South-east Queensland and Northern NSW Surf Forecast by Steve Shearer (issued Wed Nov 27th)

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• E’ly tradeswells hold in all this week with subtle ups ands downs (biggest Tues PM/Wed AM)
• NE winds all this week
• More small fun tradeswell this weekend with N’ly winds
• More small surf from the E next week with light N-NE winds in SEQLD, stronger N/NE in NENSW

Recap

E’ly tradeswells have offered up really fun 3 occ. 4ft surf across the region - favouring SEQLD and far NENSW for size and lighter winds, with more NE flow into the MNC. Same again today with some very workable surf around the beachies and fun peelers on the Points.

Not perfect but a bit of juice to be had on the beachies

This week (Nov 27-29)

Very little change since Monday’s notes with slow moving high pressure drifting towards New Zealand and a trough and cut-off low approaching from the inland and bight respectively. The N’ly flow gets briefly disrupted by the trough in temperate areas before resetting again for the weekend with no change to the N’ly pattern in sub-tropical areas. A tradewind flow focussed around the New Caledonia area and out into the South Pacific slot will maintain fun E’ly tradewind surf in the sub-tropics.

In the short run, we’ll see a slow easing trend in the size of E’ly tradeswells through the rest of the working week as the flare up in winds in the Central Coral Sea eases, and the fetch retracts eastwards. Generally lighter winds in the north of the region (SEQLD into the Tweed Coast) with increasing N-NE flow towards the south into the areas south of Yamba towards the MNC. 

Size in the 3 (occ. 4)ft range tomorrow, easing through the day and bottoming out Friday in the 2-3ft range. 

Light morning winds offer the best of it in SEQLD with N’lies more established in NENSW.

This weekend (Nov 30-Dec 1)

N’ly winds re-strengthen over the weekend as a cut-off low approaches from the Victorian interior. Again winds will be strongest in the south, with N-NE winds at fresh paces, tending lighter/mod in SEQLD. 

We may still see a light morning flow in SEQLD but NENSW looks to have dawn to dusk N’lies so be prepared. 

No real change to the surf outlook though. The tradewind fetch will still be chugging away, albeit a little further away so expect some more inconsistency in the sets which should still be in the 3ft range over the weekend. 

Next week (Dec2 onwards)

A trough moves up the NSW coast but looks to stall south of Seal Rocks so expect a continuing N’ly flow all next week, lighter in the North of the area. We may see that trough just tickle the MNC, bringing either a weak S’ly change or lighter winds. We’ll refine than on Fri.

Otherwise, N’lies with tradewind swells chugging away in the 2-3ft range through until mid week. An easing trend then looks likely as the fetch breaks down.

A weak low drifting south out of the tradewind fetch may bring some small E/SE swell late next week, possibly up into the 2-3ft range Fri. It is moving at right angles to the swell window, which reduces surf potential so we'll revist Fri and see how it looks.

A strong high cell moving into the Bight suggests a SE surge up the coast medium term - possibly second week of December and may clear the weak, troughy pattern from the Tasman and bring another round of tradewind swell. Thats a way off yet, so we’ll see how it looks on Fri and next week.

Seeya Fri.