Overlapping Swells With Jumbled, Blown Out Surf

Ho’okipa Surf 1/5/15 – Image: Jimmie Hepp

By Meteorologist Malika Dudley / Email: [email protected]

Alerts

A Small Craft Advisory is posted for all Maui County waters through 6:00 p.m. Wednesday for north winds up to 25 knots with higher gusts. Rough seas of 9 to 14 feet are also forecasted late tonight through Wednesday afternoon. Inexperienced mariners should avoid navigating in these conditions.

A High Surf Advisory is posted for the north facing shores of Maui and Molokai from 6:00 p.m. this evening through 6:00 a.m. Thursday for a north swell building tonight and peaking Wednesday before gradually diminishing. Expect strong breaking waves, shore break and strong longshore and rip currents making swimming difficult and dangerous.

**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, Tuesday, January 6, 2015

North: Surf heights are expected shoulder high to slightly overhead at the best breaks, especially for spots east of Ho’okipa late in the day.

West: Spots open to the swells are expected to get waves waist to chest high on the sets at the best northerly breaks. The best spots may hit head high early in the day from time to time. Smaller surf expected Sunday at ankle to knee high. Otherwise, breaks that don’t catch the swells, and / or are shadowed from them, are forecasted to get smaller surf at ankle high or flat.

South: Ankle to knee high surf is expected.

Surf energy is coming from a bunch of different directions so some spots may be a bit haphazard. New west-northwest is expected to fill in late Tuesday and hold through Thursday. North spots will have breezy onshore winds so conditions should be pretty blown out.

A larger north-northwest (330-360) swell is expected to fill in and peak Wednesday up to triple overhead at the best exposures.

Pending development of storms, we may get another west-northwest over the weekend with another shot of energy expected early next week as well.

Nothing of note out of the SPAC to get excited about.

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