South-east Queensland and Northern NSW Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Wednesday May 11th)

Best Days: Tomorrow (morning across the MNC), Friday morning, Saturday morning, Sunday morning

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Moderate sized S/SE swell building tomorrow, easing slowly into Fri
• Reinforcing S/SE swell Sat (with some smaller windswell in the mix), easing into Sun
• Mod-fresh W/SW tending variable winds (S/SW to the south)
• Stronger W/SW tending SW winds Fri, strong W/SW tending S/SW winds Sat
• SW-W/SW tending SE winds Sun
• Easing S/SE swell Mon with SW tending SE winds

Recap

Most coasts were small to tiny yesterday morning, while across the Mid North Coast, building levels of mid-period S’ly swell were seen into the afternoon though not above 2-3ft.

Today even more size has developed and moved up the coast with the Coffs reaching 3-5ft on the back beaches, more to the 4ft range further north under freezing morning conditions, much milder and with variable winds this afternoon. Across Queensland the south swell has provided some small waves across the regional magnets, 1-1.5ft elsewhere.

This week and next (Jun 12 - 20)

Today’s building mid-period S’ly swell was generated by strong S/SW winds off the southern NSW coast, squeezing against the mainland on the western flank of a board Tasman Low.

A better aligned fetch of strong to gale-force S/SE winds were projected towards us along the south-western flank of the Tasman Low as it slowly moved east last night, and this should produce more a building mid-period S/SE swell through tomorrow.

It’ll build through the morning across the Mid North Coast and arrive into the afternoon further north, likely only near dark on the Gold Coast.

Size wise we should see the back beaches kicking to 4-5ft, easing back slowly from the 4ft+ range on Friday morning.

For south-east Queensland, regional magnets should come in around 3ft when the swell peaks, much smaller across open stretches.

Local winds tomorrow look best in the morning with a moderate to fresh W/SW breeze tending more S/SW across the Mid North Coast during the day, variable further north.

Now, a small trough forming off the coast into the end of the week looks to bring strengthening W/SW tending SW winds Friday (more so across southern regions), with strong W/SW tending S/SW winds into Saturday.

This will also produce a small, localised S’ly windswell Saturday but to no major size, with background levels of mid-period S/SE swell from the weakening Tasman Low due to come in with more size.

A lingering fetch of strong S/SE winds off the southern tip of New Zealand today and tomorrow should maintain 4ft+ sets across south facing beaches Saturday morning, easing from 3ft+ Sunday morning with a W/SW-SW breeze, more SE into the afternoon.

Expect the Gold Coast to become small to tiny Saturday, fading through Sunday.

The outlook is slow into early next week with small to tiny surf expected thanks to our major swell windows falling quiet and remaining so until possible tropical activity in the Coral Sea later in the week. This looks mobile, tracking away from us so make the most of the coming energy.