WNW Holds Through Morning, Large Swell For Weekend

Ho’okipa / Image: Jimmie Hepp

By Meteorologist Malika Dudley / Email: [email protected]

Alerts

A High Surf Advisory is posted for the north shores of Maui and Moloka’i and the west side of Maui through 6:00 a.m. Thursday. Surf along north facing shores of Maui and Moloka’i could reach heights of 12 to 18 feet while the west side of Moloka’i is forecasted to get 8 to 14 foot faces.

**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: Surf heights are expected overhead today. Best breaks east of Ho’okipa could see bigger waves on the sets especially early in the day.

West: Spots open to the north could see wave heights of about waist 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: We don’t expect much for southern exposures – flat to knee high.

Our current west-northwest swell is expected to hold through the first part of the day. Maui County is partially shadowed from this swell but surf heights are still expected in the overhead to possibly even double overhead range into early Thursday. The swell is expected to begin to fade late Thursday into Friday.

This same storm is expected to bring us a reinforcing swell for the weekend. Another round of well overhead surf is expected if this storm behaves as models are currently indicating. The swell should build in late Friday into early Saturday and peak Saturday afternoon possibly with waves up to 25 feet for the deep water breaks.

That same system could also possibly reorganize in the Gulf of Alaska bringing another shot of surf energy our way for the first week of February.

Nothing exciting 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