South-east Queensland and Northern NSW Forecast by Steve Shearer (issued Wed June 5th)

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Light winds, mostly offshore Thurs-Fri (patches of NE seabreeze in the mix)
• Small, easing E/NE swell Thurs, becoming marginal Fri
• Mostly offshore winds all weekend (patches of NE seabreeze both days)
• Fun sized E/NE swell building Sat, holding Sun AM before easing
• Small Mon, with a late kick in new S swell possible on the MNC
• Series of S pulses next week, becoming sizey later in the week into the weekend as wintry pattern sets in

Recap

Really fun beachies (and small point waves) since the last notes with surf hovering in the 3 occ. 4ft range both days (although easing today) under mostly offshore winds, with some patches of weak N-NE breeze through the a’noon. Sunshine and Bluewater added joy to the ensemble.

Smaller and slower but nice when they came

This week (Jun 5-7)

We’ve got high pressure over the continent, a weak cell in the Coral Sea and a cell over New Zealand, with generally weak pressure gradients over the East Coast. Troughy remnants remain off the North Coast and South Coast interior and these troughs are expected to deepen and reform into another surface low through Fri into the weekend with another round of E/NE infeed swell and S swell although much more subdued than last weekends swell. Details below.

In the short run and for the rest of the week we’re looking at a light synoptic offshore flow as a trough stalls out on the Central NSW Coast. Those winds should tend W through NW tomorrow with patches of light N-NE breeze (more prominent on the Gold Coast). On Friday those winds will tend more straight W’ly as the trough starts to deepen off the NSW Central Coast. 

We’re on the backside of the current E-E/NE swell event but lingering winds off the North Island should hold 2 occ. 3ft surf through Thurs. 

That will ease further into Fri- the odd 2ft set across open beaches but with dreamy conditions. A perfect day for beginners to get out the back.

This weekend (Jun 8 - 9)

The trough looks to deepen off the NSW Central Coast this weekend with a southwards moving E/NE infeed into the developing trough of low pressure (see below). With the developing low to the south of the f/cast region we are looking at basically offshore winds all weekend. 

Straight W’ly all day Sat - with just a minor chance of a light NE seabreeze in SEQLD.

W to W/SW all day Sun with a slight chance of a weak, late seabreeze, more likely north of the border. 

Surf-wise we’ll see a nice bump in size from the E-E/NE on Sat with surf building from 2 occ. 3ft to 3 occ. 4ft on the sets.

That should hold into Sun morning with an easing trend in the a’noon. Dropping back to 2ft or so by close of play. 

Next week (Jun 10 onwards)

The weekend’s low is connected to a deeper front and a following front Mon now looks to provide supplementary energy from the S early next week. 

We should see small surf Mon, with a late kick in S swell possible (more likely on the MNC),  before building strongly Tues to 3-5ft at S facing beaches, smaller 2-3ft in SEQLD. Winds look pretty good as high pressure moves into the Tasman. Light offshores Mon tending S’ly and by Tues we should see light offshore winds tend SW-S through the day.

A temporary easing before (as mentioned on Mon) the first winter calibre front of the season sweeps into the Tasman.

Expect a freshening pre-frontal NW flow Wed, tending W’ly through the a’noon.

We’ll then see a series of mod/strong S’ly pulses later Thurs, and extending through Fri and into next weekend. 

We’ll fill in details as we get closer to the event but these swells should be in excess of 4-5ft, possibly 6ft+ at exposed breaks in NENSW, smaller in SEQLD.

Let’s see how they look on Fri.

Seeya then.