| East Coast October 8-9, 2009. |
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Winter Renaissance
The last few flat weeks in August were boiling hot. September was cooler, and way more consistent on the swell front. So far October has been like some kind of winter renaissance.
Gusts of SSW wind up to 90km/h in Sydney and surrounds on Thursday October 9 damaged roofs and brought trees down on power lines, keeping emergency crews busy.
Of course the low pressure system that whipped up those winds moved out over the Tasman Sea on Wednesday evening and into our swell window.
Thursday morning dawned windy and cold. A fresh, raw south swell peaked late afternoon in the 8-10ft range at exposed south facing locations.
There weren’t too many surf able options on Thursday in all honesty though. It definitely was the biggest south swell to hit Sydney and surrounds so far this year. It was a total bummer though that the exposed sections of coast picking up the 8-10ft bombs were totally blown out. The extremely protected south corners were the only surf able options. The south corners were more like 5-6ft with some bigger sets here and there.
Friday morning was cleaner, but the swell had eased. Wave heights on Friday were more like 5-6ft max, but there were heaps more options.
October and November are often transition months meaning sometimes winter flashbacks can deliver the goods as per recent swell events. Sometimes the weather patterns don’t settle into a full on summer pattern until later. Long live the winter renaissance I say.
– Ben Horvath.
Thursday
| | There were a few spots on the south coast that were sheltered from the gale force southerlies. | Photo: Bouma. |
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| | Empty south coast line up on Thursday. | Photo: Bouma. |
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| | Chunky set hits a sheltered point break north of Wollongong on Thurs. | Photo: Bouma. |
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| | The novelty beach break at South Cronulla was sheltered and lining up nicely for a change on Thursday morning. | Photo: Horvath. |
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| | South Cronulla lining up. Check the wind outside beyond The Point and Island. | Photo: Horvath. |
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| | Fun little mini rights protected from the wind at Southies. | Photo: Horvath. |
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| | You can’t stop the sea. The Wall at Cronulla on Thursday. | Photo: Horvath. |
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| | Collaroy was one of only a few options on Sydney's northern beaches. | Photo: Zander. |
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| | Massive white out at Mona Vale on Thurs. | Photo: Steve Wall. |
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| | Newport Reef was windy but surfable. | Photo: Guy Finlay. |
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| | Mid north coast NSW protection on Thurs. | Photo: Shield. |
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| | The Wreck at Byron on Thurs. | Photo: Tsanov. |
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Friday
| | The swell made it all the way to the NSW/Qld border on Friday morning Oct 9. D'bah bowling. | Photo: Manning. |
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| | Coal Coast protection on Friday morning October 9. | Photo: Horvath. |
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| | Sunshine, light winds and no one out on the mid north coast of NSW on Fri. | Photo: Shield. |
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Forecast Overview
An exponential increase in S swell peaked at eight to ten feet across exposed south facing coasts on Thursday, dropping marginally by Friday morning to a still thumping six to eight - a phenomenal round of swell emanating from a deep low pressure system that consolidated off the South Coast on Wednesday night, forming a steep pressure gradient in conjunction with a strong high situated in the Great Australian Bight;
The height of the swell remained heavily effected by gale force SSW winds throughout Thursday, well and truly eradicating rideable potential across exposed coasts while offering solid, somewhat cleaner options inside sheltered southern corners and north facing coasts.
The low continues to influence conditions in the short term; by Friday morning the low was centred just off New Zealand’s west coast maintaining a weakening SSE fetch across the broader Tasman Sea as the high fills in across Tasmania, setting up a gradual anticlockwise shift in swell direction throughout the weekend.
– Ben Macartney.
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Development of Tasman Sea Low 7-8 October 2009- By Coastalwatch meteorologist Jeff Callaghan.
An area of low pressure developed off the southern NSW coast last Wednesday 7 October (see Figure 1). At the same tine a high pressure ridge extended eastward south of Tasmania and this resulted in a band of strong to gale force winds between Tasmania and the low. The low became quite elongated and this caused a long wind fetch for waves to develop. By Thursday (Figure 2) the low deepened a little and moved slowly towards the east. The low remained elongated with two centres developing and the pressures increased over Tasmania as the ridge strengthened. A very extensive fetch of gales developed between the ridge and the elongated low which directed very large waves towards the NSW and Southern Queensland coast.
Waverider Buoy data
Along the NSW coast the Sydney buoy reported the largest waves. Wave heights there began to increase on Wednesday and reached a peak around noon on Thursday with significant wave heights from the south exceeding 6 metres in height while the peak wave heights exceeded 12 metres. The peak periods reached 14 seconds so this was a high energy wave event. In Queensland a very large southerly to south-southeast swell reached the Brisbane buoy and the significant wave height peaked at 5.7 metres around 3am Eastern Standard Time this morning (Friday 9th) while peak wave heights of 10.6 metres were recorded. At the Tweed Buoy, around 3 hours earlier, the swell reached a significant wave height of 2.5metres and approached the buoy from the east southeast. The Brisbane buoy lies in 76 metres deep water off North Stradbroke Island while the Tweed buoy is located in water 23 metres deep. The peak period was also 14 seconds at the Tweed and Brisbane buoys and these long wavelength waves are refracted as they reach shallower waters west of the edge of the continental shelf. The refractions is really noticeable by the time the waves reach the depth of 23 metres off Coolangatta-Tweed Heads and approach the coast as an east southeast swell.
Wind gusts
Severe wind gusts pounded exposed parts of the NSW coast. The strongest reported gusts were 63 knots at Wattamolla at 6.20am Thursday, 51knots at Wollongong Airport around Noon Thursday and 53knots at Green Point around 10pm Wednesday.
In this report we have used data from the Bureau of Meteorology and data from the National Centres for Environmental Prediction/ National Centre for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) Reanalysis Project, which is available at :-http://nomad3.ncep.noaa.gov/ncep_data/index.html
Quikscat satellite wind observations were also obtained from the US Government site:-
http://manati.orbit.nesdis.noaa.gov/quikscat/>http://manati.orbit.nesdis.noaa.gov/quikscat/
Wave height and period data over ocean areas was obtained data from the US Navy public web site :-
https://www.fnmoc.navy.mil/ww3_cgi/index.html
Wave data was obtained from the New South Wales Manly Hydraulics laboratory web site at:-
http://mhl.nsw.gov.au/www/wave_data_plot.htmlx
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| | Figure 1. Quikscat winds, US high resolution mean sea level pressure distribution and selected observations for 1800UTC 6 October 2009 top frame (5am Eastern summer time 7th) and 0600 UTC 7 October 2009 lower frame (5pm Eastern summer time 7th October). “L’ denotes the position of the mean sea level low centre |
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| | Figure 2. Quikscat winds, US high resolution mean sea level pressure distribution and selected observations for 2100UTC 7 October 2009 top frame (8am Eastern summer time 8th) and 0600 UTC 8 October 2009 lower frame (5pm Eastern summer time 8th October). “L’ denotes the position of the mean sea level low centre. |
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