Maui

Maui is the second-largest of the Hawaiian Islands at 727 square miles (1883 km²). Native Hawaiian tradition gives the origin of the island's name in the legend of Hawaiʻiloa, the Polynesian navigator attributed with discovery of the Hawaiian Islands. The story relates how he named the island of Maui after his son who in turn was named for the demi-god Maui. According to legend, the demi-god Maui raised all the Hawaiian Islands from the sea. The Island of Maui is also called the "Valley Isle" for the large fertile isthmus between its two volcanoes.

Climate

At sea level Maui has a remarkably stable tropical climate with highs in the region of 29 °C (80 to 85 °F) and lows around 20 °C (65 to 70 °F); rainfall is greater in the northern hemisphere winter (wet season is November through April). However, because of the two volcanic mountains that dominate the topography, Maui has a very wide range of climatic conditions depending on elevation and whether an area faces toward or away from the prevailing Tradewinds (blowing from the northeast). For example the top of the West Maui mountain receives over 400 inches (10 m) of rainfall per year, whereas Kihei receives less than 10 inches (250 mm), being in the rain shadow of East Maui Volcano (see Orographic precipitation); Kahului airport (the main airport on Maui) has average rainfall of about 19 inches (480 mm), whereas Olinda (upslope from the airport) receives about 73 inches (1.8 m).

Related Topics:
Rain shadow - Orographic precipitation

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Maui has an unusual weather feature known as the Maui vortex, an area of clear sky that often forms over Pukalani due to the swirling of air (a vortex) as it enters the central valley after being forced to move around Haleakalā.

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Maui, like the whole of the Hawaiian Islands, has a hurricane season in the late summer and fall, with tropical storms typically approaching from the southeast. Storms initiated by hurricanes or tropical depressions that approach from the southeast are known locally as Kona storms.

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