Swell Slowly Fades Through Early Next Week

Image: Darlene Duque

By Meteorologist Malika Dudley / Email: [email protected]

Alerts

A High Surf Advisory is posted for the north and west facing shores of Moloka’i and the north shore of Maui through 6:00 p.m. Saturday. Expect strong breaking waves, shore break and strong longshore and rip currents making swimming difficult and dangerous.

A Small Craft Advisory is in effect for Maui County windward waters, the Kaiwi Channel and the  ʻAlenuihāhā Channel through 6:00 a.m. Saturday. 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

North: A west-northwest swell is expected to bring overhead to well overhead waves. The best breaks east of Ho’okipa could get even bigger, possibly to double or even triple overhead early in the day on the sets.

West: Waist to head high waves are expected at the breaks open to the west-northwest. Otherwise, pretty flat conditions elsewhere due to heavy shadowing.

South: Ankle to knee high waves are expected today. The best breaks could get up to belly high on the sets.

Our current west-northwest is expected to shift more north and peak early Saturday. The swell will fade late Saturday through early next week.

Another west-northwest is possible for the middle of next week, expected to peak on Wednesday.

Only small SSW for now but a fun sized swell is possible the middle of next week.

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