South and North Energy Lingers, New Swells on the Horizon
Ho’okipa / File Image: Jimmie Hepp
By Meteorologist Malika Dudley / Email: [email protected]
Alerts
A Small Craft Advisory is posted through 6 a.m. Wednesday for the Pailolo and ʻAlenuihāhā channels as well as Maʻalaea Bay. Rough seas up to 11 feet and winds of 20 to 25 knots are forecasted. Inexperienced mariners should avoid navigating in these conditions.
**Click directly on the images below to make them larger. Charts include: Maui County projected winds, forecasted swell direction, height & period, tides, a surface map and expected wave heights.**
Maui County Surf Forecast, Wednesday, December 17
North: One swell fades as another builds, the result is wave heights will generally hold at about waist to head high. Best breaks could see slightly overhead waves on the sets.
West: Spots open to the swells that are wrapping are expected to get waves up to maybe waist high. Otherwise, breaks that don’t catch the swell, and / or are shadowed from it, are forecasted to get smaller surf at ankle high or flat.
South: Out of season south swell brings ankle to knee high waves for southern shores open to the swell. Best breaks could see a waist high set from time to time.
A small northwest swell is expected to peak late Wednesday (as the old one drops out) and linger through Thursday with chest high to slightly overhead surf at the best spots. A new west-northwest is expected to fill in Thursday evening and peak later that night or early Friday morning with heights up to double overhead on the sets at the best breaks.
Another west-northwest swell is expected late Sunday depending on how the storm develops with another round of energy expected Tuesday or Wednesday.
An out of season south swell that brought a fun little boost the last couple of days will linger but slowly fade through the week. Nothing significant is expected out of the SPAC.
Keep in mind, surf heights are measured on the face of the wave from trough to crest. Heights vary from beach to beach, and at the same beach, from break to break.
**Click here for your detailed Maui County weather report.**
Image: NOAA / NWS
Image: NOAA / NWS
Image: NOAA / NWS
Image: NOAA / NWS
Image: NOAA / NWS
Image: NOAA / NWS
Image: NOAA / NWS
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