Central QLD Forecaster Notes by Steve Shearer (issued on Fri 13th May)

This week and next week (May16-28)

Central QLD: Some tiny days ahead before surf rebuilds over Fri into next week

Pumping surf over the weekend, now easing back to marginal levels.

A deep, slow moving polar low well to the south of the continent is driving a W’ly flow across most of temperate NSW, with sub-tropical areas still under the influence of lingering troughiness after the weekends low pressure fizzed out near Fraser Island. Fronts with embedded troughs are pushing into the Tasman with some small pulses of refracted S swell associated with them. None of these swells will impact the CQ coast.

Stronger fronts push up into the Tasman from later Wed, bringing a S'ly flow and bigger S swell as we head to the end of the week. That bigger S to SSE swell will come with S to SSE winds as a new dominant high ridges in from the south of the Bight.  More E swell and SE winds into the medium term as the high sets up another trade flow through the Coral Sea. This will see increasing surf through the CQ region from Fri becoming chunky next week.

Expect a few days of tiny surf from Tues-Thurs as light winds establish before a new high pressure ridge starts to build.

Plenty more surf days ahead next week

Freshening SE winds on Fri will see surf start to build again up into the 2ft range during the day. 

That starts a building trend as E’ly winds develop through the Coral Sea. Expect surf to build into the 3ft range Sat, bigger 3-4ft on Sun. 

Into next week and the surf keeps coming, as the large high and a potential trough/low in the Coral Sea keep a solid fetch of E to E/SE winds aimed up at CQ. Looks like non stop surf days through next week.

Check back Wed for more details.