Central QLD Forecaster Notes by Steve Shearer (updated on Mon 12th Feb)

This week and next week (Feb12 -Feb23)

Central QLD: A few ups and downs but surfable most days

More surf to come, with fun waves on the right tides.

Not much change from the way things looked on Friday. 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 E-E/SE winds in the sub-tropics. A moderate front and trough disrupts the pattern mid week before the next reinforcing high resets the ridge late this week. To the north the monsoon trough remains active but there’s no real developments which impact our surf potential as far as cyclones go in the short/medium term. 

E’ly tradewind swell and plenty of it this week. It should hover in the 2-3ft range, taking a little dip Thurs before rebuilding Fri and holding in over the weekend. 

E’ly tradewind swell continues into next week, although they do look to soften in the Coral Sea under some modelled scenarios as a tropical depression near Samoa drags the fetch to the SE. We’d expect them to maintain in the 3ft range at a minimum for at least the first half of next week. Possibly stronger if the trade fetch rebuilds in the Coral Sea as it does under the EC scenario.

Back to high pressure in the Tasman with SE winds for most of next week. 

Otherwise, looking longer term, nothing major on the radar- just more fun waves.

Check back Wed and we’ll see how it’s shaping up.