First Alert Forecast: Back to beautiful trade winds, light to moderate

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - HAPPY ALOHA FRIDAY. Get ready for a nice weekend! Light winds and humid conditions will allow afternoon sea breezes to produce a few showers, some briefly heavy, over the islands this afternoon (especially near Wahiawa and Hawaii Island). Light to moderate trade winds will bring increasingly settled weather tonight into Saturday, with just a few windward showers expected. Winds will veer to the southeast Sunday and Monday, but a mostly dry weather regime will continue. A slow-moving front will bring the potential for increased showers late Tuesday into Thursday that may bring some downpours especially Wednesday and Thursday (which we are marking in red in anticipation of rain).

Light winds and little shower activity prevail this morning. A weakening surface low centered about 725 miles is drifting northward, and a weak surface ridge is building roughly 125 miles north of Kauai this morning. Resulting southeasterly winds are producing scattered showers over southeast slopes of the Big Island. These winds remain disrupted across the rest of the island chain, leading to light land breezes and and mostly clear skies this morning. The axis of upper-level trough associated with the low to the north is situated over the eastern end of the state. This feature is generating thinning high clouds over the Big Island and is maintaining some instability aloft according to overnight soundings and recent aircraft data. There is no current heavy rainfall over the islands, though isolated towering cumulus cells are noted west of the Big Island this morning.

Let’s talk surf! A mix of small, medium-period northwest swells will keep some small surf along north and west facing shores through Saturday. A small, but longer-period northwest swell will build on Sunday, giving a more noticeable boost to north and west shore surf Sunday night and Monday. This swell will then lower Tuesday with only small surf expected Wednesday. A new medium-period northwest swell could give a slight boost to north and west shore surf late next week.

Surf along east facing shores will hold steady through tonight, with a slight boost expected over the weekend as trades strengthen over and upstream of the islands, changing little through the middle of next week, remaining at below normal levels. A long- period northeast swell could give east shore surf a more noticeable boost late next week. Only background south swell energy is expected through late next week.

Have a terrific weekend.

Wishing you blue skies and much aloha.

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