Central QLD Forecaster Notes by Steve Shearer (issued on Mon 17 Jan)

This week and next (Jan17– Jan27)

Central QLD: Quality groundswell for exposed breaks easing, with background surf becoming tiny.

Surf has been mostly tiny/flat across most of CQ apart from small waves at the most exposed breaks. Today has seen good quality groundswell, at the upper end of Friday's f/cast range at exposed breaks, with some 3ft+ sets on offer. Conditions are generally good with light N’ly winds, not enough to make too much of a mess of the wave shape. All this swell has been courtesy of TC , then Ex TC Cody, the second cyclone swell for 2022, despite being in only the second week of January. Not a bad start to the year, at least swell wise.

Nicely lined up sets courtesy of Ex TC Cody

Size should hold in the 2-3ft range through tomorrow at exposed breaks,on favourable tides, with tiny/flat surf elsewhere and light winds providing good surfing conditions.

Surf then eases back to tiny across the region during Wed and into Thurs, with a weak trade flow in the Coral Sea holding surf at just rideable levels on exposed breaks, before another strong high pressure surge builds along the QLD coast later this week. 

By Fri an extensive coverage of 20-25knot SE winds through the lower Coral Sea should rebuild wave heights into the 1-2ft range across the region, with surf holding into the weekend before slowly easing next week as the trade flow weakens.

Longer term and weak pressure gradients through next week suggest a period of tiny surf ahead, so get in and grab what you can while its out there.