"Winter Weather" on Maui

Brrr… Not. It can get chilly on Maui during the winter, but usually one has to be higher up – like in Kula to really feel cold. Cold is a relative term. After living on Maui for a while, cold can be anything cooler than 70 degrees. Which is downright warm and comfortable anywhere else.

I suppressed a grin when I saw a woman at Del’s Farm Supply, located in warm and sea level Kahului, wearing a heavy scarf, long sleeve shirt, and get this … a pair of shorts.  I badly wanted to take a picture. 

In November I also saw two people on a drizzly night in Makawao wearing winter scarves. One gets acclimatized to warm weather and then “winter” feels cold.  

Generally, Kahului, Kihei and Lahaina are warm year round. Even Paia on the North Shore is fairly warm – 70s and 80s year round.  These are all towns at sea level. There was only one winter season that I recall where Kihei and Kahului were downright cold at night – friends in Kihei complained that they couldn’t eat dinner on their lanai (deck). 

My idea of cool weather - the neighbor's car windows have a lot of morning condensation from the cool, moist air. 

With higher elevations, the winter months can mean temps reach 50s maybe at night, but the sun comes out – usually, except not always in Haiku – and then the day warms up nicely to 70 and 80 degrees. 

Other than being at the top of Haleakala Crater, the coldest I’ve been on Maui was at a New Year’s party in Kula. Brrrr… 

That would have been a good night for a long sleeve jacket. By the way, yes I do know what real winter weather is. The coldest I have ever been in my life was standing outside in St. Petersburg waiting an hour for a streetcar on a typical subzero Russian winter's day. 

But what is cold really? The last few days have been really warm, in the  low 80s at least.  But late November was a bit chilly for Haiku, and there was a lot of condensation on the car windows in the morning.  

By the way, the last three weeks in October were pretty dry and warm this year, and then just around the election, Haiku experienced a lot of rain off and on for a couple of weeks. I think Hali'imaile and Makawao also got some rain. 

Weather… it’s kind of unpredictable. Generally it's warm and sunny or partly sunny. If it's raining where you are, if you drive around the island far enough, with any luck, you'll find a sunny spot.