Climate of Hawai‘i

Climate Variables

The following climate and land characteristic variables were mapped and are available on the Climate of Hawai‘i website:

  • Air Temperature

  • Surface Temperature

  • Relative Humidity

  • Vapor Pressure Deficit

  • Wind Speed

  • Rainfall

  • Solar Radiation

  • Diffuse Solar Radiation

  • Clear Sky Solar Radiation

  • Cloud Frequency

  • Albedo

  • Downwelling Longwave Radiation

  • Upwelling Longwave Radiation

  • Net Radiation

  • Soil Heat Flux

  • Biomass Heat Storage

  • Air Layer Heat Storage

  • Land Cover Type

  • Vegetation Height

  • Leaf Area Index

  • Vegetation Cover Fraction

  • Canopy Wetness Fraction

  • Priestley-Taylor Potential Evapotranspiration

  • Penman-Monteith Potential Evapotranspiration

  • Grass Reference Surface Potential Evapotranspiration

  • Wet Canopy Evaporation

  • Transpiration

  • Soil Evaporation

  • Evapotranspiration

  • Latent Energy Flux


The Climate of Hawai‘i website provides a set of maps of the spatial patterns of climate for the major Hawaiian Islands. Numerous climate variables were mapped as part of a larger project on evapotranspiration. In that project it was necessary to map variables such as air temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, net radiation, and many others. Most variables are mapped for each hour of the average 24-hour cycle of each month and for each hour of the average 24-hour cycle for the whole year. The average value for each month and the annual average are also mapped. Many of those maps are available via this website, in the form of downloadable files and, for a selection of variables, on the interactive mapping tool.

Funding

The 2014 Evapotranspiration of Hawai‘i project was conducted under an agreement between the State of Hawai‘i Commission on Water Resource Management and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Honolulu District under Section 22 of the Water Resources Development Act of 1974. Agreement No. W9128A-08-D-00007 was awarded to CH2M Hill, which subcontracted the Evapotranspiration of Hawai‘i portion of the project to the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Department of Geography. Ryan Longman's participation was supported by the Pacific Islands Climate Science Center and by Pacific Islands Climate Change Cooperative award F10A00079. The development of the evapotranspiration, solar, and climate websites, including their interactive map tools, was supported by National Science Foundation Hawai‘i EPSCoR grant no. EPS-0903833.

Publications

Giambelluca, T.W., X. Shuai, M.L. Barnes, R.J. Alliss, R.J. Longman, T. Miura, Q. Chen, A.G. Frazier, R.G. Mudd, L. Cuo, and A.D. Businger. 2014. Evapotranspiration of Hawai‘i. Final report submitted to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers—Honolulu District, and the Commission on Water Resource Management, State of Hawai‘i (pdf)