In this week’s beach report, Craig Holden says the forecast is looking good for beach goers with sunshine and light winds.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Despite the COVID-19 restrictions lightening, if you are at the beach, please maintain the social/physical distancing minimum guidelines and abide by the current group gathering guidelines as well.
WEATHER: Well, the weather forecast is looking pretty constant over the coming days, with sunshine, sunshine and more sunshine along with only light to moderate winds, which is great news for beach goers.
Maximum temperatures will also remain quite mild through Friday and Saturday, but those minimums will start to get cool again over the next day or two before we get another wintry blast by Sunday and see those single figure minimums again probably until Tuesday – so don’t put the blankets away just yet!
Friday’s winds will be from the W/SW at only around 5-10 knots before they swing more from the N/NW in the afternoon and just creep up to about 10 to 15 knots.
Saturday will then bring W/SW winds at 10 to 15 knots and these will just once again start to swing more from the W/NW through the late afternoon. Sunday will then bring cooler S/SW winds at 10 to 15 knots.
SWIMMING: With a promising weather forecast, the swimming conditions across all local beaches should be fantastic over the coming days, and particularly so through the mornings while the winds are lighter and offshore.
If anything, Friday afternoon’s forecast northerly winds may just cause choppy conditions on those beaches that face in a northerly direction, so for this afternoon, consider Elliott Heads and Kellys Beach as your better options.
Outside of this though, all beaches will have great swimming conditions for the most part across the weekend and into early next week as well.
The best time to hit the beach for a swim will be from mid-morning through until around midday if you want to find those high tide conditions.
If you are going for a swim, please check with the lifeguard on duty, read any safety signage or messages, and most importantly please swim only at patrolled beaches, only between the red and yellow flags, and only during patrol times – remember, if we can’t see you, we can’t save you!
BEACH PATROLS: Today and weekdays – Nil
Saturday and Sunday – 9am to 5pm at Kellys Beach and Agnes Water only.
SURFING: It has been a bit of a mixed week in terms of waves across our local beaches with a mostly flat start to the week before those gusty northerly winds whipped up some messy but moderate waves through Wednesday and into Thursday.
Thursday morning was actually super fun with the light winds and residual swell from the day before!
Looking ahead though, the wave heights have dropped quickly from yesterday and will more than likely remain quite small into today and tomorrow as well.
Sunday may just throw up some slightly bigger waves but with the swell direction to be from the South by then, we will more than likely not see much of it hitting our local beaches.
As per usual, keep an eye on conditions because things can and do change quickly.
EVENTS: Nil.
- Last week’s beach report with Craig Holden: Promising weather for last weeks of winter
