Eastern Tasmania Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Friday 24th April)

Best Days: Every day over the coming period until Wednesday

Recap

Good amounts of E'ly swell yesterday but with average winds for open beaches, best in protected southern corners.

Today the E'ly swell continued at a similar size but with less consistency under light offshore tending S/SE winds.

This weekend and next week (Apr 25 – May 1)

The last couple of days of E'ly swell was from the bottom flank of an intense East Coast Low sitting off the Southern NSW coast.

This low has since weakened, but an infeed of strong E/NE winds on its eastern flank has been aimed towards us for a couple of days now, generating a good episode of E/NE groundswell.

This swell should of shown later today across open beaches, but we should see a stronger pulse tomorrow to an inconsistent 3-5ft across north-east facing beaches. This fetch of NE winds will continue through tomorrow in the Western Tasman Sea while slowly retreating to the east and then becoming less substantial into Sunday.

This should keep an inconsistent 3-4ft of E/NE swell hitting swell magnets into Sunday before easing from 2-3ft Monday.

Winds are looking best for southern corners with a fresh S/SW tending S/SE breeze tomorrow, SW tending W/SW breeze Sunday and SW tending S'ly winds Monday.

As the E/NE swell fades through Monday a new S'ly swell should take its place, building from a fetch of strong S/SW winds developing off our coast from Sunday evening and maintaining through all of Monday before weakening Tuesday.

South facing beaches should build to the 3ft range Monday afternoon but with poor winds, peaking overnight and then easing from a similar size Tuesday morning. Winds should improve Tuesday and swing offshore from the W/SW through the morning ahead of afternoon onshores.

Longer term we may see another intense low pressure system forming in the Tasman Sea generating a similar swell event to what we've just seen, but more on this Monday. Have a great weekend!