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Low pressure whips up another large swell for coastal NSW

Felix Levesque, Sunday August 9, 2020 - 15:59 AEST

Another week, another large swell batters the NSW coastline.

A deepening low pressure system off the southern coast of NSW is generating strong, gusty winds over the Tasman Sea. With a region of high pressure to the south cradling this system, a generous fetch of E/SE wind is blowing over open waters, sending a large swell towards the southern and central coasts of NSW.

Wave height has steadily been increasing for the Waverider Buoy located off the coast of Batemans Bay, on the South Coast. Significant wave height has remained mostly near the 4-metre mark since early this morning, and the maximum wave height was just short of 8 metres at 10am this morning. With this low still producing intense winds and rains over the region, the forecast still calls for a peak in wave height near 5 metres later today.

Further south, the buoy off the Eden coast has been recording significant wave heights above 3 metres since this morning, with maximum wave height reaching 6.45 metres. This significant swell is also a part of a broader cluster of large swells that have affected the coastline over the last month. Just under two weeks ago, on Monday 27th of July, both the Batemans Bay and the Eden Waverider Buoys recorded massive 11.67m and 11.24m maximum wave heights respectively.

Much of the energy of this system is focused on the South Coast at the moment, but Sydney will see a large increase in wave energy over the coming 24 hours. As this system continues to spin off the coast, S/SE’ly winds will intensify and create a significant fetch towards the Sydney coast. Through the early hours of Monday, wave height will rapidly increase near 4.5 metres by mid-morning. The swell is currently expected to peak in the early afternoon, which unluckily coincides with the high tide time for the region. However, this high tide is fairly small in magnitude, and the swell is expected to be from a southeasterly direction, to the content of the many homeowners along the local coast who have been at risk of coastal erosion over the last months.

With these large, damaging waves, it is important to properly assess conditions before making any attempt to approach the ocean, whether that be boaters, surfers, fishermen or general beach goers. For the latest ocean and weather warnings, please visit: https://www.weatherzone.com.au/warnings.jsp

- Weatherzone

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