The remnants of Fausto will continue to pass Hawaii to the north resulting in light winds and muggy conditions. Trades will quickly fill in tonight through early next week, becoming breezy to locally strong Friday into Saturday. Trades will ease to more typically breezy speeds early next week as the high weakens.
Light and variable winds expected early tonight for islands in the western half of the state with moderate trades beginning to return to the eastern portions of the state as former tropical cyclone Fausto passes to the northwest of the islands. A weak band of moisture will affect mainly windward portions of Maui County over the next several hours, then spread westward by Thursday morning. Some MVFR conditions may develop due to lowered ceiling and visibility in SHRA as this band moves over the region. On Oahu and Kauai, ceilings over terrain should remain less extensive through most of the night.
Easterly trade winds will develop over the entire island chain Thursday. Deeper moisture over the western end of the state may produce widespread ceilings over windward slopes of Kauai and Oahu. VFR will prevail leeward.
Variable to light northerly winds will gradually yield to east- southeast to easterly trades building in from east to west across the state tonight as Fausto's remnant low exits off to the northwest. A Small Craft Advisory (SCA) is in effect through Friday night as trades increase tonight, reaching strong levels for the windier waters of Maui County and the Big Island. Trades strengthen through the weekend, which could necessitate an expansion of the SCA to the rest of the coastal waters later on. A weakness in the ridge of high pressure develops on Sunday, which will lead to weakening trade winds for early next week.
Nearshore PacIOOS buoys indicate continued decline in easterly swell. A small bump in short to medium period northeast swell from Post-Tropical Cyclone Fausto did not materialize as strong as forecast for north facing shores and flat to tiny surf can be expected to continue. Surf along E shores trend back up Thursday night into the weekend due to a combination of building short period trade wind swell and renewed medium to long period E swell, this time emanating from Hurricane Genevieve in the E Pac.
A medium period S swell building today and tonight will push S shore surf toward the summer average (5-6ft) for Thursday. Surf then fades gradually through the weekend while a mix of small S swells maintains surf slightly below the seasonal average.
Small Craft Advisory until 6 AM HST Saturday for Alenuihaha Channel-Big Island Leeward Waters-Big Island Southeast Waters- Pailolo Channel.
