Swell Fading Today, Series of Swells Ahead
By Meteorologist Malika Dudley / Email: [email protected]
Alerts
A Small Craft Advisory is posted for Maui County windward waters and the ʻAlenuihāhā channel through 6:00 p.m. Wednesday for winds of 20 to 30 knots and rough seas up to 13 feet.
A High Surf Advisory is posted for north-facing shores of Maui and Moloka’i through 6:00 a.m. Wednesday for 10 to 15 foot faces. 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.**
North: Surf heights are expected shoulder high to a couple of feet overhead early in the day at the best breaks. Fading trend forecasted through the day.
West: Spots open to the north could see wave heights of about waist to chest high, bigger early in the day on the sets. Otherwise, breaks that don’t catch the swells, and / or are shadowed from them, are forecasted to get smaller surf at ankle to thigh high.
South: Choppy and sloppy southwest wind chop swell from knee to chest high.
Our current swell is on a decreasing trend and expected to fade Wednesday.
Thursday afternoon we expect a west-northwest to start building, showing a bump in size back to about shoulder high by sundown. This surf is expected to be messy because of the mix of swells expected. Swell should peak late Friday into early Saturday and fade on Sunday.
A larger west-northwest to northwest swell is expected early next week pending development of the storm.
Nothing to get excited about out of the SPAC. Late next week we could possibly see some fun waves from a storm expected to develop near New Zealand.
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.**