Central QLD Forecaster Notes by Steve Shearer (issued on Wed 9th Mar)

This week and next week (Mar9-Mar19)

Central QLD: Active tradewind patterns in Coral Sea maintain rideable surf through this weekend and towards the end of next week.

The squeeze between a 1001 hPa low off the South Coast and 1030 hPa high moving through the Eastern Bight is producing a line of gales off the NSW South Coast, extending northwards up to the Hunter and southwards into the Tasman Sea. While the south swell being generated is of no use to the CQ coast, the ridge that develops as the strong high moves into the Tasman brings increased SE winds along the CQ coast and extending out into the Coral Sea later this week.

That should see surf perk up on Sat, into the 1-2ft range with SE winds. That swell then hangs in during Sun. A longer period E/SE groundswell from the deep low in the South Pacific will supply inconsistent 2-3ft sets through Sun and into Mon at breaks with exposure to the wide swell window of the Capricorn Channel.

 That swell will be long lasting and should maintain a few inconsistent 1-2ft sets through Tues and even Wed, though you’ll have to wait for them.

Into the longer term and by the end of next week a strong new ridge will have built up the QLD coast. That offers excellent prospects for another round of fun tradewind swell, with size likely to kick up into the 2ft range by Thurs next week.

Longer term and GFS is suggesting a tropical low or cyclone later next week, but as that is at the end of model runs we’ll just flag it for now and come back to it on Fri to see if they are still interested.

Check back then for the latest update.