Tuesday 12 15 20 morning call

My pick of Jimmie Hepp's album of the afternoon action at Hookipa.

4am significant buoy readings and discussion.
South shore
No southerly energy at the buoys, check the Lahaina webcam if interested, for size, conditions and consistency.

North shore
NW101

7ft @ 12s from 337° (NNW)

4.8ft @ 10s from 328° (NW)

Waimea
6.4ft @ 13s from 322° (NW)

Complex mix of swells in the water due to complex patterns of fetches that happened in the past few days. Here's how Pat Caldwell describes a part of it.
An occluded low-pressure system near the western Aleutians 12/8-11 set up a large fetch over the 310-330 degree band aimed at Hawaii. The NOAA NW Hawaii buoys showed a two-humped camel time series for the 14-18 second energy, reaching maximums Saturday evening then again Sunday evening, 12/12-13. Local maximums were Sunday and Monday mornings, 12/13-14. Another camel is easing into the NW buoy time series midday 12/14 as the 15-16 second energy builds. This hump is from a new source.

A compact, hurricane-force, low-pressure system steered by a zonal jet tracked rapidly ENE from the Date Line Saturday to the Gulf of Alaska Monday. The short duration of winds for each great circle band relative to Hawaii within 315-360 degrees makes for less surf potential locally and greater error bars on the surf forecast. Stay tuned to the latest NWS forecast updates as reading from buoys tell the tale Monday night. The head of the fetch was about 900 nm away 12/13. This source should add to the slowly declining event of 12/13-14 by Monday evening from 320-340 degrees. It should peak on Tuesday morning and steadily drop into Wednesday. Remnant small to moderate surf is expected for Wednesday as a new long- period event arrives.

Below are the maps of Dec 12 through 14. I put an arrow on the low he described to help follow the above description.

Below are the graphs of NW101 and Waimea that show the latest hump due to the closeby low described above. The waves should be fairly big today on the north shore, with Hookipa topping the heights at head and a half to possibly double. Beach report later in the morning.

Wind map at noon .The other ones can be found at link n.-2 of GP's meteo websites list in the right column (click on animation of the 10 meter column).

Fetches map (circles legend: red: direct aim, blue: angular spreading, black: blocked, yellow: apparent direct aim, but out of the great circle ray map, so not 100% sure).
North Pacific (about 4 days travel time from the NW corner of the North Pacific):

South Pacific (about 7 days travel time from east/west of New Zealand):

Morning sky.