Central QLD Forecaster Notes by Steve Shearer (updated on Wed Feb 19th)

This week and next week (Feb19-Feb28)

Central QLD: Rebuild in size as SE surge arrives Fri

Easing swells, rebuilding Fri.

Still some fun ones on low tide

The swell generating  South Pacific low- is now out of the picture, having moved eastwards and dissipated so the trend is downwards as this swell eases out. We’ll see a brief fallow period before a SE surge Fri brings a new SE swell with the next round of Tradeswell  next week, possibly enhanced by tropical low pressure systems in the South Pacific and Coral Sea.

Expect swells to build Fri and be fun all weekend as a SE surge builds Fri.

Next week should be fun all week as tradewinds maintain SE winds in the Coral Sea.

By Mon next week we should see a series of tropical lows in the monsoon trough, with a low off the N. QLD coast, and one or two located SE of Fiji. We’ll be watching them closely for development and surf potential although at the moment the strongest winds are monsoonal NW winds and thus not of much use.

The Fijian low (which may form a tropical cyclone) tracks SE early next week. We’ll update Fri and Mon but we may see a signal of longer period swell from this system as it moves through the swell window. Possibly adding some inconsistent 3ft sets into the mix late next week.

More reliable looks to be swell from the Coral Sea low (possible TC) which becomes slow moving next week, possibly on a slow S or SE track.

That’s likely to generate some bigger E’ly swell late next week and into the weekend, although confidence is still very low this far out. 

Pencil it in for now, and we’ll see how it’s looking on Fri.

Seeya then!