Glenn James
Hawaii Weather Today
Creator, Author, and Administrator for 30 years

 

The last update to this website was at 415am Saturday HST


Here are the latest 24-hour precipitation totals (inches) for each of the islands Saturday morning:

0.85  Mount Waialeale, Kauai
1.11  Lyon, Oahu
0.28  Puu Alii, Molokai
0.00  Lanai
2.00  Puu Kukui, Maui
5.18  Piihonua, Big Island


The following numbers represent the strongest wind gusts (mph) Saturday morning:

16  Port Allen, Kauai – ENE 
35  Oahu Forest NWR, Oahu – E
25  Molokai AP, Molokai – NE 
27  Lanai 1, Lanai – NE
36  Maalaea Bay, Maui – NNW
39  Puuloa, Big Island – NE


Hawaii’s Mountains – Here’s a link to the live webcam on the summit of our tallest mountain Mauna Kea (~13,800 feet high) on the Big Island of Hawaii. Here’s the webcam for the (~10,023 feet high) 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.

https://weather.gc.ca/data/satellite/goes_gwdisk11_1070_100.jpg

Big Blue…click twice for largest version

 

https://cdn.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES18/ABI/SECTOR/tpw/13/GOES18-TPW-13-900x540.gif

Thunderstorms in the far southeast and southwest…cold front northwest 

 

https://cdn.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES18/ABI/SECTOR/hi/13/20261220510-20261221300-GOES18-ABI-HI-13-600x600.gif

Low clouds arriving on the gusty trade winds

 

https://radar.weather.gov/ridge/standard/HAWAII_loop.gif

https://radar.weather.gov/ridge/standard/PHKI_loop.gif

https://radar.weather.gov/ridge/standard/PHKM_loop.gif

Showers locally 

 

https://www.weather.gov/wwamap/png/hfo.png

Please open this link to see details on the current Watches, Warnings and Advisories noted above




~~~ Hawaii Weather Narrative ~~~

 

Glenn’s Saturday comments:  I’m here at my friend Linda’s house in Corte Madera, Marin County, California, continuing on in my working vacation.

 

>>> Highest Temperature Friday, May 1, 2026 – 99 degrees at Death Valley, CA
>>> Lowest Temperature Saturday, May 2, 2026 – 7 degrees at Peter Sinks, UT

 

>>> Interesting weather web blog: Mauka Showers…Waialeale’s Rainfall Trend

 

At the Lake – a poem by Mary Oliver

A fish leaps like a black pin-then-when the starlight strikes its side —
like a silver pin. In an instant the fish’s spine alters the fierce line of rising
and it curls a little-the head, like scalloped tin, plunges back, and it’s gone.
This is, I think, what holiness is: the natural world, where every moment is full
of the passion to keep moving. Inside every mind there’s a hermit’s cave full of light,
full of snow, full of concentration. I’ve knelt there, and so have you,
hanging on to what you love, to what is lovely. The lake’s
shining sheets don’t make a ripple now, and the stars are going off to their blue sleep,
but the words are in place-and the fish leaps, and leaps again from the black plush of the poem, that breathless space.

 

Hawaii’s Broad Brush Weather Overview…as of Saturday morning: The high pressure ridge north of the islands will keep moderate trade winds blowing across the Hawaii islands through Monday. Wind speeds will weaken from Tuesday through Thursday, as a weak cold front passes north of the island chain. Trade winds slowly return by the end of next week as the ridge builds back.

Weather Details for the Hawaiian Islands…as of Saturday morning: Satellite imagery shows a weak upper low roughly 400 miles northeast of the Big Island. Clouds just upstream or east of the Big Island are fairly unstable looking, keeping periods of rainfall in the forecast for the Hamakua Coast and east Maui today.

Subsidence temperature inversion heights in upper air soundings at Hilo and Lihue were measured at 7,500 feet and 6,300 feet respectively. This means cloud heights are taller across the eastern islands, with enhanced shower potential, as compared to lower cloud tops and more normal brief passing showers across to the western half of the state.

Moderate trade winds continue with brief passing showers favoring the windward mountain areas through Monday. Lighter winds from Tuesday through Thursday, will cause afternoon sea breezes with onshore winds, triggered by island surface heating, to expand across all islands. Expect interior clouds and a few showers each day in this pattern. Trade winds slowly rebuild across the state by the end of next week.


https://www.weather.gov/images/hfo/graphics/npac.gif


Here’s a near real-time Wind Profile of the Pacific Ocean – along with a Closer View of the islands / Here’s the latest Weather Map / Looping Surface Precipitation…through the next 8-days / Vog Map

 

Marine Environmental Conditions…as of Saturday morning: A ridge of high pressure to the north of the islands will weaken through the weekend, as a front passes by north of the islands. Winds in turn will weaken, and further ease Tuesday into the middle of the week, as another front passes north of the islands.

A small west-northwest swell is coming in a little lower than expected, the swell will hold and then gradually ease through the weekend. Another, slightly smaller northwest swell is expected early next week, maintaining elevated surf along north and west-facing shores. Looking ahead, guidance indicates yet another long-period northwest (320 deg) swell may arrive late next week, generated by a developing storm near Japan that is forecast to lift northeast near the Kuril Islands this weekend.

Surf along south-facing shores will trend up this weekend, as a long-period south-southwest pulse arrives. Expect a peak later in the weekend and into Monday before lowering.

As trade winds weaken this weekend, expect surf along east-facing shores to trend downward.

 

 

No photo description available.


World-wide Tropical Cyclone Activity


>>> Here’s a link to the latest Pacific Disaster Center’s Weather Wall


>>> Atlantic Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones

>>> Caribbean Sea: There are no active tropical cyclones

>>> Gulf of Mexico: There are no active tropical cyclones

Here’s the link to the National Hurricane Center (NHC)

 

>>> Eastern Pacific: There are no active tropical cyclones

Here’s the link to the National Hurricane Center (NHC)

>>> Central Pacific: There are no active tropical cyclones

Here’s the link to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)

 

>>> Northwest Pacific Ocean:  There are no active tropical cyclones

>>> Southwest Pacific Ocean: There are no active tropical cyclones

>>> North and South Indian Oceans / Arabian Sea: There are no active tropical cyclones



Interesting:  How the Next El Niño Could Lock in a Hotter Climate

The Pacific Ocean is a giant climate cauldron, with a powerful heat engine that affects storms, fisheries and rainfall patterns half a world away, and scientists are watching closely to see if it’s about to boil over.

Their projections suggest the tropical Pacific is simmering toward a strong El Niño, the warm phase of an ocean-atmosphere cycle that can intensify and shift those impacts.

In a world already superheated by greenhouse gases, a strong El Niño during the next 12 to 18 months could permanently push the planet’s average annual temperature past the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming threshold enshrined in scientific documents and political agreements as a turning point for potentially irreversible climate impacts.

Read More: Yale Environment 360