NORTH PACIFIC GETS BACK ON TRACK

The swell models are lighting up with not one, but potentially two significant swell producing storms pushing off and below Japan. Both storms are modeled to send large surf (and potentially iffy conditions) to Hawaii and the mainland USA.

Expert forecaster Sean Collins put Surfline’s stamp on the possible swell in a press release sent out this weekend from the Mormaii Pe’ahi Tow-in event which stated the forecasted swell “could potentially deliver wave heights in the 18’-20’ Hawaiian scale by the 15th.”

WaveWatch/StormSurf forecaster Mark Sponsler, official forecaster for the Mavericks Surf Contest, signaled the alert for Mavericks contestants via San Jose Mercury news article. His forecasting service had this to say about the storm systems, “…45-50 kt winds and 39-42 ft seas Mon-Wed (1/14) targeting Hawaii well. Decent odds for significant class swell expected, though local weather could be an issue in Hawaii. And now the models are offering up yet another slightly smaller storm pushing from Japan to the dateline and beyond Fri-Sun (1/18) with 45-50 kts winds and 36-40 ft seas targeting Hawaii well. Looks like the swell machine is finally getting fired up.”

Of course these are just forecasts and anything can happen, especially with the second modeled storm system, which is a few days away. Nevertheless, with the rather lackluster California winter upon us, most of us are beyond swell hype, and are instead focused on swell hope.