Kohala Lighthouse • Statistics for October

October: The North Pacific Wakes Up

October is the pivot month. The average swell height only reads 1.6m (5.2ft), but the average period jumps to 10.8s - a clear sign that real groundswell is returning to the island chain. The first reinforcing pulses from the N/NNE/NE/NW/NNW quadrant account for roughly 18% of the month's swell, led by NE at 12.7% and NNE at 3.2%. The epicenters of the strongest late-month events are still buried under a lot of ENE/E trade swell (45.3% from ENE and 33.5% from E), but the trend is moving in the right direction. Wind remains the bottleneck: ENE/E trades blow 87.2% of the time and ideal wind sits at just 4%. Still, October is when the stories start to line up - a mid-latitude storm dips south, a fetch points toward Hawaii, and the lighthouse gets its first legitimate long-period pulse of the season. Water temperature is still warm at 26.5°C and the air at 22.1°C, so if you can find a clean day, it's the best kind of late-season surf.