If you listen to the weather forecasts, you will often hear the name ʻAlenuihāhā, our Hawaiian word for today. It is the name of the channel between Hawaiʻi and Maui, and is often mispronounced. It means “great billows smashing.”
ʻAle is a wave out at sea, not to be confused with nalu, a wave or surf nearing land. A better English equivalent might be a billow.