Sunshine Coast locals and visitors may need umbrellas for Easter, after the Bureau of Meteorology issued its forecast for the region.
Tens of thousands of people are set to converge on the area for the long weekend and a fortnight of school holidays. But there’s likely to be fewer visitors than the same time last year, due to some inclement weather.
The region has been saturated by rain this week and a spokesperson for the BOM said there should be more wet conditions during the next week.
“There will be scattered to widespread showers on Thursday,” they said.
“After that, the long weekend is expected to shift more to partly cloudy conditions and scattered shower activity with medium to high chances of shower activity right throughout the weekend.”
But it shouldn’t be too hot or too cold.
“Over the long weekend, temperatures return to averages expected for this time of year with maximums of 26C to 27C and minimums of 19C to 21C around coastal parts, with slightly cooler conditions about the hinterland with maximums of 23C to 24C and minimums of 15C to 18C,” they said.
“We’re expecting to see easterly winds tend more to south to southeasterly winds across the weekend.”
The BOM’s forecast for Easter Sunday is for partly cloudy conditions with a medium chance of showers (60 per cent, 0-3mm) and light winds.
The region has, this year, received almost twice as much rain as usual.
Sunshine Coast Airport has recorded 1045mm, compared to the mean of 555mm.
Visit Sunshine Coast CEO Matt Stoeckel expected less tourists in the region during the holidays, compared to the same period in 2023.
“We have had some really unusually wet weather, and visitor numbers anticipated for Easter are down on what we had last year,” he said.
“The Easter period has forward bookings at less than 70 per cent, not quite at their 80 per cent peaks we had the year prior.
“So it seems some people may have taken a raincheck for the Easter holidays and operators are also reporting that there has already been a number of cancellations, likely due to the prolonged wet weather, which we hope is now on the turnaround.
“(But) this means there are plenty of great opportunities for people to grab a last minute deal.”
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