The National Weather Service has issued a high-surf advisory for the south shores of Oahu effective from 6 a.m. today until 6 p.m. Sunday.
The advisory is prompted by a long-period southerly swell that is expected to peak over the weekend with surf topping out at 5 to 8 feet along affected areas.
Ocean users are cautioned to expect strong breaking waves, shore break, and strong currents that could make swimming dangerous.
Kaneohe man charged in car theft
Prosecutors on Thursday night charged a 24-year-old Kaneohe man who allegedly led police on a chase Wednesday with car theft.
Police arrested Bryson Bagio Jr. at 9:45 a.m. Wednesday in Kailua for allegedly stealing a truck near Turtle Bay Resort. Bagio was charged with unauthorized control of a vehicle. He led police on a chase from the North Shore to Aiea to Kaneohe to Kailua, police said.
While in Kaneohe, he struck a car driven by an elderly woman, but she was not injured, and he drove on until the vehicle he was driving stopped in Kailua, police said.
Rain quenches West Hawaii
KAILUA-KONA >> Recent rainfall seems to have helped West Hawaii recover from the drought that hit the area earlier this year.
Rainfall in Honaunau totaled 10.5 inches in May, more than twice the average for that month. During that time, Waimea saw its highest rainfall in nearly two decades, and the Kohala Mountains had totals ranging from two to seven times normal levels, West Hawaii Today reported Thursday.
The driest January on record in Kealakekua had farmers concerned about their crops. Kurt Schweickhard, who owns a coffee and macadamia nut farm, has welcomed the rain on his property in Kainaliu, where there’s been 4 inches of precipitation so far this month.
“It’s been good,” Schweickhard said. “People need to fertilize and we do want the moisture.”
Dry conditions on the island had intensified in March before residents felt some relief from April rain. The drought had been blamed on El Nino, a natural warming of parts of the central Pacific that changes weather worldwide. In West Hawaii, El Nino brought a stable air pattern to the islands and a big reduction in storms and showers.
The recent high levels of rainfall have mostly been seen in western and northern Big Island regions, while half of the island’s rain gauges are still less than 50 percent of average for the first five months of the year. However, meteorologists with the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center are predicting above-normal rain for the latter half of the dry season that runs from May through September.
