The Bureau of Meteorology issued a hazardous surf warning for six New South Wales coasts at 4.46pm on Wednesday, current until midnight Friday, with the southerly swell off Sydney forecast to build to three metres overnight.
The warning, IDN28522, covers the Coffs, Macquarie, Hunter, Sydney, Illawarra and Batemans coasts on Thursday. On Friday the Byron Coast is added, taking in the length of the populated NSW coastline from the Queensland border to Batemans Bay.
In its Sydney coastal waters forecast issued at 6.28pm, the bureau put the southerly swell at 1.5 to 2 metres, "increasing to 3 metres later in the evening", with seas of 2.5 to 3 metres and southerly winds of 25 to 30 knots. Thursday holds the swell at 2.5 to 3 metres while the seas ease to 1 to 1.5 metres through the morning. By Friday the swell drops to 2 to 2.5 metres and the wind falls away to variable below 10 knots around midday.
The advice attached to the warning comes from the NSW Police Force Marine Area Command. People should "consider staying out of the water and avoid walking near surf-exposed areas". Rock fishers should "avoid coastal rock platforms exposed to the ocean and seek a safe location that is sheltered from the surf". Boaters planning to cross shallow water and ocean bars should "consider changing or delaying their voyage", and those already out should carry the appropriate safety equipment, wear a lifejacket and log on with their local Marine Rescue radio base.
Nine coastal waters areas carried strong wind warnings on Wednesday, in a marine wind summary issued at 6.27pm: Sydney Enclosed Waters and the Byron, Coffs, Macquarie, Hunter, Sydney, Illawarra, Batemans and Eden coasts. Six stay under warning on Thursday, with the Illawarra and Batemans warnings cancelled. At 7pm Observatory Hill was 15.0 degrees with a south-southeasterly at 33 kilometres an hour, and Coffs Harbour Airport 19.8 degrees with a southerly at 22.
The same air mass has the Snowy Mountains under a warning to sheep graziers, issued at 4.37pm on Wednesday for cold temperatures, showers and southwesterly winds on Wednesday and Thursday. It says there is "a risk of losses of lambs and sheep exposed to these conditions". The observations behind it are cold for the second week of spring. Thredbo Top Station was minus 4.7 degrees at 7pm with a southerly at 32 kilometres an hour, Perisher Valley minus 2.6, and Cooma Airport 2.9 with a south-southwesterly at 30. What kills a lamb in those conditions is wind chill on a wet fleece rather than the reading itself, and the warning falls in the back half of the lambing season. The bureau said the next one would be issued by 11pm Wednesday.
It is the second sheep graziers warning for the district in two days, and it follows the run of cold fronts that produced this week's flooding on the Kiewa and the Ovens. On the Murray, the bureau has downgraded its warning to final, the classification it uses when it does not expect to issue another for the event.
The cold clears quickly. The bureau's Sydney forecast, issued at 6.32pm, has 18 degrees on Thursday and 20 on Friday, then 21, 23 and 26 through to Monday, with the wind swinging to the northeast from Saturday. Melbourne, in a forecast issued at 4.20pm, sits at 15 on Thursday and 17 on Friday before reaching 21 on Saturday and 23 on Sunday. Hobart has three days of sunshine at 18.
Sydney was above 32 degrees on Saturday. Five days later its beaches are under warning, and by Monday it is forecast to be back at 26.
The surf warning runs to midnight Friday unless the bureau cancels it earlier, and the next sheep graziers warning for the Snowy Mountains is due by 11pm Wednesday.
