Well, it has been another week of sunny skies, along with warm and humid temperatures – but those winds were quite moderate through the afternoons.
As we look ahead to today and then across the weekend, there is nothing but good news for beachgoers with the forecast suggesting we are set for great beach and weather conditions.
In a nutshell, it will be warm and mostly sunny with only light variable winds.
Today will probably see the strongest winds, and this will be this afternoon, with this morning bringing 5 to 10 knots of E/SE winds that will then increase through this afternoon to 10 to 15 knots.
Tomorrow will then bring very light E/SE to E/NE winds through the morning at around 5 knots, before they increase to only around 10 knots from the N/NE through the afternoon.
Sunday will then be very similar, with N/NE winds at around 5 knots through the morning that then increase to around 10 knots through the afternoon.
Swimming
It has been a reasonable but mixed week of swimming conditions to date, with calm and gentle conditions through the mornings and then choppier conditions through the afternoons as the onshore winds increased.
But, as we look ahead to today and then across the weekend, we can expect nothing but great swimming and beach conditions thanks to the mostly light winds.
This afternoon will bring slightly choppy conditions as the winds increase to be moderate in strength, but aside from that, we can expect fantastic conditions all weekend and especially so through the mornings.
All beaches will have great conditions over the coming days but with the light northerly winds across the weekend, beaches such as Elliott Heads and Kelly's Beach will even be that little bit better.
Perhaps the period from late morning to early afternoon could be slightly better while the tide is higher, but really it should not matter too much when you hit the beach over the coming days.
Please check with the surf lifesavers or 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!
Today and weekdays: 9 am to 5 pm at Kellys Beach and Agnes Water only.
Saturday: 9 am to 5 pm at Kellys Beach, Nielson Park Beach, Oaks Beach and Agnes Water, 1 to 5 pm at Elliott Heads and Moore Park Beach.
Sunday: 9 am to 5 pm at Elliott Heads, Kellys Beach, Nielson Park Beach, Oaks Beach, Moore Park Beach and Agnes Water.
Note: These are minimum patrol times – some locations may have longer hours of patrol time.
Surfing
Local board-riders have been hanging on to a continual run of small, clean and fun waves across local beaches for the past week but the wave heights have only been small and they will get smaller over the coming days too unfortunately.
For the weekend, try your luck through the mornings on the incoming tide for some clean mal or SUP waves, with Kellys Beach and Elliott Heads perhaps being surprise packets across the weekend.
If not, hit your favourite spot in the hope of finding a few small, fun waves.
For the SUP and ocean ski paddlers, there will be plenty of calm and gentle conditions on the beaches over the coming days but particularly through the mornings and particularly so at Elliott Heads and Kellys Beach where you may also find a few small waves.
Events
Good luck to the small group of local surf lifesavers competing this weekend in Yeppoon at the 2024 WBC Branch Open and Masters Surf Lifesaving Championships.
