South-east Queensland and Northern NSW Surf Forecast by James Casey (issued Friday 26th March)

Best Days: Weekend looks the pick of the week.

Outlook:

• Inconsistent E/SE swell to combine with background lingering E swell over the weekend. Light winds early afternoon sea breezes. 
• S winds and mid period S swell combines with a new inconsistent E/SE swell later next week
• Not much else on the cards for late next week

Recap

Well once the winds swung offshore there were plenty of good options along the open beaches. Wednesday afternoon and into Thursday morning there were reports of 3-4ft peaks along the beaches and water quality aside one of the better days of the year. 

Today waves are smaller, more like 2ft for SE QLD and N NSW and 2-3ft for the Mid N Coast. Winds were light and offshore early but have swung SE now. 

Water quality still looks to be an issue with plenty of debris in the brown/green water.

The end of the week

Well we have a weak region of high pressure lingering over the coast for the weekend. That means light winds early and sea breezes creating bumpier conditions for later in the day. 

Swell wise we have a small and inconsistent energy out of the E/SE generated by a low behind NZ earlier in the week. I wouldn’t expect much more than an inconsistent 2ft sets. 

There will also be a lingering E swell is from the easterly trough low that moved off and out to sea earlier in the week. The trough associated with it continued to draw in E winds ahead of it whipping up a nice little swell to provide us with some background wave energy to fill in the lulls between the 2ft E/SE swell. 

With nice surface conditions early on Saturday it’ll be worth a paddle, less so later in the day when NE winds puff up as a weak S change approaches.

The S change will eventuate in the form of light SW winds early on Sunday morning. As the day goes on winds will swing around to the SE so it won’t be as good in the arvo. 

The new week 

The start of the new week will see a similar story swell wise to what was experienced over the weekend. there’ll be less of that lingering E swell and more of that E/SE swell from the low behind NZ. 

Winds will remain out of the S, lighter and more SW earlier in the day and stronger and more SE in the afternoon, as a ridge of high pressure sets up over the entire east coast. This southerly flow will continue until Thursday.
Tuesday looks to be the change over day. The E/SE swell fades out with just localised wind swells on offer. The Mid N Coast will begin to see a new mid period S/SE swell later in the day.

By Wednesday the mid period S/SE swell will fill in across the region. This swell will be generated to the east of Tassie on Monday morning, as a trough squeezes the ridge of high pressure set up over the east coast.

Waves should be up around the 3ft mark across N NSW and the Mid N Coast (S swell magnets), a bit smaller for SE QLD. It should peak Wednesday morning and ease into the back half of the week.

Expect strong S to SE winds with this swell, especially for SE QLD. This means you’ll be stuck in southern corners for the best conditions where most of the swell will be going past.

The potential little pulse of mid period E/SE swell for Tuesday into Wednesday from another low to the east of NZ mentioned on Wednesday doesn’t look like it’ll eventuate now. It was always a long shot and the swell looks to be being aimed too far north now.

There isn’t too much else going on for the end of the week. There are indications of a decent sized low to move up next to Tassie around April 1st. At this stage there is still plenty of model disagreement so let's keep an eye on it, I’ll delve into it more on Monday.