Central QLD Forecaster Notes by Steve Shearer (updated on Mon 17th April)

This weekend and next week (Apr17-Apr28)

Central QLD: Extended run of fun waves now on the radar

Small surf returns this week under a constant SE flow with a trough-block in the South Pacific.

Should be clear signs of life this time tomorrow

The trough-block pattern set-up nicely over the weekend and we’re looking at some small pulses of ESE swell for the CQ region . A long, angled trough with embedded low pressure centres on the Eastern flank is concentrating broad E’ly infeed fetches in the Eastern swell window. The pattern is expected to be slow moving with the main E’ly fetch slowly contracting north-eastwards this week while a small offshoot low looks to retrograde back into the Tasman Sea.

Strong SE winds developing on the southern side of the trough will aid in generating small fun waves with Tues seeing surf build into the 1ft range. 

By Wed we should see this small S windswell augmented by better quality E/SE swell from the South Pacific for open stretches on the Burnet coast- up into the 1-2ft range.

Close range SE and better quality E/SE swell inbound

Strong SSE-SE winds are expected through the week and into the weekend, with short range swell from this source holding surfable wave heights into this weekend, albeit less than 2ft due to the very thin fetch.

Into next week and we should see surf hold or even increase in size as another strong SE surge fills in across the QLD coast, potentially expanding out across the Coral Sea. 

Check back Wed and we’ll see how this is shaping up but the outlook is positive for an extended run of ridable waves.