SHOWERS CUT SHORT COAST’S SPECTACULAR START TO SPRING
YESTERDAY’S scattered showers were barely a blip on the Gold Coast radar, with further falls expected until midweek, before glimpses of sunshine and a possible thunderstorm ahead of the weekend.
The official rain gauge at the Gold Coast Seaway had recorded just 0.8mm to 5pm yesterday, while Coolangatta received 3.2mm. Ballina was most impacted with 59.4mm.
The dark clouds and patchy rainfall made things a little gloomy, and Weatherzone meteorologist Joel Pippard said there was no likelihood of sunshine until after Wednesday.
“There’ll be some lingering showers lasting most of today, they’ll be less widespread and even lighter on Wednesday. Thursday – they’re so isolated they’re almost not worth talking about,” he said.
“Temperatures have been about four degrees below the average for September, but will increase ever so slightly and be getting warm by Friday and Saturday with 24C expected.”
The change from the weekend’s spectacular weather is due to a low pressure trough sitting off the coastline, interacting with an inland trough.
“Once the trough clears a bit, there’s another trough that will arrive on Friday, one that could bring more rain and even thunderstorms,” he said.
Coastal Watch chief surf forecaster Ben Macartney said surf conditions wouldn’t be ideal. “It was looking a lot stronger last week, but it’s been pretty heavily downgraded,” he said.
“It’s looking about two to four foot (about 1m). The predominant swell regime is to the south.”