Stronger SSW winds are due to extend further northwards offshore overnight but the stronger gusts will probably be confined to the more exposed parts of the far southern QLD coast & south this weekend. There's been some reasonable gusts today around the more open exposed areas of SE QLD.

You can keep track of forecast swell & wave heights here:
http://www.bom.gov.au/australia/charts/v...it=Refresh+View

Below is a graph with forecast wind speeds at Coolangatta from the GFS model. You can see the increase overnight. Gusts can be a fair bit stronger. Add 10hrs to the times on the horizontal axis to get local time:

Thanks Ken. I'm right near the border so hopefully will receive some windy action

We have lost power here in South West Rocks. Lost it around 30 seconds before a couple of really strong gusts came through. Enjoying the lightning offshore though, with no light pollution to detract from its brilliance.

Hi Ken. We are camping at Amity Point now. The wind is furious here! Would you be able to tell me what to expect (wind wise) tonight and tomorrow? Cheers. Elise.

Taken from the courier mail...



A STATE of Emergency has been declared and residents evacuated as fire crews battle several grass fires in the Lockyer Valley, west of Brisbane.

At Minden, people have been evacuated from their homes as emergency services struggle to bring a blaze that started earlier this afternoon under control despite strong winds.

Mountain View Dr has been evacuated and police are talking to residents on Minden Post Office Rd.

Five separate blazes are burning in the area from Minden to Gatton and south to Laidley, with the State of Emergency area bounded by parts of Hermann Rd, Waldon Rd, Tallegalla Rd, the Warrego Highway and Woolshed Creek Rd.

Hi Elise, it'll probably stay windy overnight there but might ease back a bit into Sat afternoon... before picking up again later tomorrow night. But because you're near the edge of the area of stronger winds, it's a bit hard to say for sure.

Lots of lightning offshore Ballina to the Gold Coast now with a Line of storms that dont seem to really be moving

Just looked at Essential Energy website and it looks like the lower Macleay Valley (inc South West Rocks, Stuarts Point) have lost power.
Separate outages elsewhere in the Hastings Valley, and also outages around Bellingen.
Very cold outside, with strong gusty wind persisting and the occasional shower passing through.

EDIT: Power returned around 11pm, about 3½ hours later.

Thanks Ken. Also, can we expect a change in wind direction? We are getting hammered with, I'd say, at least. 50km/h winds from the west. Hoping that the winds will turn southerly very soon!

Should turn a bit more southerly later tomorrow morning I'd say Elise. Winds have died down a bit here in southside Brisbane atm but I do remember one winter's night coming back to Brisbane on the barge from Straddie which was almost exactly the same as tonight. It made for an interesting ride!

Some pics from off shore tonight

Saw that from the plane last night, very nice looking cell

13.8mm from that blast of wintry weather overnight. It brought an end to a 14-day dry spell.

Not as windy as yesterday afternoon, though the wind is still strong at times. A couple of fast-moving light drizzly showers have passed over this afternoon.

Vict Pt-Sat.max.20.7C,Sun.min.7.6C,rain-nil...

Things are drying out here now and lots of grass growth can be seen all over the place. Fingers crossed that we do not keep this low humidity when things start to warm up, other wise it could be an active fire season.
I am glad the nights are slowly starting to warm up though!

There's a possibility of fairly widespread areas of overnight or early morning fog as we start to approach midweek around the more sheltered low-lying parts of SE QLD/NE NSW... before contracting further north. But this would be dependent on cloud cover and/or drier westerlies not moving in too early.

The general setup looks reasonably conducive at this stage i.e. a broad area of high pressure drifting over us, light winds, a bit of moisture getting dragged in from a light onshore flow in the arvos, mainly clear skies and a low level inversion. Below is a graph generated from GFS data showing suggested fog probabilities for Brisbane during the next 7 days... there's a bit of a peak approaching midweek:

Vict Pt-Sun.max.21.7C,Mon.min.8.1C,rain-nil...

Would be good to see some fog tomorrow morning Ken. So aslong as the W'stly's don't bring in dry air?
Wondering if theres a chance for some storm activity end of week...?

Looking at the observations right now, RH is in the 50-70% range and winds generally SE or SSE. Definitely worthy of early mist in low lying areas Tues morning... but looking much better Wednesday morning IMO for thicker mist and fog with the variable/light NE winds developing Tuesday.

This morning the usual low lying area around Oxley Common (Sherwood Road) was very misty so yeah expecting similar tomorrow.

I'm under flanalette sheets and don't want to rise to face the day it's 6.2 degrees outside. Somewhat fresh

Wonder if it will be misty / foggy at Oxley Golfing range on Oxley road - I'll take a photo if it is as I drive past it on the way to work.