SAIPAN — The week opens partly sunny with scattered showers across Saipan, Tinian and Rota, with highs around 88, northeast winds around 10 mph becoming light, and a 30 percent chance of showers, the National Weather Service in Tiyan said in its 6 a.m. forecast. Tonight turns partly cloudy with isolated showers and lows around 78.
Tuesday and Wednesday hold the driest stretch in more than a week: partly cloudy with just a 20 percent chance of showers, highs around 88 and light, variable winds. Thursday trends mostly cloudy with a 30 percent chance of showers and a slight chance of thunderstorms, before a breezy Friday-through-Sunday stretch at 20 percent, with highs in the upper 80s. Forecasters say the unsettled but disorganized monsoon pattern will send its scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms mainly toward Guam over the next couple of days.
The week’s real movement is on the water. Combined seas around 4 feet today build steadily all week, reaching as high as 8 to 9 feet by Friday on increasing westerly swell, the highest seas of the current pattern. Light northwesterlies become southwesterly around midweek and strengthen to moderate to fresh in the second half of the week, reaching 10 to 20 knots by Friday. Boaters planning later in the week should plan around the build.
At Tanapag Harbor, high tide of 2.0 feet at 9:30 a.m. today, a 0.5-foot low at 3:41 p.m., high of 2.1 feet at 9:52 p.m. and a 0.5-foot low at 4:17 a.m. Tuesday. Rota and Tinian tides run within minutes of Saipan’s.
