I get asked about the wind in NQ quite a few times each year. It's a common misconception that NQ always has trade winds all winter.

Have a look at this previous post, we went into some detail about the wind and kiting in coral reef areas:

www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=39780

In a nutshell, we need a high pressure system in the Great Australian Bight or in the Tasman Sea to generate good SE winds along the whole QLD coast.

When the southern states are being swept by mega cold fronts (like now), we have have beautiful sunny days up here, about 27-28C, but not much wind....

If there is just a small to middle sized high pressure system to the south, then the further north you go along the coast, the more likely you are to get SE winds - Lizard Island for example at 14S has wind almost continually through April - September, while at Townsville 19S the trade winds wax and wane with the coming and going of the southern highs.

Also, the angle of the wind has a role to play as well......when the high is in the bight, the wind is often SSE rather than SE. This means it will often be gusty and lighter close to the coast, and stronger as you move out toward the barrier reef. When the high moves into the Tasman, then the wind swings to SE or even ESE, and this brings a more consistent wind stream onto the coast.

To complicate it even further, the patterns change through the winter and also from year to year. Some years we may have a very windy autumn and a light winter. Some years we get lots of cold SW winds in the morning. Other years it may blow for weeks at a time with only short calm periods in between, while in other years it may be calm for long periods with only short bursts of trade wind. I've been working up here as a marine biologist for 22 years now, and have seen lots of variation from year to year.

Hope that helps your trip planning. I get a lot of emails from people saying things like; "will august or September have better trade winds?".

As you can see from the info above, its not a simple answer.

The short answer is : if there is a big high pressure system in the bight or the Tasman, then yes, you are going to get wind. North is better than south usually. And there is really no way to tell more than a week in advance!

Info on NQ kite spots here:

http://www.tevenei.com/tvm/nq_kite_spots.htm

This was Lizard about 10d ago when the rest of the QLD coast was <10knots....



Andy

I fly into Cairns on Saturday morning just in time for the green arrows.

The seabreeze prediction for Cairns is about as accurate as reading chicken entrails! Subtract about 5-8 knots off and it might be close.

firiebob said...

Yeh Andy, I get regular PM's from southern pole drivers chasing the same info
Basically I find when the general FNQ population is complaining about dam levels it's all good for us, this year the dams are full around Cairns and the wind is crap, I know it always seems like it but this has to be the worst year I can remember. The good news is we're going into a dry cycle for the next couple of years at least, yippy.

Ash I hope you had a good holiday, if you went where I think you were going I guess you did

Jeff is right, don't let the green arrow predictions get you excited up here on the coast, the best wind is off shore (Green Island) or Cooktown north. But don't go to Green Island unless you have half a clue, small island & good wind (normally).

yeah but firiebob you're in cairns aren't you? I work a lot in cairns but live in Townsville. Cairns (well cardwell to cairns really) suffers from whenever the winds get above 15 knots you have a good chance of rain which means no wind. Townsville gets much less rain so it's all good. This year I've managed to time my work trips when there's been wind and it has often been crap/raining in cairns compared to Townsvillle. Still a bad year but.

Yes its worth noting, the Seabreeze wind graphs for Cairns and Townsville are predictions for the REEF OFFSHORE for both those locations.

The data are exactly the same as what I get from the Buoyweather model for the reef spots.

Inshore wind is usually lighter and gustier, but Townsville in particular also has a seabreeze effect that kicks in around 1-2pm if the sky is sunny and the trades are at least 10-15kn offshore.

They usually get about 17-18knots at Palla through til about 5pm. Its a very localised effect though - at Magnetic Island, only 10km further offshore, it may often be 10-12knots, and as we travel over to town on the ferry, the wind gradually increases.

On the plus side for the island kiters, when the trades are really cranking (20-25kn or higher) then we do get more wind on the island than they do in Townsville, and we can also kite the morning SSE and SSW winds in winter which don't work on the mainland.

...more like Clownsville given the number of peeps kiting 300m of beachfront at Palla these days.....

...soon to be led once again by Lupa Lupa the flying Dim-Dim......

...mate with 110kg of Big Stu learning to "auto-zenith" his 19m doona in Nelly Bay at the moment, we don't need any more 12 o'clock kooks on the island, thanks anyway for the offer, you can keep them at palla!

magic 20 indeed!

Al if you rock up to the island for the weekend and the frikken wind drops down to 12knots again, we'll know it is you that's the problem.....you'll be banished back to the prawn ponds!