- Forecast
- Maps
- Live
- Weather State
- Spot Information
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 3 am Wednesday 20 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
23.9° C
(Which is slightly warmer than usual)How big are the waves at Rainbow Bay today?
The current surf forecast for Rainbow Bay at 6AM is: 1.7m 10s primary swell from a East direction (forecast issued at 03:00am May 20). An open ocean swell of 0.7m 4s is not directed at the surf break. The wind direction is predicted to be cross-offshore and the swell rating is 2.
| Time (AEST) & Date | Wave Height | Wave Period |
|---|---|---|
| Morning (20 May) | 5ft (1.6m) | 10s |
| Afternoon (20 May) | 5ft (1.5m) | 10s |
| Evening (20 May) | 7.5ft (2.3m) | 8s |
Table - waves today at Rainbow Bay. (Swell directed towards the surf break)
Updates in hr min s Forecast update imminent
Short Range ForecastLight rain (total 7mm), mostly falling on Wed night. Warm (max 21°C on Wed morning, min 14°C on Wed night). Winds increasing (light winds from the SSW on Wed morning, fresh winds from the S by Fri afternoon). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wednesday 20 | Thursday 21 | Friday 22 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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 | 7 AM | 10 AM | 1 PM | 4 PM | 7 PM | 10 PM | |
Swell Height Map |    |    |    | |||||||||||||||||||||
ENE 10 | ENE 10 | E 10 | E 10 | E 10 | E 10 | SSE 8 | SSE 8 | SSE 8 | S 9 | SSE 9 | SSE 9 | S 9 | SSE 8 | SSE 8 | SSE 9 | SSE 9 | SSE 9 | SSE 10 | SSE 10 | SSE 10 | SSE 11 | SSE 12 | SSE 11 | |
727 | 640 | 561 | 480 | 480 | 414 | 520 | 745 | 792 | 943 | 1242 | 1242 | 1089 | 1213 | 1261 | 1461 | 1588 | 1900 | 2620 | 3254 | 4164 | 4776 | 5206 | 3909 | |
Wind (km/h) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
cross-off | cross-off | cross-off | off | off | off | off | off | off | cross-off | cross-off | off | off | off | off | off | off | off | off | off | off | off | off | off | |
High Tide | 10:13PM1.99m | 10:40AM1.24m | 11:04PM1.92m | 11:38AM1.20m | 11:58PM1.83m | 12:42PM1.20m | ||||||||||||||||||
Low Tide | 5:00AM0.38m | 4:13PM0.43m | 5:58AM0.44m | 5:06PM0.53m | 6:57AM0.49m | 6:08PM0.62m | ||||||||||||||||||
 | |  | | | |  |  |  | | | | | |  | | | |  | | |  |  | | |
 | — | 6:22 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 6:22 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 6:22 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
 | — | — | — | — | — | 5:00 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 5:00 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 5:00 | — | — |
— | — | — | — | — | — | 1 | 3 | — | — | — | — | — | — | 1 | 1 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
Temp °C | 17 | 16 | 16 | 19 | 21 | 20 | 18 | 17 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 17 | 20 | 19 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 18 | 19 | 18 | 17 |
15 | 14 | 14 | 16 | 17 | 16 | 15 | 13 | 12 | 10 | 9 | 12 | 14 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 13 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 12 | 11 | |
Swell 1 Height (m) Direction Period (s) | ENE 10 | ENE 10 | E 10 | E 10 | E 10 | E 10 | E 10 | E 10 | E 9 | E 9 | E 10 | E 10 | E 10 | E 10 | E 10 | E 10 | E 9 | E 10 | E 10 | E 10 | — | E 10 | — | — |
 kJ | 727 | 640 | 561 | 480 | 480 | 414 | 349 | 301 | 249 | 249 | 260 | 268 | 220 | 216 | 220 | 181 | 175 | 149 | 90 | 69 | — | 48 | — | — |
Swell 2 Height (m) Direction Period (s) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | NE 11 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| kJ | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 4 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Swell 3 Height (m) Direction Period (s) | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| kJ | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Wind waves Height (m) Direction Period (s) | SW 4 | SW 4 | SSW 4 | S 6 | S 7 | S 8 | SSE 8 | SSE 8 | SSE 8 | S 9 | SSE 9 | SSE 9 | S 9 | SSE 8 | SSE 8 | SSE 9 | SSE 9 | SSE 9 | SSE 10 | SSE 10 | SSE 10 | SSE 11 | SSE 12 | SSE 11 |
| kJ | 12 | 16 | 13 | 33 | 150 | 316 | 520 | 745 | 792 | 943 | 1242 | 1242 | 1089 | 1213 | 1261 | 1461 | 1588 | 1900 | 2620 | 3254 | 4164 | 4776 | 5206 | 3909 |
Nearest Offshore or Glassy | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distance (km) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 6 | 170 | 392 | 324 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 170 | 170 | 203 |
Best forecast wave conditions in Gold Coast | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Best forecast wave conditions in Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Header Global | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
- Map Icons:
Break
Live Wave Height (m)
Live Wind Speed (km/h)
Surf Rating (10 Max)
Ocean Swells (m)- Wind Speed (km/h)
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.
Nearest