Mild weather expected for holiday weekend

The weather has been relatively mild to start the winter in East Hawaii, and on the cusp of the New Year’s holiday, there doesn’t appear to be any major changes on the horizon.

The seven-day forecast from the National Weather Service in Honolulu is calling for mostly sunny days with partly cloudy nights through Wednesday. Highs will be in the mid- to upper 70s with the lows in the mid- to lower 60s. Winds will be mostly easterly and northeasterly and relatively calm, with speeds in the single digits.

“You may get a few passing showers, typical trade wind-type weather,” NWS forecaster Matt Foster said Friday. “Conditions should be pretty stable and you shouldn’t get any significant precipitation or anything like that. No major storm systems coming through.”

And as for New Year’s Eve, when we ring out 2017 and toast to a happy, healthy and prosperous 2018?

“You may get a few showers tracking through the overnight hours, but just trade wind-type showers. Nothing you’re not used to there in Hilo,” Foster said.

Chances of precipitation between today and Wednesday range between 20 and 30 percent each day, with rainfall forecast to be less than a 10th of an inch per day.

The evenings, while still cool, have been significantly less so lately than earlier in the month, before the official start of winter Dec. 22.

There has been one record low temperature set this month, on Dec. 16, when the mercury dipped to 57 degrees at Hilo International Airport.

That eclipsed the old record of 59 degrees, set in 1989.

Email John Burnett at jburnett@ |hawaiitribune-herald.com.