South-east Queensland and Northern NSW Surf Forecast by James Casey (issued Friday 2nd April)

Best Days: Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday (depending on your location) once the low moves off the coast and S/SW winds clean things up a bit

Outlook:

• Strong SE winds for most the weekend limiting options to protected southern corners
• Solid E swell to peak on Sunday/Monday/Tuesday (depending on your location) 
• Conditions to clean up after the peak in the swell as the low moves south of your region
• Another peak later in the week from the western flank of the low, looking to be around Friday

Recap

Yesterday wasn’t great across the region. Clean enough early but becoming windy out of the S/SE. 

Today it’s 2-3ft for Mid N Coast and Sunshine Coast, a bit bigger for N NSW up around the 3ft mark and smaller for the Gold Coast, a sloppy 2ft. Offshore winds for the Mid N Coast, everywhere else onshore with fresh SE winds making it bumpy. 

The long weekend

Well the main feature for the long weekend is the tropical low forming in the Coral Sea over the coming days. 

Already we are seeing a SE swell fill in for the Sunshine Coast, as a region of low pressure squeezes a ridge of high pressure over the coast directing strong SE winds towards the coastline.

Unfortunately winds will continue to be strong and out of the SE until the low moves south of the region. When this happens is dependent on what the low does which are temperamental at the best of times.

For SE QLD, it isn’t looking like clearing anytime this weekend with strong E/SE winds limiting you to protected southern corners. There’ll be plenty of swell though peaking up around the 6ft mark for the Sunshine Coast for Sunday late into Monday and a similar size for the Gold Coast but peaking 24 hours later, Monday late into Tuesday. 

So while there’ll be waves there’ll be limited options so anywhere with decent quality waves I’d expect to be crowded. 

Further south, N NSW will be onshore with an onshore flow shifting between the E and E/SE for most of the weekend. It’s not looking great for much of the weekend. It'll be 3-4ft wave for in the lead up with the low strnebthening off the coast creating a 6ft peak around Tuesday morning.

The Mid N Coast will see smaller waves around the 2-3ft mark for most of the weekend, peaking on Tuesday around the 3-5ft mark. Onshore winds will prevail shifting between the E/SE and the E/NE.

The new week

Once the low shifts south, becoming a Tasman Low, expect a window of clean conditions as winds turn S/SW. At the same time as this happens there’ll also be an easing trend in the swell. 

At this stage it looks like it’ll begin to clean up on Tuesday for the Sunshine Coast with S/SW winds opening up the points and southern ends of beaches. The same will happen late on Tuesday into Wednesday for the Gold Coast, Wednesday for N NSW and on Thursday for the Mid N Coast. 

There is still plenty of uncertainty regarding the movement of the low though, especially for the Mid N Coast, with easterly component winds a chance of remaining until next weekend. 

Later in the week there is plenty of model disagreement but there’ll be another spike in the swell from the SE around Friday from the western flank of the low, followed by a strong S change to move up the coast. We’ll dissect that more on Monday.