Australia · Marine

Marine weather: wave buoys and storm tide

Live wave readings from Queensland's Coastal Data System buoys, with links to the Bureau of Meteorology's official marine forecasts and warnings for every state.

Queensland wave buoys →BOM marine warnings →

Last received Thu, 8 Oct, 10:53pm AEST · Sources

Biggest waves on the Queensland coast now

Brisbane: 2.0 m significant, 2.8 m max, 9 s period, at Thu, 8 Oct, 9:00pm AEST.
One Tree Island: 1.7 m significant, 2.8 m max, 7 s period, at Thu, 8 Oct, 8:30pm AEST.
Tweed Offshore: 1.6 m significant, 2.6 m max, 10 s period, at Thu, 8 Oct, 9:00pm AEST.

Official marine forecasts and warnings by state

The Bureau of Meteorology issues coastal waters forecasts and marine wind warnings for every state. Atmosphr does not reproduce them; these links go straight to the official pages.

Queensland wave buoys

Tweed Offshore · Tweed Heads · Bilinga · Palm Beach · Gold Coast · Brisbane · North Moreton Bay · Woorim · Caloundra · Mooloolaba · Wide Bay · Hervey Bay · Bundaberg · Gladstone · One Tree Island · Emu Park · Mackay · Townsville · Cairns · Albatross Bay (Weipa)

What the wave numbers mean

Significant wave height (Hs): The average height of the highest third of waves in a 26.6-minute record. It is close to what an experienced observer would call "the wave height".
Maximum wave height (Hmax): The single highest wave in the same record. Expect occasional waves near this size, often around one and a half to two times Hs.
Peak period (Tp): The period, in seconds, of the waves carrying the most energy. Long periods (above about 10 seconds) usually mean groundswell from a distant system; short periods mean local wind waves.
Direction: The direction the peak-period waves are coming from, relative to true north.
Sea surface temperature: An approximate water temperature measured at the buoy.
Storm-tide residual: How far the measured water level is above (+) or below (−) the predicted tide at a gauge. A large positive residual during a cyclone or strong onshore wind is storm surge.

Sources

Wave data: Coastal Data System, near real time wave data; storm-tide data: Coastal Data System, near real time storm tide data. Both © State of Queensland (Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation), licensed under CC BY 4.0. Feed last received by Atmosphr Thu, 8 Oct, 10:53pm AEST; refreshed every 30 minutes. Readings are as published and may be revised; for official marine warnings check the Bureau of Meteorology.