Eastern Tasmania Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Wednesday 29th April)

Best Days: Thursday and Friday morning south swell magnets, Monday through Friday next week at north-east swell magnets

Recap

Good fun pulses of S'ly groundswell biggest and best at south swell magnets with workable winds both yesterday and today.

This week and weekend (Apr 30 – May 3)

One final pulse of S'ly groundswell is due tomorrow across south swell magnets, generated by a vigorous polar frontal system currently to our south-east. This swell should kick south facing beaches back to an inconsistent 3ft+ with smaller 2ft waves at open beaches under good W/NW tending N/NE winds.

A drop in swell is then due through Friday from 2ft+ at south swell magnets under NW tending N/NW winds.

Come Saturday the S'ly swell is due to be gone but a small N/NE windswell is expected form a weak fetch of N/NE winds developing in our swell window overnight Friday. This should come in at 2-3ft across north-east facing beaches but with less than favourable N/NW winds.

A W/NW change Sunday should create cleaner conditions as the NE swell drops back to the smaller 2ft range.

Next week onwards (May 4 onwards)

Our pulse of NE groundswell is still on the cards for Monday and Tuesday but the size is a little down on what we were looking at earlier in the week.

A deepening surface trough and possible East Coast Low is developing off the SE Qld coast and is expected to drift south-east through the weekend before moving more easterly into Monday and tracking towards New Zealand.

This will see a fetch of strong NE winds aimed through our medium-range swell window, putting a cap on any major size being generated.

Instead we should see north-east facing beaches building to an inconsistent 3-4ft during the afternoon Monday.

The swell should hold a similar size Tuesday morning before dropping into the afternoon and further Wednesday.

In saying this an infeed of persistent E/NE trades from below Fiji and New Caledonia is expected to persist through most of next week and this should provide very inconsistent 2ft waves across north-east facing beaches for all of next week. More on this Friday though.