South-east Queensland and Northern NSW Surf Forecast by Steve Shearer (issued Fri 13th Sep)

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• More S swell on the weekend, sizey Sun into Mon with fresh S’ly winds
• More sizey S swell pulses Tues/Wed with light winds tending NW’ly Wed
• Much smaller in SEQLD
• Small./mod S swells into next weekend
• More S swell into the medium term

Recap

Not much yesterday with 2ft of NE windswell until the S’ly tore into it after lunch.  Around 3-4ft of S swell this morning in NENSW, smaller 1-2ft in SEQLD with lump and bump on it from o/night S’lies with are extending through today. There are some waves around if you aren’t too fussy about wave quality.

Windy with S swells just starting to build north of the border

This weekend (Sep14-15)

No great change to the weekend f/cast. We have a follow-up front and trough expected to push into the Tasman later Sat, this time backed by a monster high (1042 hPa) in the Bight. Steep pressure gradients will create near gales to gales in a proximate S’ly fetch and whip up plenty of sizey S swell later Sun. Expect easing leftover S-S/SE swell on Sat with size to 3-4ft in NENSW, 2-3ft in SEQLD easing during the day. Conditions will be OK, but not clean after todays strong S’lies. We should see morning SW winds trying to clean up lumpy surf before mod/fresh S’lies then tend SE and ease through the a’noon. 

Sunday will be sizey with a slingshot fetch of S/SW-S near-gales up the coast o/night whipping up large local S swells to 6-8ft at S facing breaks in NENSW, in the a’noon after an undersized start. The morning should be cleanish, with morning SW winds and surf to 2-3ft before surf builds through the a’noon. SEQLD will see a smaller, later increase in size to 3ft at S facing beaches.

Next week (Sep16 onwards)

 Plenty of size to start next week, which will see more S swell pulses. Mon should see sizey 6ft S swells, smaller 3-4ft in SEQLD at S facing beaches with another frontal system pushing into the Tasman. We should see a morning SW flow before winds S’ly to S/SE’ly and ease.

More S swells from the frontal progression Tues and Wed. Tues should see another  increase in size later in the day to 4-5ft at S exposed breaks in NENSW, smaller 2-3ft in SEQLD with offshore W-SW winds in the morning tending to a’noon S’lies. The bulk of the energy will be mid period S, but there will be will some longer period swell trains in amongst it.

Similar size into  Wed with sets to 4ft+, just a notch more long period energy with winds tending more W-NW through the day as another front approaches the Tasman.

More fronts pushing into the Tasman for the second half of next week, will supply small/mod pulses of S swell right through next week and into the weekend. There’s some model divergence so we’ll take a conservative outlook but there are reasonable odds we’ll see these swells over perform as the succeeding fetches operate on an already active sea state. 

No let-up in S swells as we move into next weekend and and the following week beginning 23/9.

The southern swell window looks very active through the short and medium term.

Check back Mon and we’ll update with fresh info.

Until then, have a great weekend!