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TREND REPORT

Hawaii Water Quality — July 21, 2026

Oʻahu water quality is worsening (-57pp in 14 days)

BIG ISLAND
Mostly advisory-free, stable (100% of days with no DOH advisory anywhere)
MAUI
Mostly advisory-free, stable (100% of days with no DOH advisory anywhere)
OʻAHU
-57pp worsening
KAUAʻI
-14pp worsening

Oʻahu ocean water quality worsened 57 percentage points over the last 14 days (100% advisory-free two weeks ago vs. 43% advisory-free now).

For a trip in the next week, prioritize islands with stronger structural protection (dry coasts, reef enclosure, no major streams). See cleanest Hawaiian island and BWA alternatives.

Where the islands stand today

Big Island

mostly advisory-free, stable

Big Island has been mostly advisory-free — the same baseline as the prior two weeks. 0 of our 7 tracked beaches on the island recorded one or more advisory days in that 30-day history window. NOAA's 7-day forecast is dry, so the mostly advisory-free baseline should hold. See the Big Island leaderboard for the beach-by-beach ranking.

Maui

mostly advisory-free, stable

Maui has been mostly advisory-free — the same baseline as the prior two weeks. 0 of our 6 tracked beaches on the island recorded one or more advisory days in that 30-day history window. NOAA's 7-day forecast is dry, so the mostly advisory-free baseline should hold. See the Maui leaderboard for the beach-by-beach ranking.

Oʻahu

worsening

Oʻahu is worsening over the last 14 days (-57pp vs. the prior two weeks). Our 12 tracked beaches happen not to overlap with the DOH advisories driving this signal — the worsening trend is from island-wide or other-area advisory events. NOAA's 7-day forecast is wet (peak 51% chance of rain) — expect the pattern to shift toward more advisories. See the Oʻahu leaderboard for the beach-by-beach ranking.

Kauaʻi

worsening

Kauaʻi is worsening over the last 14 days (-14pp vs. the prior two weeks). Our 6 tracked beaches happen not to overlap with the DOH advisories driving this signal — the worsening trend is from island-wide or other-area advisory events. NOAA's 7-day forecast is wet (peak 55% chance of rain) — expect the pattern to shift toward more advisories. See the Kauaʻi leaderboard for the beach-by-beach ranking.

NOAA 7-day forecast, per island tourist coast
  • Kohala Coast, Big Island: dry (max 14% chance of rain across next 7 days)
  • South Maui (Wailea / Kihei): dry (max 17% chance of rain across next 7 days)
  • South Shore O’ahu (Honolulu / Waikiki): wet (max 51% chance of rain across next 7 days)
  • Po’ipu, Kaua’i: wet (max 55% chance of rain across next 7 days)

For the always-live per-island outlook, see our Hawaii Water Quality Forecast, which regenerates daily from NOAA + DOH data.

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New report every day: trend per island, NOAA forecast, 30-day advisory-free leaders and most advisory-affected tracked beaches. Free — unsubscribe anytime.

Methodology: The island trend uses Hawaii DOH island-wide advisory-day history where available: a day counts as advisory-free only when no DOH advisory was recorded anywhere on that island. If island history is unavailable, the generator labels its tracked-beach-fraction fallback explicitly. The separate beach list summarizes 31 tracked beach histories. Forecast data comes from NOAA National Weather Service (api.weather.gov) at each island’s primary tourist coast. This report is not a swim recommendation; always check the individual beach page and current local conditions before entering the water.