Big Waves, High Winds and Widespread Rain tonight and tomorrow

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - An aggressive and fairly vigorous cold front approaches the state from west to east. We haven’t seen a front of this caliber in quite some time.

The timing of the front: Kauai and O’ahu tonight, Maui County early tomorrow morning and Hawaii Island will be sometime midday on Thanksgiving. The front will bring about a 6 to 8 hour window for rain ahead of the front (which is called prefrontal moisture), followed by rain right along the front behind the front. Widespread rain will occur where the front is located. The amount of rain highly depends on orographic lifting and how fast the front is moving from west to east. Right now, the front seems it will be coming in at a fairly fast rate so the window of opportunity for rain will likely fall in that 6 hour window or so for the state.

There will be the potentially strong and gusty winds behind the front. This may prompt more wind alerts; models have wind speeds clocking in at steady rates 25 to 35 mph with higher gusts. Some strong downsloping winds - or winds lee of the mountain can clock in above 40 mph. There will be a significantly large WARNING level swell bringing stormy seas tonight into late Thursday. The wave watch models have been persistent showing lots of energy arriving.... it will be messy with the winds.