Photo Credit: James Grenz

Hilo

Today: Showers likely, mainly before noon. Partly sunny, with a high near 77. Light and variable wind becoming northeast 5 to 9 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.

Tonight: Showers likely. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 64. West wind 3 to 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.

Friday: Scattered showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 76. Light and variable wind becoming east 5 to 8 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.

Kona

Today: Isolated showers after noon. Mostly sunny, with a high near 79. Southwest wind 6 to 11 mph becoming light and variable in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

Tonight: Scattered showers, mainly before midnight. Partly cloudy, with a low around 62. Calm wind becoming east around 5 mph after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.

Friday: Isolated showers after noon. Mostly sunny, with a high near 79. East wind 5 to 9 mph becoming west in the morning. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

Waimea

Today: Scattered showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 74. Breezy, with a northeast wind 13 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible.

Tonight: Scattered showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 53. East northeast wind 7 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible.

Friday: Scattered showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 74. Northeast wind 7 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible.

Kohala

Today: Showers likely, mainly before noon. Partly sunny, with a high near 70. Breezy, with an east northeast wind 15 to 22 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.

Tonight: Showers likely. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 46. Breezy, with an east wind 9 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.

Friday: Showers likely, mainly after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 70. East northeast wind 7 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.

South Big Island

Today: Isolated showers. Widespread haze. Mostly sunny, with a high near 79. Windy, with an east wind 21 to 23 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

Tonight: Scattered showers. Widespread haze. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 70. Breezy, with an east northeast wind 15 to 21 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.

Friday: Scattered showers. Widespread haze. Mostly sunny, with a high near 79. Breezy, with an east wind 15 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 22 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

Puna

Today: Showers likely, mainly before noon. Partly sunny, with a high near 76. North northeast wind 8 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.

Tonight: Showers likely. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 62. North wind 7 to 13 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible.

Friday: Scattered showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 75. Northeast wind 7 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.

Waikoloa

Today: Sunny, with a high near 80. Breezy, with a northeast wind 13 to 18 mph decreasing to 7 to 12 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph.

Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 62. East wind 3 to 7 mph.

Friday: Sunny, with a high near 80. Light and variable wind becoming north northwest around 5 mph in the afternoon.

Detailed Forecast

Synopsis

A high north northwest of the area will keep trade wind weather in place through the week. Trades will become breezy over the weekend, then windy next week. Clouds and showers will favor windward areas. Remnants of a front may make showers more widespread Sunday and Monday.

Discussion

A strong high far north northwest of the islands will continue to drive trade winds across local waters as it moves slowly southeast through early next week. Satellite loop shows scattered low clouds to clear skies across leeward sections of the smaller islands and patchy broken low clouds over windward areas. Broken to overcast clouds cover windward and southeast portions of the Big Island. Radars show isolated to scattered showers over the islands, mostly across windward sections.
Trade winds will keep showers focused over windward areas through early next week. A frontal cloud band may bring an increase in windward showers Sunday and Monday. As the high shifts southeast over the weekend, trade winds will become breezy, with windy conditions possible for the first half of next week.

Aviation

Moderate to locally strong trade winds will deliver scattered low clouds and showers across the islands through the morning. AIRMET SIERRA is posted for tempo mountain obscurations along most windward slopes.
AIRMET TANGO is also in effect for moderate low level turbulence over and immediately downwind of the terrain on all islands due to the breezy winds. AIRMET Tango will likely continue through the day.

Marine

Fresh to strong northeast trade winds will ease into the moderate to fresh range tonight through Friday. Guidance depicts the winds shifting out of the east and becoming strong over most Hawaiian waters this weekend through early next week. Strong winds combined with large seas associated with a mix of short-period wind waves and a moderate northeast swell arriving late Monday will translate to rough conditions with Small Craft Advisory winds and seas early next week.
Surf along north and west facing shores will linger into Friday, then lower this weekend as the small northwest swell fades. Guidance depicts a decent gradient with fresh northerly breezes setting up over a large area northeast of the region this weekend, which will support a small, short-period north-northeast swell by Sunday.
Surf along south facing shores will continue to ease through Friday as a south swell lowers. Over the weekend, a mix of background south and southeast swell energy will be enough to keep the surf from going flat, which should hold into early next week.
Surf along east facing shores will remain small through Saturday, then begin to build Sunday into Monday as the local trades become strong. Although confidence in the details remains low due to inconsistencies from cycle-to-cycle, there is decent agreement that a compact gale will form around 1000 nm northeast of the state late Saturday through Sunday that could generate a moderate northeast swell. This swell arriving Monday night combined with strong trades could lead to advisory-level surf for exposed east facing shores Monday night through through midweek.

HFO Watches/Warnings/Advisories

Small Craft Advisory until 6 PM HST this evening for Maalaea Bay, Pailolo Channel, Alenuihaha Channel, Big Island Leeward Waters, Big Island Southeast Waters.

Data Courtesy of NOAA.gov