Northern NSW and South East Queensland Surf Forecast (Wed 18th Nov)

Northern NSW and South East Queensland Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Wednesday 18th December)

Best Days: Every morning over the coming period (protected locations in SE Qld Thursday morning)

Recap

Inconsistent 1-2ft waves continued across both coasts yesterday with light morning winds, while a slight jump in E/SE trade-swell has been seen across the Sunny Coast and Goldy today but with fresh SE winds (lighter and more S'ly early on the Goldy).

The North Coast has continued at 1-2ft, with light onshore E'ly winds around Byron and Ballina, with lighter offshore winds to the south (and a touch less swell).

This week and weekend (Dec 19 - 22)

We should see the E/SE trade-swell continue to build across the Sunny and Gold Coast through the end of the week, and lesser so on the North Coast.

This is the result of a relatively weak south-easterly ridge sitting in the Coral Sea and out of the Mid North Coast's swell window, with the size grading smaller the further south you move from the Sunny Coast.

The ridge is expected to reach a peak in intensity Thursday evening (pictured right) resulting in a peak in size through Friday, ahead of a slow drop in size into the weekend.

A weak fetch of E/SE winds will persist through our swell window through the rest of the period though, keeping small levels of swell hitting the Goldy and Sunny Coasts, with tiny waves further south.

Winds tomorrow will remain unfavourable for Qld locations with a persistent SE'ly (lighter and offshore across Northern NSW) but Friday onwards should see more variable winds each morning.

Longer term (Dec 23 onwards)

As touched on above the E'ly swell will fade into the middle of next week with small 1-2ft waves expected across most spots Christmas Day. The North Coast should also see some NE windswell in the mix with winds from the northern quadrant.

Longer term we may see some more significant trade-swell developing, but we'll review this again Friday.