Breezy isle tradewinds wipe away mugginess
Forecasters expect the cooling pattern to last for days
Open the windows and welcome back the tradewinds.
The National Weather Service expects the cooling wind pattern from the east-northeast to continue through most of the week.
"They should be pretty breezy trades through Thursday," forecaster Tom Birchard said yesterday. Gusts up to 35 mph are predicted.
"We had southerly winds because the high pressure ridge that normally gives us the trades was far northeast of the islands. Now we have a new high building that will allow the tradewinds to work their way back," he said.
The hot sticky weekend weather drove people to air-conditioned stores and theaters. It also sent a dozen young Junior ROTC candidates to hospitals Saturday. The teenagers collapsed and were diagnosed with heat exhaustion after standing in ranks in the sun during political speeches after the Waianae Veterans Day Parade.
"The temperatures were not more than normal," said Birchard. The perception of unusually hot weather came "because of the moisture in the air. The dew point was in the mid-70s." The average November dew point -- a measure of relative humidity in the air -- is 65.
"The wind pattern will shift to a southeasterly flow by the weekend," said the meteorologist. "That usually means lighter winds for Kauai and Oahu. We are in the wind shadow of the Big Island."
"The pattern of light winds and drier weather is typical of an El Niño pattern, but it usually doesn't develop until January," Birchard said. He said National Weather Service meteorologists have said earlier that weather in the northern Pacific is shifting to an El Niño pattern.