South Shores Hold, North Shores Fade

Alerts

A High Surf Advisory is posted for the northeast and south facing shores of the Big Island through 6:00 p.m. Thursday. Surf of 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 all Big Island waters through 6 p.m. Friday for southeast winds up to to 30 knots and rough seas up to 13 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

Hilo side: Waist to shoulder high waves are expected today from the trade swell. The best breaks could reach head high on the sets. The NW is expected to bring waves below waist high.

Kona side: Wave heights of shoulder to head high are expected. The best spots could reach head high early on.

South: Wave heights waist/shoulder high today with sets reaching about head high early in the day. Trade swell mixes into some spots at about waist to shoulder high along the southeast coast.

Our current northwest is expected to continue to fade Friday. A small boost out of the west-northwest is expected to build Friday for Saturday. Another boost is expected Sunday into early next week out of the northwest.

Combo of southwest and south-southwest swells expected to hold through Thursday and fade out Friday into the weekend. Next week is looking pretty quite out of the southern hemisphere.

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 Big Island weather report.**

Image: NOAA / NWS

Image: NOAA / NWS

Image: NOAA / NWS

Image: NOAA / NWS

Image: NOAA / NWS

Image: NOAA / NWS