Cyclone Narelle: What Happened to the North Swell?
Despite all the anticipation and buzz watching this cyclone track down the coast over the past few days, no north swell arrived. Why not?
Probably a combination of factors. Here’s one take on it.
Take a look at the full track of cyclone Bianca (below), responsible for one of the most memorable north swells in recent memory. It’s very similar to the track of cyclone Iggy, which also gave us a great north swell. Both of these cyclones moved out in to the Indian Ocean in a south-westerly direction, before turning back and moving toward the south-west of WA. That south-easterly movement created a decent length of fetch, covering enough ocean and time more less directly toward us.
By comparison, cyclone Narelle tracked more or less parallel with the coast (below), with no opportunity for substantial fetch toward the coast until it was well south of -30, and had weakened significantly. Any small north swell that did show itself was probably trumped by the medium sized SW swell at 14s.
Unfortunately this one just didn’t happen. There were still a few fun waves around though.
Until next time.
