Eastern Tasmania Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Friday 29th August)

Best Days: Saturday morning, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday morning

Recap

New levels of NE swell started to filter down from the Tasman Sea yesterday, coming in at 3ft through the morning before muscling up more into the afternoon.

Today though the first pulse of a series of stronger groundswells filled in with open beaches coming in at 3-5ft under offshore winds. The swell should of eased a touch this afternoon as winds tended NE, favouring northern corners which would have been smaller.

This weekend and next week (Aug 30 – Sep 5)

The Tasman Low responsible for this morning's strong pulse of NE groundswell has since drifted south through the Tasman Sea while projecting a fetch of E/NE gales on its south-eastern and southern flank towards us.

A large and powerful E/NE groundswell should have been created by this push, with it expected to arrive strongly through tomorrow morning, building from 3-5ft early to 6ft+ during the afternoon. Conditions will be best early though with a variable tending light W/NW breeze before coming up from the N/NE during the mid-late morning.

The swell should remain large Sunday and in the 5-6ft+ range as a broad fetch of strong to gale-force E'ly winds remained aimed towards us through tomorrow before one last burst of shrinking E/NE gales through Sunday.

This will keep the swell kicking in the strong 4-6ft range Monday morning before easing noticeably into the afternoon and then dropping steadily from 3-4ft+ Tuesday morning. Come Wednesday only small fading 2ft waves are left across open beaches.

Winds will improve with fresh N/NW tending NW winds on Sunday (favouring northern corners) while Monday should see fresh NW winds through the morning swing W'ly and then S/SW into the afternoon with a change.

Tuesday looks excellent with W/SW tending S/SW winds, favouring southern corners while Wednesday should see straight W'ly tending variable winds.

Longer term we may see some new S'ly swell into the end of the week, but we'll look at this again Monday. Have a great weekend and make the most of the surf (within your comfort zone).