Nuku‘alofa, Tonga

1. Mon7 AM69°21 mph
2. 8 AM70°20 mph
3. 9 AM71°21 mph
4. 10 AM71°20 mph
5. 11 AM72°20 mph
6. 12 PM72°19 mph
7. 1 PM72°21 mph
8. 2 PM72°20 mph
9. 3 PM71°19 mph
10. 4 PM71°19 mph
11. 5 PM70°19 mph
12. 6 PM70°18 mph
13. 7 PM70°18 mph
14. 8 PM70°18 mph
15. 9 PM70°18 mph
16. 10 PM70°17 mph
17. 11 PM70°16 mph
18. Tue12 AM70°16 mph
19. 1 AM69°16 mph
20. 2 AM69°15 mph
21. 3 AM69°14 mph
22. 4 AM69°15 mph
23. 5 AM69°16 mph
24. 6 AM69°17 mph
25. 7 AM69°17 mph
26. 8 AM70°17 mph
27. 9 AM71°16 mph
28. 10 AM72°16 mph
29. 11 AM73°17 mph
30. 12 PM73°17 mph
31. 1 PM74°17 mph
32. 2 PM73°18 mph
33. 3 PM73°18 mph
34. 4 PM73°17 mph
35. 5 PM72°18 mph
36. 6 PM71°19 mph
37. 7 PM71°19 mph
38. 8 PM71°17 mph
39. 9 PM71°18 mph
40. 10 PM71°19 mph
41. 11 PM71°19 mph
42. Wed12 AM71°18 mph
43. 1 AM71°18 mph
44. 2 AM71°20 mph
45. 3 AM71°20 mph
46. 4 AM71°22 mph
47. 5 AM71°21 mph
48. 6 AM71°21 mph

Scroll sideways for more hours. Pick an hour for every number.

1. TodaySep 2872°69°Partly cloudy—wind 21 mph
2. TueSep 2974°71°Partly cloudy—wind 19 mph
3. WedSep 3073°71°Light rain—0.01 inwind 24 mph
4. ThuOct 173°71°Light rain—0.05 inwind 23 mph
5. FriOct 274°70°Light rain—0.06 inwind 22 mph
6. SatOct 373°71°Cloudy—0.02 inwind 21 mph
7. SunOct 472°71°Rain—0.07 inwind 17 mph
8. MonOct 574°70°Light rain showers—0.04 inwind 16 mph
9. TueOct 672°69°Cloudy—0.02 inwind 20 mph
10. WedOct 773°69°Cloudy—0.02 inwind 17 mph
11. ThuOct 8~71°70°Model mean0.01 in
12. FriOct 9~71°70°Model mean0.02 in
13. SatOct 10~71°71°Model mean0.02 in
14. SunOct 11~71°70°Model mean0.02 in
15. MonOct 12~71°70°Model mean0.02 in
16. TueOct 13~72°71°Model mean0.08 in

• Feels like69°
• WindESE 21 mph
• Humidity55%
• Dew point51°
• Pressure30.20 inHg
• UV index0 · Lowclear-sky peak 11 today
• Sunrise and sunsetSunrise · Sunset
• Moonrise8:03 PMMoonset 6:58 AM
• Moon phaseWaning gibbous98% lit

Each line is one model’s own forecast at its own grid cell: three kilometers for HRRR, a quarter of a degree for the global models, which can sit a few hundred meters above or below the town. Where they agree the forecast is settled; where they part is where it is not.

NWS gridGFSGEFS ± spreadECMWFECMWF AI

A ~ marks a high or low read from six-hourly steps, which miss the true extreme by a degree or two.

ECMWF ensemble meteogram

10 daysTemperature plume

None of these is a measurement. Each is a rating of the forecast ahead, and of what is happening at the point right now, against what the activity or the ailment is known to mind, and each names the figure that decided it. An ailment or a pest is rated as a risk, low to extreme; an activity, a chore or a journey as a condition, poor to ideal.

Each rating says which span it is for: the rest of today’s daylight, tonight, or the next 24 hours.

Tonight has no dark, clear hour without a bright moon in this forecast. Rated poor.

Dark is the sun 18 degrees below the horizon; where it never gets that low, 12 degrees, marked nautical. Clear is sky cover of 20% or less. A bright moon is one above the horizon with a quarter or more of its disc lit. Transparency in the table is estimated from surface humidity (70% and 85% mark fair and poor) and visibility, since the forecast carries no haze or high cloud moisture. Seeing and transparency by hour, where shown, are Environment and Climate Change Canada’s astronomy forecast (regional model; seeing from cloud, wind shear, turbulence near the ground and the surface temperature trend; transparency from the moisture through the whole air column), under the Open Government Licence - Canada. Dew is the air within 2 °C of its dew point. Excellent is four or more clear moonless hours with good transparency; good is three; fair is one, or two clear hours.

Golden hour is the sun between 6 degrees above the horizon and 4 degrees below it; blue hour is the sun between 4 and 6 degrees below. These are the definitions timeanddate.com and PhotoPills use. Directions are degrees clockwise from true north, where the sun’s upper edge and the moon’s center cross a flat horizon; hills and buildings change both. None means the sun does not reach that height on the day; all day means it stays inside the band.

Hours fit for spraying, and the days dry enough for fieldwork and hay, read from this forecast’s wind, gusts, humidity, temperature and rain.

Spraying windows

No stretch of two hours or more meets the rules with 4 rain-free hours after it in this forecast.

Good Marginal No

Field days

Spraying: sustained wind 3 to 10 mph, the range US extension services and most labels give; gusts no more than 15 mph (this page’s limit); delta T (air minus wet-bulb temperature) 2 to 8 °C preferred and 8 to 10 °C marginal, from GRDC guidance, with the wet bulb by Stull’s formula; no hour at a 30% chance of rain or 0.25 mm forecast during the rain-free time. Follow the product label, which overrides all of this. Field days: dry is no daytime hour at a 30% chance and under 1 mm all day, wet is 6 mm (0.25 in) or more; soil moisture is not in the forecast, so ground still wet from earlier rain is not accounted for. Hay drying marks a dry day with humidity down to 50% and a breeze of 5 mph or more.

The best-rated day this week is Monday, rated best.

Periods in bold fall within an hour of sunrise or sunset. The weather’s side is the fishing index · Solunar tables for Nuku‘alofa, by month

Major periods are two hours centered on the moon’s passage overhead and underfoot; minor periods are one hour centered on moonrise and moonset: the conventional durations of John Alden Knight’s solunar tables (1936). The rating is this site’s: one point to start, two more within a day and a half of a new or full moon (one more within three and a half days), and one more when a period falls within an hour of sunrise or sunset. The theory has mixed support in fisheries research; the times are exact astronomy.

1. Today72° · E 19–21 mph

   Partly cloudy. High near 22°C. East wind 30 to 33 km/h.

2. Tonight69° · E 14–18 mph

   Partly cloudy. Low near 21°C. East wind 23 to 29 km/h.

3. Tuesday74° · E 16–18 mph

   Partly cloudy. High near 23°C. East wind 25 to 29 km/h.

4. Tuesday Night71° · ESE 17–22 mph

   Cloudy. Low near 21°C. Eastsoutheast wind 28 to 36 km/h.

5. Wednesday73° · ESE 21–24 mph

   Light rain. High near 23°C. Eastsoutheast wind 33 to 38 km/h.

6. Wednesday Night71° · ESE 18–24 mph

   Light rain. Low near 21°C. Eastsoutheast wind 29 to 38 km/h.

7. Thursday73° · E 19–21 mph

   Light rain. High near 23°C. East wind 31 to 33 km/h. Precipitation around 0.8 mm.

8. Thursday Night71° · ESE 19 mph

   Cloudy. Low near 22°C. Eastsoutheast wind around 31 km/h. Precipitation around 0.6 mm.

9. Friday74° · ESE 19–22 mph

   Light rain. High near 23°C. Eastsoutheast wind 31 to 36 km/h. Precipitation around 1.1 mm.

10. Friday Night70° · ESE 18–21 mph

    Cloudy. Low near 21°C. Eastsoutheast wind 29 to 33 km/h.

11. Saturday73° · ESE 16–18 mph

    Cloudy. High near 23°C. Eastsoutheast wind 26 to 29 km/h.

12. Saturday Night71° · ESE 12–16 mph

    Cloudy. Low near 22°C. Eastsoutheast wind 19 to 25 km/h.

13. Sunday72° · ESE 12–17 mph

    Rain. High near 22°C. Eastsoutheast wind 19 to 28 km/h. Precipitation around 1.5 mm.

14. Sunday Night71° · ESE 14–16 mph

    Cloudy. Low near 21°C. Eastsoutheast wind 22 to 26 km/h.

15. Monday74° · SE 14–16 mph

    Light rain showers. High near 24°C. Southeast wind 23 to 26 km/h. Precipitation around 0.7 mm.

16. Monday Night70° · ESE 16–18 mph

    Partly cloudy. Low near 21°C. Eastsoutheast wind 26 to 29 km/h. Precipitation around 0.6 mm.

17. Tuesday72° · ESE 19–20 mph

    Cloudy. High near 22°C. Eastsoutheast wind 31 to 32 km/h.

18. Tuesday Night69° · ESE 16–17 mph

    Cloudy. Low near 21°C. Eastsoutheast wind 26 to 27 km/h. Precipitation around 0.6 mm.

19. Wednesday73° · ESE 14–17 mph

    Cloudy. High near 23°C. Eastsoutheast wind 23 to 27 km/h.

Climate of Nuku‘alofa: normals, records and every month

The forecast office edits about sixty fields for every cell of its grid. The common ones are above; these are the rest, as the daily extreme, for anyone who needs the mixing height, the fire danger or the swell.