Northern NSW
Regional Forecast
Queensland and North NSW Premium Analysis
The Bottom Line
- Short-Term Surf: Small to fun surf
- Short-Term Conditions: mornings cleanest as winds trend offshore
- Longer term Outlook: larger south swell incoming for the weekend
End of this week and weekend:
A cold front moved through the Tasman and built up a little pulse of shorter period S/SE swell that will be easing back through Thursday. Then for Friday a pulse of longer period south swell moves up the Tasman – driven from a Southern Ocean low. All the while a little bit of shorter E swell, driven by weak trad winds, mixes in in the background.
It’s all going to keep N NSW exposures and the Gold Coast south magnets ticking over at a fun to decent size. High pressure inland is giving just enough push up against the southerlies that it should send them SW in the mornings for a go at some cleaner conditions. Otherwise afternoons will need to be spent getting a few smaller, but fun, peelers in shelter.
For the Sunshine Coast it’s probably going to be best spent riding long boards. Small, clean surf in shelter and mostly junky conditions at the exposures as winds persistently blow S/SE.
Models are mostly in line now on the weekend we’re expecting a build of large south swell later Saturday and more so for Sunday. Before this though we should see a window of smaller and clean surf for the exposures – including the Sunshine Coast – as winds blow offshore WSW/SW and clean up a small mix of E and S swell.
During the peak of the south swell winds are looking to be strong and set out of the S/SSW. South exposures will be a mess and pretty out of control size wise anyway. Semi-sheltered points in N NSW could well be on fire and in the 2x overhead range, with more easy going but still decent sized surf wrapping into the more sheltered points and Gold Coast. The Sunshine Coast again getting less, but still with a few fun peelers likely in shelter.
Next week:
There’s differences as we go into this period in the main weather models, but they all agree on more south swell, just not the size. We are looking at anything from a decent pulse that could deliver some head high plus surf at exposures to something more solid. All also agree on some sort of south wind, but for now we’ll have to wait to pin down the details a bit more.