Northern NSW and South East Queensland Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Wednesday 8th January)
Best Days: Protected spots the next two days, Saturday morning, Sunday morning
Recap
Yesterday started off poor with tiny amounts of swell and strengthening onshore winds. An afternoon kick in windswell was seen across the Goldy, with a S'ly groundswell in the mid across the North Coast, but locations picking up the most size were poor, with tiny waves in protected spots.
Today the mix of swells were coming in at 3ft across the North Coast with sloppy 2-3ft waves on the Goldy and Sunny Coasts with with poor E/SE winds.
This week (Jan 9-10)
Firstly the mid-latitude in the Southern Tasman Sea responsible for the S'ly swell on the North Coast has pushed off east towards New Zealand but is still continuing to aim a fetch of strong to near gale-force S/SE winds towards us.
This should keep fun small levels of S/SE swell hitting south facing beaches through the end of the week and into the start of the weekend.
The surface trough responsible for SE Qld's swell is weakening and this will result in a drop in size over the coming days. Still, open beaches should continue to offer 2ft waves as a weak south-easterly ridge aims a fetch of E/SE winds through our swell window up until the weekend.
Winds will remain average across the Goldy and upper end of the North Coast into the end of the week, but come the weekend, lighter and more variable winds are due.
This weekend onwards (Jan 11 onwards)
The strong easterly ridge linked to a possible medium sized E'ly trade-swell event mid-late next week isn't forecast to be as strong as forecast the last few days and we're probably just looking at a small to possibly medium trade-swell event into next week.
There's still the chance for a tropical depression or two to deepen in this trade-flow but we'll continue to keep an eye on this.
Northern NSW and South East Queensland Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Wednesday 8th January)
Best Days: Protected spots the next two days, Saturday morning, Sunday morning
Recap
Yesterday started off poor with tiny amounts of swell and strengthening onshore winds. An afternoon kick in windswell was seen across the Goldy, with a S'ly groundswell in the mid across the North Coast, but locations picking up the most size were poor, with tiny waves in protected spots.
Today the mix of swells were coming in at 3ft across the North Coast with sloppy 2-3ft waves on the Goldy and Sunny Coasts with with poor E/SE winds.
This week (Jan 9-10)
Firstly the mid-latitude in the Southern Tasman Sea responsible for the S'ly swell on the North Coast has pushed off east towards New Zealand but is still continuing to aim a fetch of strong to near gale-force S/SE winds towards us.
This should keep fun small levels of S/SE swell hitting south facing beaches through the end of the week and into the start of the weekend.
The surface trough responsible for SE Qld's swell is weakening and this will result in a drop in size over the coming days. Still, open beaches should continue to offer 2ft waves as a weak south-easterly ridge aims a fetch of E/SE winds through our swell window up until the weekend.
Winds will remain average across the Goldy and upper end of the North Coast into the end of the week, but come the weekend, lighter and more variable winds are due.
This weekend onwards (Jan 11 onwards)
The strong easterly ridge linked to a possible medium sized E'ly trade-swell event mid-late next week isn't forecast to be as strong as forecast the last few days and we're probably just looking at a small to possibly medium trade-swell event into next week.
There's still the chance for a tropical depression or two to deepen in this trade-flow but we'll continue to keep an eye on this.