Think it's cold? You might be local

Temperatures in the low 60s send folks digging for outerwear

By Nelson Daranciang
ndaranciang@starbulletin.com

Wool caps, sweaters, sweatshirts and jackets came out of the closet yesterday.

HOW COLD WAS IT? Low temperatures at Honolulu Airport: Yesterday morning: 66 degrees Overall record low: 53 degrees (recorded on Jan. 31, 1998; Feb. 9, 1981; and four other dates) Source: National Weather Service

A cold front hitting the West Coast? Not at all. It was chilly in Hawaii, the one time when it's easy to tell the locals from the tourists.

The temperature dropped to 62 degrees at Honolulu Airport early yesterday morning. Good serving temperature for a stout beer, perhaps, but bone-chilling to residents.

"It was so cold I had to wear that jacket," said Desiree Suapaia, who wore a military cold-weather parka to work at the state Capitol yesterday.

Around town, in office buildings and on sidewalks, people are wearing jackets, sweaters and sweatshirts. And they'll tell you they've been bundling up at night as well.

Suapaia said it was so cold Wednesday night she went to bed wearing "sweatshirt, sweat pants, socks, comforter and then a blanket."

"It's been windy and chilly," said Jessica Bauman, who wore a sweatshirt and wool cap to work yesterday, "It's the wind that gets you."

The National Weather Service said the overnight low in Kalaeloa was 64 degrees, 60 in Wahiawa -- and even chillier in neighborhoods at higher elevations. By noon yesterday, Kalaeloa had warmed to 74 degrees, Honolulu had barely made it past 70 and Wahiawa reached 64 degrees, the Weather Service said.

The overnight temperatures were lower than normal for this time of year but did not set any records, said Norman Hui, National Weather Service forecaster. And many locations on Oahu recorded lower temperatures overnight Tuesday.

But the overnight temperatures probably felt colder because "the air mass is drier than normal," Hui said -- about 40 to 50 percent humidity, rather than 50 to 60 percent for this time of year.

Hui said a cold front that passed over the islands was responsible for bringing north winds, and with them cooler, drier air.

He said temperatures should begin to rise as the winds shift to easterlies and the usual trades.

To put things in perspective, the low temperatures at Mauna Kea have been hovering at around 23 degrees. Today's expected high at the summit: 36 degrees. Too cold even for beer.