Weather News

Widespread effects from Tasman Low

Ben Domensino, Friday March 10, 2017 - 15:31 AEDT

Lord Howe Island is having its windiest spell in eight years this week thanks to a system that is also causing dangerous conditions in Queensland, New South Wales and New Zealand.

A complex area of low pressure over the Tasman Sea has been buffeting Australia's Lord Howe Island with damaging wind gusts this week.

A weather station located at the Island's aptly named Windy Point has registered gusts over 90km/h for the last four days. This is their longest stretch of damaging winds in eight years.

The wind-producing low pressure complex is the same system that has been driving large and dangerous surf onto the east coast of Australia's mainland this week.

Maximum wave heights reached up to 9.8 metres off the coast of Crowdy Head in NSW on Tuesday and above seven metres on Queensland's Gold Coast in the middle of the week. While some of the world's best surfers revelled in these conditions, most locals were kept out of the water by the big seas.

The Tasman Low will move away to the east this weekend, allowing wind to ease at Lord Howe Island and wave heights to drop along Australia's eastern seaboard.

Unfortunately for our Tasman neighbours, the low's movement will bring heavy rain, thunderstorms and strong to gale force winds to New Zealand during the next few days. The country's Met Service has issued a number of severe weather alerts for this event.

- Weatherzone

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