Eastern Tasmania Surf Forecast by Guy Dixon (issued Monday 18th July)

Best Days: Monday

Recap: 

Small options were on offer over the weekend with southerly swell fading from the 1-2ft range on Saturday to a weak 1ft+ on Sunday. Today, small 1ft+ conditions have condtinued. The only silver lining was wave quality, with offshore winds keeping conditions clean each day.

This week (Tuesday 19th - Friday 22nd):

There aren’t too many prospects for surf this week with zonal frontal activity persisting over the region. In the short term, the only fetches which come close to generating swell are acute west/southwesterly in direction and are moving locally. This leaves very little room for swell propagation.

South facing beaches may see a slight uptick in size to around 1ft on Wednesday, with better energy filling in on Thursday from a broader, more intense and more distant system. Even then, the most exposed south facing beaches should only occasional 2ft sets, becoming small again on Friday.

Conditions should remain clean throughout the period under a westerly tending northwesterly airflow. Only Thursday afternoon has a small chance of seeing breezes tend north/northeasterly in the afternoon.

This weekend (Saturday 23rd - Sunday 24th) and next week (Monday 25th onward):

A deep low and associated front looks to move over the region on Friday, with south/southwesterly trailing fetches becoming more consolidated well to the south into the early hours of Saturday morning.

Initial energy off the local fetches will be negligible, largely due to the acute swell direction, however the alignment should improve slightly into Sunday. Furthermore, better, more substantial, south/southwesterly groundswell should provide workable options on Sunday. 

South swell magnets should offer a mix of long-range and mid-range energy to around 4-5ft on Sunday, easing from a similar size range on Monday, reinforced by southerly trailing fetches off the back side of the low as it moves over the Tasman.

Conditions are expected to remain clean, only swinging from west/southwesterly to west/northwesterly.

This is a dynamic system. At this stage, sizes are ball park figures and should firm up in coming days.