Wednesday January 22nd  – Sunday the 26th

Local Weather Outlook –

Lite ESE flow Wednesday – Friday due to the approach of a shearline.  Expect afternoon sea-breezes and early morning offshore flow.  Lite Easterly trades return over the weekend.   Local weather will remain fairly dry through the period, except for possibly a brief period of showers if/when the shearline reaches the islands Friday night.

Surf Outlook –

North and West Shores:  Large WNW Today-Fri. followed by similar NW swell for the weekend.  

On Friday the 17^th, a short-wave/cyclone developed off Japan.  This system developed a broad fetch of 45-55mph winds on the 18^th , with storm force winds (55mph+) over most of the 19^th.  Due to the sustained high winds and captured fetch, which lasted more than 2 and ½ days, the north shore will see local surf heights of 12-20’ on Thursday.  This morning, 20 second forerunners are showing on the Waimea Buoy out of 310⁰.  Surf will continue to build throughout the day, favoring breaks that like a WNW angle.  The current swell will drop alot through Friday the 24^th, to be replaced by a NW swell of similar size over the weekend tho’ a bit smaller.

South Shore:   Iffy South Pac. tropical swell Sun. – Tues.,  quiet after that.

This morning, south shores have 12 sec energy from the SSW, the remainder of this past weekend’s small pulse.  This is it for a while from South Pac. sources as everything looked pretty zonal down under the last 7 days.   On the 19^th, tropical cyclone (hurricane) Tino moved south of Tonga and became extratropical.  The fetch associated with this system was aimed at Hawaii with winds of ~40mph for 48 hours.  Sixteen second forerunners from this storm should appear locally early on the 26^th and last through the 28^th with surf heights in the 1-2′ poss. 3’ range at the swells peak.  Beyond the 29^th, there will likely be another south shore wintertime lull.

East Shores:  On the decrease with the trades gone…

The subtropical ridge (lite winds) has been sitting nearly directly upwind of Hawaii since this past weekend.  Therefore, expect a steady decline in the trade swell through the end of the work week with surf of 2’ or less, except for locations that grab the northerly swell.  This pattern will continue until Sunday when the trades make a comeback.