Prognostic Meteorological Discussion
Issued by NWS
Issued by NWS
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158 FXHW01 KWNH 150755 PMDHI Hawaii Extended Forecast Discussion NWS Weather Prediction Center College Park MD 254 AM EST Wed Jan 15 2025 Valid 00Z Thu Jan 16 2025 - 00Z Thu Jan 23 2025 Latest guidance continues to show the trades being disrupted by a front that approaches and then passes through the main islands during Thursday-Friday. Instability/height falls aloft could produce some areas of heavy rainfall as the front passes through but the models have been consistent recently in keeping the heaviest rainfall to the north. Continuity is also good for the next front that should reach the area during the weekend, with trailing high pressure bringing moderate to brisk northeasterly winds for Sunday and transitioning to moderate trades into early next week. Guidance still expects precipitable water values to be on the drier side of normal from the weekend into early next week as upper ridging builds in, keeping most showers fairly light. Guidance diverges noticeably by next Tuesday-Wednesday with respect to the character of central Pacific upper troughing and the resulting progression of the leading cold front. There are two primary clusters among the standard dynamical guidance, with the ECMWF/CMC and their ensemble means slower and more amplified with the trough versus the latest GFS runs and GEFS mean. At the surface this makes the difference between a slower/wetter frontal passage on Wednesday in the ECMWF cluster versus a faster/drier one in the GFS/GEFS along with trailing high pressure already restoring trade flow by Wednesday. 00Z machine learning (ML) models show typical spread, but on average recommend a compromise solution (which is currently preferred) that would have the cold front reaching at least into the eastern islands by 12Z Wednesday with somewhat less heavy rainfall than forecast by the 00Z ECMWF, while trailing winds would still be northeasterly versus the trades of the GFS. Rausch $$