Coastal Hazard Warning for Damaging Surf in Northern NSW
This alert is no longer in effect.
BOM issued it on May 20, 2026, 3 months ago. Warnings of this kind stay in effect for hours to a few days, so this page is a historical record of what was issued, not a current warning. For conditions where you are right now, check weather.gov (US), weather.gc.ca (Canada), the Met Office (UK), or the Bureau of Meteorology (Australia).
Areazine synthesizes this BoM weather warning directly from BOM's official public data feed. See our methodology for full source attribution and refresh cadence.
BOM issues Coastal Hazard Warning for damaging surf conditions in Northern Rivers and Mid North Coast districts of NSW from Friday morning until Saturday.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Coastal Hazard Warning
- Affected area
- Northern Rivers and Mid North Coast, NSW
- Issued
- May 20, 2026
- Issuing authority
- BOM
The warning type, named area, and issue time define this record. Confirm all three against the original agency notice before treating it as current.
Record status: historical. It was issued 3 months ago; use the issuing agency's live warning service for current conditions in Northern Rivers and Mid North Coast, NSW.
Alert Details
Coastal Hazard Warning (IDN21137) issued by the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology for damaging surf. Issued at 4:35 am Thursday, 21 May 2026 (2026-05-20T18:35:50Z). Expires 2026-05-21T03:35:50Z. Severity rated Moderate.
Affected Areas
Parts of Northern Rivers and Mid North Coast Forecast Districts in NSW. Locations include Coffs Harbour, Tweed Heads, Byron Bay, Yamba, Evans Head and Nambucca Heads. Area between Point Danger and Smoky Cape, particularly south-facing beaches.
What You Should Do
Stay well away from the surf and surf-exposed areas. Don't walk, ride or drive through flood water. Keep clear of creeks and storm drains. Stay vigilant and monitor conditions. For emergency help in flood and storms, ring the SES on 132 500.
Expected Conditions
Damaging surf conditions which may lead to coastal erosion and localised damage to coastal infrastructure. Triggered by fresh to strong southerly winds and large powerful waves from a trough and low pressure system offshore in the Tasman Sea.
Timeline
Conditions possible from Friday morning and expected to ease during Saturday. Next warning to be issued by 11:00 am AEST Thursday.
Original source: BOM Official Notice ↗
Related Weather Warnings
All Weather Warnings →Nationwide notices with similar length or severity timing 8
Two Areazine-derived peer sets for this BoM weather warning: nearest notices by body length and by same severity near the same agency date. Peers come from other categories so they are not the same-feed Related list above.
Similar body length
Nearest notices by article body length (1,185 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (medium) notices issued closest in time to May 20, 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about this BoM weather warning.