South East Queensland and Northern New South Wales Surf Forecast by Ben Matson (issued Monday 24th March)
Best Days: Tues: easing combo of swells with mainly variable winds.
Recap: Plenty of trade swell on offer Saturday and early Sunday, ahead of a kick in strong E’ly groundswell later Sunday afternoon courtesy TC Mike. In general wave heights have held in close to forecast expectations, generally 4-5ft at open beaches today with a few stray 6ft sets reported at exposed coasts. Conditions have been generally good too which is very welcome after last Sunday’s northerly blowout.
Next week (Mar 25-28 onwards)
No major change to the short term forecast. The current E’ly groundswell will slowly abate through Tuesday (although still with plenty of push, albeit very infrequently) to become significantly smaller by Wednesday, probably somewhere in the 2-3ft+ range by the middle of the week.
Unfortunately conditions are going to turn poor from Wednesday onwards as a deepening trough across inland eastern Australia drags fresh and gusty easterly winds to the coastal margin. So make the most of Tuesday’s (mainly) variable wind regime.
If there’s one positive aspect about the freshening onshore wind during the middle of the week, it’s that it’ll build a punchy and possibly sizeable short range swell across the coast. Unfortunately there are not too many locations that can handle a gusty E/NE breeze, and with exposed beaches around the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and Northern NSW Coast likely to reach 4-6ft by later Thursday and early Friday, surfable options will probably be quite limited.
This weekend (Mar 29-30)
The trade flow through the southern Coral Sea is likely to retreat somewhat overtheweekend as a small low pressure system develops off the Far South Coast of New South Wales. This will result in a slow drop in surf size from Saturdaythru' Sunday, but without a synoptic offshore to iron out the bumps (and no expectations of a southerly change either) conditions will probably remain rather ordinary across most coasts.
That’s about the long and short of the weekend forecast right now - plenty of average, easing surf in most districts.
Next week (Mar 31 onwards)
The trades are expected to reinvigorate south of New Caledonia over the weekend, which will bring about a steady increase in punchy E’ly swell for the first half of next week, probably holding through the second half of the week too. More on this in Wednesday’s update.
South East Queensland and Northern New South Wales Surf Forecast by Ben Matson (issued Monday 24th March)
Best Days: Tues: easing combo of swells with mainly variable winds.
Recap: Plenty of trade swell on offer Saturday and early Sunday, ahead of a kick in strong E’ly groundswell later Sunday afternoon courtesy TC Mike. In general wave heights have held in close to forecast expectations, generally 4-5ft at open beaches today with a few stray 6ft sets reported at exposed coasts. Conditions have been generally good too which is very welcome after last Sunday’s northerly blowout.
Next week (Mar 25-28 onwards)
No major change to the short term forecast. The current E’ly groundswell will slowly abate through Tuesday (although still with plenty of push, albeit very infrequently) to become significantly smaller by Wednesday, probably somewhere in the 2-3ft+ range by the middle of the week.
Unfortunately conditions are going to turn poor from Wednesday onwards as a deepening trough across inland eastern Australia drags fresh and gusty easterly winds to the coastal margin. So make the most of Tuesday’s (mainly) variable wind regime.
If there’s one positive aspect about the freshening onshore wind during the middle of the week, it’s that it’ll build a punchy and possibly sizeable short range swell across the coast. Unfortunately there are not too many locations that can handle a gusty E/NE breeze, and with exposed beaches around the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and Northern NSW Coast likely to reach 4-6ft by later Thursday and early Friday, surfable options will probably be quite limited.
This weekend (Mar 29-30)
The trade flow through the southern Coral Sea is likely to retreat somewhat over the weekend as a small low pressure system develops off the Far South Coast of New South Wales. This will result in a slow drop in surf size from Saturday thru' Sunday, but without a synoptic offshore to iron out the bumps (and no expectations of a southerly change either) conditions will probably remain rather ordinary across most coasts.
That’s about the long and short of the weekend forecast right now - plenty of average, easing surf in most districts.
Next week (Mar 31 onwards)
The trades are expected to reinvigorate south of New Caledonia over the weekend, which will bring about a steady increase in punchy E’ly swell for the first half of next week, probably holding through the second half of the week too. More on this in Wednesday’s update.