Spring!!!

donweather's picture
donweather started the topic in Monday, 19 Sep 2011 at 1:21am

Feck I hate this time of year for swell. Need to organise a surfari OS in Spring just to break the insanity.

I can't see anything on the long range charts worthy of getting interested in either!!! :'(

donweather's picture
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donweather Sunday, 2 Oct 2011 at 4:01am

nice dip forecast for a few runs around fiji with that intense high sliding underneath.

By: "poncholarpez"

Yes, ACCESSG and EC showing something good for this time of year, albeit a mile out in their model run time. GFS not even the slightest bit interested at this stage though :(

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poncholarpez Sunday, 2 Oct 2011 at 9:29am

pitty about the local winds at the time that trade swell should arrive.

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radbone08 Sunday, 2 Oct 2011 at 9:49pm

any for northern QLD today?

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poncholarpez Monday, 3 Oct 2011 at 9:56am

any for northern QLD today?

By: "radbone08"

How far north?

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poncholarpez Thursday, 6 Oct 2011 at 1:30am

ACCESS G are still persisting with that squashed high out new NZ:) Hope it comes to fruition!

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donweather Thursday, 6 Oct 2011 at 2:20am

Would love it to come to fruition, but it's fair to say that ACCESSG is the major outlier at present. GFS and EC not really interested.

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donweather Tuesday, 8 Nov 2011 at 9:58pm

Feck, things are looking dire!!!

Someone fecking blow up NZ!!!

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matt123 Wednesday, 9 Nov 2011 at 7:17am

Agree, sick of these northerlys/ flat crap spring conditions.

Would be nice if that low predicted to form up around Fiji would travel our way rather then slip to the SE with the high...

And like Don said someone blow up New Zealand

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donweather Thursday, 10 Nov 2011 at 1:12am

And as expected, water temps have taken a nose dive in SE Qld.....colder than what they were during winter (19 deg Gold Coast buoy).

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donweather Sunday, 13 Nov 2011 at 10:42pm

OK, I'm now starting to get seriously fecking angry!!!

And depressed!!! :(

Craig's picture
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Craig Sunday, 13 Nov 2011 at 11:56pm

What, you're not getting excited over the first tropical disturbance of the season, TD01F ;)

At least there's some kind of activity out there..

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donweather Monday, 14 Nov 2011 at 3:06am

Yeah it's very good to see this early in the season Craig, but with the strongest winds on it's eastern flank and such a compact little system with no cradled high pressure system, I can't say it's getting me excited on the surf front.

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freeride76 Monday, 14 Nov 2011 at 3:19am

Nothing unusual about seeing a small depression in the SPCZ in Nov.

What would be unusual is getting a swell from it.

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nickg Monday, 14 Nov 2011 at 6:08am

TD01F?

I'm intrigued by your ideas and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

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donweather Tuesday, 15 Nov 2011 at 2:44am
Craig's picture
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Craig Tuesday, 15 Nov 2011 at 4:41am

Nick, TD01F stands for Tropical Depression (TD) number 01 of the season.

I'm not sure if the F stands for Fiji, but in any case the first significant tropical disturbance has formed in the trade-belt close to Fiji.

If the atmospheric setup and sea surface temperatures are favourable these TD's can form into Tropical Cyclones, but this one isn't expected to do so.

When the next TD forms it will be named TD02 and so on with each new depression.

Below is an image of the winds feeding into TD01F (upper left quarter of the image) right next to Fiji.

Image

And Don,

I wouldn't worry about QLD seeing its driest start to November in 92 years.

All the signals are there for a La Nina and it has been classified already.

Negative Nino 3.4 Index..
Image

Positive Southern Oscillation Index..
Image

BOM classification of a weak La Nina..
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/enso/

And by NOAA
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_advisory/

It's probably worth noting SST's aren't anomalously warm off the QLD coast yet but are off the WA Coast.

If you look deeper into the water column though you can see that ocean temperatures are anomalously warm below the surface in the Western South Pacific linked to La Nina and this will probably mix up through convection over the coming month or two..

Equatorial Ocean Temperatures from sea surface to 450m's
Image

sid-surfa-saurus's picture
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sid-surfa-saurus Tuesday, 15 Nov 2011 at 6:58am
e wrote:

yes

donweather's picture
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donweather Tuesday, 15 Nov 2011 at 10:29pm

I certainly can't remember a November that's been this flat for this long AND this fecking dry and hot.

This shit aint funny anymore Huey!!!

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thelostclimber Wednesday, 16 Nov 2011 at 12:40am

seems like the whole east coast oz has been flat for November. Next year i'm goin West. Looks to be pumping waves at the moment.

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Craig Wednesday, 16 Nov 2011 at 1:43am

Always a good idea TLC ;)

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freeride76 Wednesday, 16 Nov 2011 at 2:48am

Nothing too weird about this pattern. Nov/Dec '08 was dry before a developing La Nina deluged us come Xmas time.

SEQLD has been a bit unlucky to miss out on some of these trough-induced t-storms.

We got 2 inches the other night from one.

Certainly though, we've been in a kind of "nino feeling" state wrt to local atmospheric conditions.

I think the development of TD01F and the next major high cell coming through at a lower Latitude may go some way to flicking the switch to a more classic Nina state.
Also this extended pattern of weak high pressure and light tradewinds in the CS will see SST's rise quickly in the current regime.

I've got no doubt the switch will be flicked big-time.
But we still have plenty of time, it's quite normal to be tortured by this kind of pattern through Nov/Dec.

Thanks for posting up those graphics Craig.

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donweather Wednesday, 16 Nov 2011 at 10:57pm

Not sure I'd call one of the driest November's on record "nothing too weird". And looking at the swell archives, Nov 2008 (particularly the first 2-3 weeks) had some cracking surf, with fairly consistent swell for most of the month.

Nov 2011 has not had one surfable day thus far (apart from the first weekend in Nov).

Can ya ask Huey to fecking flick that switch NOW please Steve!!!

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nickg Thursday, 17 Nov 2011 at 2:37am

Craig,
thanks!

I'll start counting from now and nod knowingly when this acronym surfaces in future discussions.

btw - I'm in SA at the moment and there is a neat little 2-3ft swell pushing in to the South Coast and more to come and yesterday the ever fickle Mid Coast was 1-2ft (pretty sure it is the same, today).

to me, it looks like WA/SA/Vic has fared pretty well in the Spring swell stakes.

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Craig Thursday, 17 Nov 2011 at 6:28am

Yeah the Mid's been pumping for over a week now, and there's still one more considerable pulse to come!

The southern states have been in form the last month, that's for sure.

Luckily I've got an 8ft single fin to keep me busy during this flat spell.. and a snorkel :D

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southey Thursday, 17 Nov 2011 at 12:31pm

Guys , your pain may last a bit longer . Pray for an elongated Flat top High in the next few weeks .

As for TD/TC's , I'd keep my eye on the MJO next time it comes back towards the Maritime Continent sector . ( It moves west to east ) .
At a rough guess you should expect it to return between Dec 10-20 . And although the CS won't be up to Temperature ( will be close though ), the Melanesian-(western polynesia ) waters will be ripe SST' wise . So failing a lack of High Pressure to cradle it and too strong upper winds you may have your action .....

Yes everywhere west of Wilsons Prom has been quite good , even SWA is getting back in on the act .

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donweather Monday, 21 Nov 2011 at 1:14am

A few stats for Brisbane............

Brisbane's driest November on record!!! Brisbane hasn't had rain for 21 consecutive days. The last time there was a dry spell this long in November was November 1914, when the city went 18 consecutive days without a drop.

While Brisbane is likely to see rain by the end of the month the rain will probably not arrive until Wednesday. This will extend the dry spell to 23 days, Brisbane's longest stretch (at any time of the year) without rain in three years.

No notable surf for 15-20 days, with constant N'lys during this entire time. I can't recall a November this consistently/consecutively bad for swell.

Still thinking "Nothing too weird", Steve?

goldy123's picture
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goldy123 Tuesday, 22 Nov 2011 at 12:07pm

Don't know much about this stuff, but any chance with this rainfall on the way for SEQLD that a trough could form off the coast and maybe bring some waves.. yes I'm desperate as most of us here are :)

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freeride76 Tuesday, 22 Nov 2011 at 12:26pm

Looks like any trough that may move offshore will be too far south and dissipate/move away quickly Goldy.

Keep your hopes very low.

I don't think it is necessarily weird Don.......it's not unusual for Spring rain to be very unequally distributed in t/storms. There's been a persistent inland trough....it just hasn't aligned well with SEQLD.

Ballina has had 55mm for Nov, 168mm for Nov.

Looking at the synoptic patterns still reminds me alot of the last late forming Nina in 08/09.

We'll see.

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donweather Tuesday, 22 Nov 2011 at 2:31pm

Give me the swell of Nov/Dec 2008 anyday over what we've been dished up this November thus far!!! And looking at the charts, there's NOTHING of surfable significance to even get remotely excited about. This could quite easily go down as one of the worst Novembers for some time with respect to surfable waves.

Oh and it looks like Nth NSW might be in for some further heavy falls over the next few days also!!!

Ballina has had 55mm for Nov, 168mm for Nov.

By: "freeride76"

From the BOM NSW Ballina Airport Obs Ballina Sept was 58mm, 168mm for October and to date Nov has only had approximately 55mm, noting that 45mm of that fell in one storm event. Ballina's Nov average is 126mm, so for me Ballina is still way below average, even worse off if you consider we're supposed to be in a La Nina, hence one would expect above average rainfalls. Although I do note that Ballina's totals are about to change this week, potentially significantly!!!

Still feck all on the swell front for the month of November.

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goldy123 Thursday, 24 Nov 2011 at 6:16am

On the long range gfs model on WZ on the 7th-10th Decemeber is showing some sort of activity? dont know if this means some sort of swell.. but looks ok if it were to happen? long long way out i know (Desperate)

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freeride76 Thursday, 24 Nov 2011 at 6:27am

Your a brave man to put any faith in those long range GFS charts Goldy.

But I do believe that very unproductive northerly pattern is about to be broken, and in fact this small trough is the first step in the pattern breaking down.

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goldy123 Thursday, 24 Nov 2011 at 6:37am

Lol well as i said a few posts back I'm pretty new/clueless to this but trying to learn, but no doubt next run it will have all disappered. But still some sort of hope and anything will be better then what we have at the moment.

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goldy123 Tuesday, 29 Nov 2011 at 1:06am

Will this South swell be too south for any sort of size for SEQLD?

Also could any of you guys PM me some good weather models please?

Thanks

victor's picture
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victor Tuesday, 29 Nov 2011 at 1:14am

goldy123. elders weather. go to weather maps - gfs, has a good 7day plus modelling

donweather's picture
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donweather Tuesday, 29 Nov 2011 at 2:35am

Will this South swell be too south for any sort of size for SEQLD?

By: "goldy123"

What south swells AREN'T too south for SE Qld!!!

Also could any of you guys PM me some good weather models please?

By: "goldy123"

I'm pretty sure Swellnet has charts on their weather page. I also use Stormsurf, but that's just because of what I'm used to. Each to their own I guess. All of the above are based on the GFS weather model. Weatherzone also provides several other models, including ACCESSG and ECMWF (which you can also get from the ECMWF website but not at the same resolution). Happy studying!!!

goldy123's picture
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goldy123 Tuesday, 29 Nov 2011 at 2:58am

www.28storms.com/cyclone/ just came across this site thought i'd post.. has lots and lots of different models and sites, and also has a daily cyclone update video...

Thanks to Victor and Don also :)

EDIT: if its not ok to post other sites sorry

Craig's picture
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Craig Wednesday, 30 Nov 2011 at 10:04pm

Could be the first easterly dip of the season developing later next week off the SE QLD coast.

Let's hope it kicks things into gear up there!