Fickle trade winds leave us sweating

By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Writer

The students in Anna Strawn's afternoon psychology class don't need to be told that it's hot.

Heck, there's no need to check with the National Weather Service forecasters to learn that the mix of humidity and temperature feels like nearly triple digits.

Two fans merely move the hot air around at Strawn's Pearl City High School classroom. Not enough to make it feel cool, she said yesterday afternoon.

Brianne Baysa, a senior, said it's hard to concentrate when you're so hot.

"We have to try to exercise as much discipline as we can, so we can get our work done," Baysa said. "We're sweating here. It's pretty miserable throughout the year."

Robert Ballard, a National Weather Service forecaster, said the weather will remain warm and humid into the weekend. "This isn't typical weather for this time of year," Ballard said. "Generally, we'd have conditions where the trades would be blowing."

A survey of the state's areas with the highest heat index — a combination of temperature and humidity — showed that at 1 p.m. yesterday, Kalaeloa had a heat index of 97 degrees, Kapalua, Maui, was 100, but Honolulu proper was 93, Ballard said.

"Honolulu had a seabreeze to keep them a bit cooler," he said. "But almost every other place was unusually hot this afternoon."

The hot humid weather sparked another record for electricity use on O'ahu Monday night.

Jose Dizon of Hawaiian Electric Co. said demand for electricity reached 1,319 megawatts Monday at 6:48 p.m.

That was 22 megawatts more than the previous high Sept. 8.

Residential customer use is 4.8 percent higher than at this time last year, Dizon said.

Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com or 395-8831.