Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Jaws: The Big Wave Arena

Here it comes: As of this moment 20ft at 21 seconds

An exceptionally powerful storm erupted late last weekend in the area east of Japan. The low pressure system occluded and grew to fill most of the northwestern North Pacific while setting up a broad and long fetch aimed very well toward our islands. It appears that the system has peaked in intensity and will slowly fade over the next few days but the swell should continue to pump out through the rest of the week. This long-lived swell will easily reach well over warning levels on Kaua`i but will fade a lot by the time it reaches Maui since it will be refracted by our neighbor islands. Surf exceeding 15 foot on the face should not be out of the question though, so please use your best judgment before paddling out. The sets will be intense with numerous waves in each set. Looking further out, another low is forecast to develop just east of Japan on Friday. Since the storm will be working on existing seas leftover from the monster, we could see another round of nice west-northwest to more northwesterly swell arriving Monday.
In other words, there is going to be great wind and great waves for the next week. Aloha and Good Luck

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