Small Craft Advisory Posted, Larger Swell Builds
Alerts (Updated at 8:30 a.m.)
A High Surf Advisory is posted through 6:00 p.m. Saturday for west shore of the island of Hawaii. Surf from 6 to 8 feet is expected. Expect strong breaking waves, shore break and strong longshore and rip currents making swimming difficult and dangerous.
A Small Craft Advisory is posted for the Alenuihaha Channel through 6:00 p.m. Saturday for rough seas of 6 to 11 feet. Inexperienced mariners should avoid navigating in these conditions.
**Click directly on the images below to make them larger. Charts include: Big Island projected winds, tides, swell direction & period and expected wave heights.**
Big Island Surf Forecast, Thursday, January 15, 2015
Hilo side: Surf heights are expected knee to chest high. The best breaks open to the swell could see wave heights up to shoulder high on the sets early in the day.
Kona side: Surf heights are forecasted from ankle to waist high. Possibly bigger at the best exposures as the west-northwest builds late in the day.
South: Southerly spots are below waist high today. Exposures open to the east-southeast are forecasted to get shoulder to head high surf.
Our current west-northwest swell is expected to continue to fade through the day. Unfortunately, both the Hilo and the Kona side are shadowed from this swell. Still, there will be some fun little surf to be had, although smaller than yesterday.
A larger west-northwest swell is expected to arrive late Thursday and the more westerly direction of this next swell may result in the Kona side of the Big Island getting shoulder to head high surf. A reinforcement is expected for the weekend.
Pending development, models are predicting a much larger northwest swell arriving around the middle of next week, producing surf well above warning levels. Will keep an eye on it.
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.