High pressure in the Bight with a trough moving up the coast and robust low (974hPa) moving under Tasmania sets the scene for the weekend.
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The rest of the week looks pretty fun.
Lots of fun beachbreak surf on tap for this week.
High pressure belt remains strong with cells lined up to enter the Tasman. A monsoonal low in the Gulf of Carpenteria is generating a long cloud band down the east coast. A long, broad E’ly tradewind fetch extends from the Coral Sea into the South Pacific with the tail of the fetch in Tahitian longitudes.
Our current pattern of slow moving high pressure near New Zealand is still well entrenched with a modest cold front sweeping into the Tasman and bringing a S’ly change to temperate NSW. Multiple cells of reinforcing high pressure then one by one move into the Tasman, maintaining a weak ridge up the NSW Coast and a deep E’ly flow through the South Pacific and Eastern Coral Sea, with resulting E’ly swells favouring the sub-tropics for size.
Large high in the Tasman directing plenty of E’ly-SE’ly tradewinds through the Coral Sea and South Pacific slot. Typical summer wind pattern with NE winds developing across temperate NSW, tending more E-E/SE in the sub-tropics.
We’ve got a very strong high pressure belt at the moment with a cell in the Tasman (twin cells actually, straddling New Zealand) and monster high moving in from the Bight. A trough off the NSW coast is focusing SE winds along the Eastern Seaboard, with a strong front/low traversing the Lower Tasman.
As Steve mentioned on Monday, the synoptic are quite complex at the moment.
To the south, a severe gale to storm force fetch off the ice shelf from a retrograding low under the South Island sends a rare S/SE groundswell up the Pipe, with another strong front/low late this week into the weekend expected to generate another pulse of S’ly groundswell over the weekend.
A deep low with strong gales currently tracking in a NE direction SE of Tasmania justifies an upgrade in size for this weekend.