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Rainbow Bay Surf Forecast
/ QLD – Gold Coast (23 breaks) / New South Wales (297 breaks) /
Surf Forecasts:
Rainbow Bay surfForecast / QLD – Gold Coast / Australia
48hr Weather and Surf, issued 9 am Monday 18 May 2026 AESTForecast update in hr min s Forecast update imminent
Rainbow Bay surf forecast is for near shore open water. Breaking waves will often be smaller at less exposed spots.
Today's Rainbow Bay sea temperature is
24.2° C
(Which is slightly warmer than usual)How big are the waves at Rainbow Bay today?
The current surf forecast for Rainbow Bay at 3PM is: 2.5m 9s primary swell from a East-northeast direction (forecast issued at 09:00am May 18). The wind direction is predicted to be cross-onshore.
| Time (AEST) & Date | Wave Height | Wave Period |
|---|---|---|
| Morning (18 May) | 8ft (2.5m) | 9s |
| Afternoon (18 May) | 8ft (2.5m) | 9s |
| Evening (18 May) | 7ft (2.2m) | 9s |
Table - waves today at Rainbow Bay. (Swell directed towards the surf break)
Updates in hr min s Forecast update imminent
Short Range ForecastHeavy rain (total 65mm), heaviest during Mon night. Warm (max 21°C on Mon morning, min 15°C on Wed night). Wind will be generally light. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Monday 18 | Tuesday 19 | Wednesday 20 | Thu 21 | |||||||||||||||||||||
7 AM | 10 AM | 1 PM | 4 PM | 7 PM | 10 PM | 1 AM | 4 AM | 7 AM | 10 AM | 1 PM | 4 PM | 7 PM | 10 PM | 1 AM | 4 AM | 7 AM | 10 AM | 1 PM | 4 PM | 7 PM | 10 PM | 1 AM | 4 AM | |
Swell Height Map |    |    |    |    | ||||||||||||||||||||
E 9 | E 9 | E 9 | ENE 9 | ENE 9 | E 9 | E 9 | E 10 | ENE 10 | ENE 10 | ENE 10 | ENE 10 | ENE 10 | ENE 10 | ENE 10 | ENE 10 | E 10 | E 10 | E 10 | E 10 | S 8 | S 8 | S 8 | S 8 | |
1067 | 1087 | 1102 | 1016 | 1060 | 828 | 912 | 972 | 1390 | 1328 | 1273 | 1117 | 1032 | 898 | 800 | 710 | 614 | 541 | 480 | 408 | 627 | 692 | 753 | 866 | |
Wind (km/h) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
cross-on | cross-on | cross-on | cross-on | cross-on | on | on | on | cross-on | cross-on | cross-on | cross-on | cross-on | cross | cross-off | cross-off | cross-off | off | off | off | off | off | off | off | |
High Tide | 8:56AM1.38m | 9:24PM2.02m | 9:47AM1.30m | 10:13PM1.99m | 10:40AM1.24m | 11:04PM1.92m | ||||||||||||||||||
Low Tide | 2:41PM0.28m | 4:05AM0.33m | 3:26PM0.34m | 5:00AM0.38m | 4:13PM0.43m | |||||||||||||||||||
 |  | | |  |  | |  | | | | |  | | | |  | | | | |  |  | | |
 | 6:20 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 6:22 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 6:22 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 6:22 |
 | — | — | — | 5:01 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 5:01 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 5:00 | — | — | — | 5:00 |
6 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 10 | 11 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 2 | 2 | 1 | |
Temp °C | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 20 | 21 | 21 | 21 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 19 | 19 | 18 | 17 | 16 | 20 | 21 | 20 | 18 | 16 | 16 | 15 |
20 | 19 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 18 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 19 | 19 | 19 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 18 | 17 | 16 | 15 | 13 | 12 | 11 | |
Swell 1 Height (m) Direction Period (s) | — | — | — | — | — | E 9 | E 9 | E 10 | ENE 10 | ENE 10 | ENE 10 | ENE 10 | ENE 10 | ENE 10 | ENE 10 | ENE 10 | E 10 | E 10 | E 10 | E 10 | E 10 | E 9 | E 9 | E 10 |
 kJ | — | — | — | — | — | 828 | 912 | 972 | 1390 | 1328 | 1273 | 1117 | 1032 | 898 | 800 | 710 | 614 | 541 | 480 | 408 | 349 | 295 | 295 | 255 |
Swell 2 Height (m) Direction Period (s) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | NE 8 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| kJ | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 78 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Swell 3 Height (m) Direction Period (s) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| kJ | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Wind waves Height (m) Direction Period (s) | E 9 | E 9 | E 9 | ENE 9 | ENE 9 | NNE 6 | NNE 6 | N 6 | N 6 | N 6 | — | — | WNW 4 | WNW 3 | WSW 3 | SSW 4 | S 5 | S 5 | S 6 | S 8 | S 8 | S 8 | S 8 | S 8 |
| kJ | 1067 | 1087 | 1102 | 1016 | 1060 | 132 | 150 | 165 | 259 | 226 | — | — | 16 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 12 | 19 | 104 | 346 | 627 | 692 | 753 | 866 |
Nearest Offshore or Glassy | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distance (km) | 176 | 219 | 402 | 509 | 176 | 183 | 183 | 174 | 40 | 1 | 10 | 16 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Best forecast wave conditions in Gold Coast | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Best forecast wave conditions in Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Header Global | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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FREE! Surf-Forecast.com widget for your website
The surf report / weather widget below is available to embed on third party websites free of charge and provides a summary of our Rainbow Bay surf forecast. Simply grab the html code snippet that we provide and paste it into your own site. You can choose your preferred language and metric/imperial units for the surf forecast feed to suit users of your site. Click here to get the code.
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