Better weather is on the way for West Hawaii, forecasters say.
After nearly a week of rain and cold weather, infrared satellite Friday morning showed just a few cirrus clouds remaining over the Big Island as the deep moisture upper-level trough that brought the inclement weather to the leeward side tracks east and away from the island.
Bringing the better weather is an upper-level ridge moving in from the east. That ridge, according to forecasters, is expected to bring stable conditions over Hawaii that will last into next week.
“It will be more sunny — it should be back to typical weather with the onshore wind flow and cloud build-ups during the day and clearing during the night,” said Matt Foster, a National Weather Service Meteorologist based in Honolulu.
The forecast does call for some windy conditions over the weekend fueled by a high-pressure system about 1,000 miles northeast of Kauai. However, the north winds are forecast to be short-lived because the system is expected to slowly shift eastward, Foster said.
“The winds will start dropping off Monday to light and variable winds,” he said. “It could (then start to) get a little humid because we have a front coming toward us.”
Foster described the front as “real weak,” adding it may not even reach the Big Island.
The Mauna Kea Weather Center reported Friday afternoon that Mauna Kea access road remained closed because of heavy accumulation of snow and ice on all of the summit roads.
“Our snow removal crew worked hard all day (Thursday) attempting to clear large amounts of snow from summit roads, however, due to continuing snow fall and strong winds, they were unable to make it all the way to the summit,” the center said in a prepared statement. The snow removal crew resumed efforts Friday, but “they report very slow progress due to the depth of the snow and the thickness of the ice.”
Matt Lyman, a forecast meteorologist with the center, said Friday afternoon that snowfall had ceased at the 13,796-foot summit of Mauna Kea. An estimate of the amount of snow that fell during the wintry weather, which even prompted a blizzard warning, was not possible because of the windy conditions that resulted in “large drifts” of snow, he said.