Eastern Tasmania Surf Forecast by Steve Shearer (issued Fri Apr 5th)

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Chunky E/NE swell Sat/Sun as low drifts down from Gippsland
• Light NE winds Sat, tending fresh S’ly on Sun
• E/NE swell persisting Mon with offshore winds
• S swell building Wed PM
• Long period S swell Thurs with offshore winds
• More S swell pulses later next week into the weekend

Recap

Small S swells to 1-2ft yesterday with light winds, similar today with variable winds and light E/NE seabreezes. 

This weekend and next week (Apr1 - Apr12)

We’ve got large peanut shaped high centred over Tasmania with lobes in the Bight and Tasman Sea. The moist onshore flow from this set-up is flowing into a coastal trough and interior low bringing onshore winds and rain as well as developing E swell. We’ll eventually see the low and trough clear the coast bringing better winds Sun/Mon with some strong S swell on the menu for next week from Tasman Sea and deeper sources.

Over the weekend we’ll see the interior low approach and then exit the Gippsland Coast. Initially that will draw down the NE-E/NE fetch and we’ll see building swells from that direction tomorrow into the 3-4ft range along with some long period S swell wrap to 2-3ft under light NE winds.

Sunday sees E/NE-NE swells peak to 4-6ft, easing through the day as the low exits the coast and a return S’ly flow from the western flank of the low brushes against the Tasmanian East Coast. Stiff S’ly winds should ease in the day as the low drifts away.

Back to W’ly winds Mon as fronts below the state set up W’ly ridging. Should be some good 3-4ft surf leftover from Sun, with a slow easing trend during the day.

Tiny through Tues with new S pulse later Wed as the first in a series of pulses makes landfall. Expect size to build into the 3ft range during the day, mostly of a short period nature under S’ly winds.

Longer period S swell from a powerful severe gale force front arrives Thurs with size building to 5-6ft O/night for the early under offshore winds. We should see size ease through the day with winds shifting more S’ly.

More pulses are likely through to the end of next week and into the weekend as strong fronts pass under the state.

We’ll drill down into the details Mon and through next week but we’re looking at pulses of S swell at least through next weekend.

We’ll see how it’s shaping up on Mon. 

Check back Mon for the latest and have a great weekend!