so used to a/c in the summer and heaters in the winter. My grand parents had farms in Nebraska and when they were kids it was HOT in the summer and COLD in the winter. I was watching Nat Geo today and 10000 years ago Manhattan was under a mile thick glacier, wow! Happy New Years
~~~ Hi Steve, it’s pretty darn cold (-36 degrees in International Falls, Minnesota) over those northern states, impressively low temperatures in my book!
Wow…10000 feet of ice, talk about wild!
Thanks for your interesting comments.
Happy New Year to you too!
Aloha, Glenn