Wednesday
Weather
After a fairly windy night, we will see a gradual relaxation of the SW’ly, easing from force 4 to 5 around dawn to force 2 to 3 by dusk. Weather-wise it’s not looking too bad either, because the morning’s rain should soon clear and then the showers will be very few and far between, leaving us dry for the vast majority of the time. Skies will be mostly cloudy and a bit misty, but there should also be some bright or sunny intervals in the afternoon, and the max temp of 12°C should feel pretty comfortable.
Surf and the Water
Clean 5 foot surf on the west coast. Low water will be at 10:47am and high water will be at 4:46pm (8.4m). Sea temperature 10- 11°C.
Thursday and Friday
Weather
The wind will have increased on Wednesday night and there will have been quite a bit of rain, so when we wake up on Thursday morning it will feel rather unsettled compared to the previous couple of days. Blustery rain or showers (some heavy) will come and go through the rest of Thursday and at least through the first half of Friday morning. The rest of Friday’s daylight hours should be dry and bright though, with showers not likely to return until after dusk. Both days will have max temps of around 13°C and min temps of around 11°C. Winds will be force 5 SSW’ly through most of Thursday, veering WSW’ly by the end of the day, then picking up to strong force 6 and staying that way through Friday.
Surf and the Water
Low tides will be late morning on Thursday and lunchtime on Friday. High tides will be soon after dusk, picking up from 8.7m on Wednesday to 9m on Friday. The surf will be 4-6 feet and pretty clean on Thursday, then 8-10 feet and a bit choppier on Friday.
Christmas Weekend
Weather
Saturday’s (Christmas Eve’s) weather looks set to be rather fine actually, because the showers should be very few and far between, leaving plenty of gaps for a little sunshine to poke through. The max temp will be a respectable 12°C, but the wind will be pretty perky, fresh force 5 SW’ly. As for Christmas Day itself (Sunday), that’s also looking good for walking/swimming/riding your new bike or zooming around on your new roller-skates. Winds will back to a S’ly direction and possibly decrease to moderate force 4. Again, showers will be very sparse so there’s a good chance of staying dry, and we might be treated to a little brightness at times. Watch this space though, because there is a more prolonged spell of rain expected in the night time, and it wouldn’t take too much of a shift in the forecast for that to spill into your Christmas afternoon.
Surf and the Water
The surf will be about 8-10 feet and semi-clean on Christmas Eve, then it should be 6 feet and super-clean on Christmas Day. High tides shortly before dawn (9.4m and 9.5m respectively). Low tides in the early afternoons.
Boxing Day and the Rest of the Week
Weather
Boxing day should see a clearance of rain in the morning, followed by a bright but breezy lunchtime and afternoon, that wind being something like a force 5 WNW’ly, meaning that it will be bracing to say the least at Cobo, but if you are going for a dip on the south or east coast then you should have a slightly more comfortable experience. Tuesday and Wednesday should also be mostly dry and occasionally bright, just the odd brief shower here and there. Winds will back to a SW’ly direction and they should be very light and pleasant on Tuesday, before becoming quite feisty again on Wednesday, ahead of some weather fronts that will bring lots of rain or showers through Thursday and Friday. Obviously this forecast is subject to change, because it does extend a few days further into the future than most reliable forecasts. However, I think we can be confident of the general theme of staying in a mild and unsettled weather pattern, rather than reverting to the level of coldness that we saw in early December.
Surf and the Water
The surf should be much like the previous week in terms of size and occasional moments of quality. Tides will be large at the start of the week (highs of 9.5m) becoming medium sized by the end (highs of 7.9m).
The next forecast update will be on Friday evening …
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