#2 Postby senorpepr » Sat Jul 05, 2008 5:19 pm
ATHW40 PHFO 051838
SIMHI
HAWAIIAN ISLANDS SATELLITE INTERPRETATION MESSAGE
NWS CENTRAL PACIFIC HURRICANE CENTER HONOLULU HI
1830 UTC SAT JUL 05 2008
BASED ON DATA THROUGH 1800 UTC JULY 05 2008
Trade winds prevail over the main Hawaiian Islands, bringing clouds and showers to windward areas, with some of these seen spreading leeward on Kauai and Oahu.
Although trade winds prevail on the large scale, low clouds over windward waters are moving toward the west-northwest, indicating a slight southerly component to the low level flow. Low clouds, a mix of showery cumulus /cu/ and stable stratocumulus /sc/, are currently greatest in coverage over Kauai and Oahu. Broken clouds cover the eastern half of Kauai, the windward slopes and shores of Oahu, and the Waianae range of Oahu. Large portions of the islands of Maui county and the Big Island are mostly sunny this morning, with the typical exceptions, where cu and sc are scattered to broken, over northeast Molokai, the windward side of the west Maui mountains, the eastern flank of Haleakala near Hana, northeast Lanai, and portions of the Kau, Puna and Hilo districts of the Big Island.
Similar to yesterday morning, an east-west oriented diffuse band of showery cu, about 100 miles wide and 450 miles long, lies over waters east of the islands, and is located from 100 to 300 miles northeast of the islands. Low clouds within this band are moving toward 300 degrees, or toward the west-northwest, at speeds near 25 mph, as are clouds over near shore waters east of Oahu and Molokai. Radar is detecting nearly an equal amount of showers over waters east of the islands as it is over leeward waters, with a large portion of the showers over leeward waters associated with the Big Island plume, where low-level winds converge to it/s lee. Broken to overcast cu associated with the plume extend up to 200 miles west of Keahole Point in a band that is up to 100 miles wide.
Water vapor imagery shows a weak low aloft centered about 175 miles east of the Big Island, moving west-northwest at about 10 mph. The flow aloft over the islands is from the northeast, between the low east of the Big Island, and a ridge centered well northeast of the islands near 32°N 145°W. Deep convection is noticeably absent from the central north Pacific this morning, aside from isolated thunderstorms from 26°N to 29°N between 173°W and 177°W, associated with a low and trough aloft along 28°N between 170°W and 180.
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BIRCHARD
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