Naalehu weather radar: PHWA

A NEXRAD WSR-88D weather radar in Hawaii, the United States, operated by Federal Aviation Administration.

Station
South Shore (PHWA)
Site
Naalehu
Operator
Federal Aviation Administration
Network
NEXRAD WSR-88D
Antenna
19.095° N, 155.569° W, 1,380 ft (421 m) above sea level
Products
Reflectivity, composite reflectivity, echo tops, vertically integrated liquid, velocity, correlation coefficient, differential reflectivity, specific differential phase (KDP), spectrum width

PHWA is the South Shore WSR-88D radar at the southern end of the Big Island of Hawaii. It stands on the slope of Mauna Loa in the Ka‘ū district, about 3 km from Naalehu and 15 km from Pahala, where the USGS describes its white radome as hard to miss from Highway 11. Naalehu is a community in Hawaii County and one of the southernmost communities with a post office in the 50 states.

The NWS Honolulu forecast office lists it as South Point (PHWA), and its radar notices call it the Naalehu/South Hawaii radar (PHWA/HWC). The USGS describes it as the South Hawaii or Nā‘ālehu radar, owned by the Federal Aviation Administration and operated by NOAA's National Weather Service; the NWS Radar Operations Center lists it as South Shore FAA. It is one of two WSR-88D radars on the island; the other sits atop Kohala to the north. The radome is 39 ft across and the dish inside it 28 ft.

In May and June 2018 its data helped the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, the NWS and other agencies detect and characterise ash clouds from Kīlauea's Halema‘uma‘u Crater, including at night when visual observation was not possible. NCEI's archive of the radar's Level II data begins on 19 June 1998.

The USGS describes the radar's returns as extending more than 100 miles from the site, from well southwest of South Point sweeping counterclockwise to the northeast off Cape Kumukahi and Hilo Bay. Radar shows rain, snow and hail, not cloud, and nothing below its lowest beam; far from the antenna the beam passes high above the ground.

Nearby

  • Naalehu 2 mi south
  • Hilo 54 mi northeast
  • Captain Cook 36 mi northwest
  • Hawaiian Ocean View 13 mi west
  • Pāhala 10 mi northeast
  • Volcano 32 mi northeast
  • Honaunau-Napoopoo 32 mi northwest
  • Discovery Harbor 5 mi southwest

Nearby radars

  • Kohala (PHKM) 72 mi north
  • Molokai (PHMO) 175 mi northwest
  • Kauai (PHKI) 322 mi northwest

Hawaii radars · United States · Find your radar

Sources: NWS Radar Operations Center, Site ID network sites, NWS WSR-88D radar list (PDF, updated 18 August 2026), NCEI HOMR station record, PHWA, NCEI NEXRAD inventory, PHWA, NWS API radar station PHWA, NWS Honolulu, Hawaii weather radars, NWS Honolulu, radar free text messages for Hawaii, USGS Volcano Watch, Doppler radar in Ka‘ū: more than a weather radar (20 August 2020), Wikipedia, NEXRAD (operational locations table), Wikipedia summary, Nāʻālehu, Hawaii.

Radar data: NOAA National Weather Service (NEXRAD). Place names: GeoNames, CC BY 4.0.