Eastern Tasmania Surf Forecast by Steve Shearer (issued Fri May 24th)

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr) 

• Small increase in S swell Fri
• S groundswell wrap this weekend with SE-E’ly winds Sat
• Stronger S swell Sun with light winds tending E-NE’ly
• Small S swells Mon
• More small S swells and some N’ly winds next week as high pressure moves into the Tasman

Recap

Small S swells yesterday supplied 1-2ft surf at S facing beaches with light W’ly winds. Today is seeing larger 2-3ft surf at S facing beaches with winds shifting from W to SW-S.

Complex polar low approaching NZ sends S pulses over the weekend

This weekend and next week (May24- May31)

No great change to the weekend f/cast. High pressure is approaching Tasmania with a weak trough expected to linger in the Tasman and across the North Coast over the weekend and lead to mostly light breezes, especially Sun. A complex polar low is approaching the NZ corridor and although the frontal progression looks a notch less favourable for swell production up the East Coast we’ll still see S’ly groundswell pulses over the weekend. We’ve also got an off-axis fetch adjacent to New Zealand which will send some minor E swell our way over the weekend.

Sat sees a pulse of S’ly swell with surf up to 2-3ft during the day under light winds.
A stronger pulse overlaps on Sun with bigger sets to 3-4ft through the day. With light winds on offer as high pressure eases over the state there should be plenty of surfable options. 

High pressure finally moves into the Tasman early next week with some frontal activity tracking NE from Tasmania so we will see offshore winds to start the week. S-S/SE groundswell from the slowed forward movement of a polar low gyre as it enters the New Zealand corridor should send some nice 2 occ. 3 ft sets to S facing beaches, albeit with a wait for sets.

The frontal activity isn’t very robust with compact fetches but the track into the Tasman should supply some small S swell Tues/Wed next week, with easing S/SE swell Tues in the mix. Winds will be NW-W/NW as an approaching cut-off low moves into the Bight.

With high pressure moving NE into the Tasman we’re expecting surf to go very quiet from mid next week with a few days leading into next weekend with only minor swells in the 1-2ft range at best, most likely a continuation of side band S-S/SE energy. We may see some small NE windswell in the mix late next week as well.

Expect that to go into next weekend.

Let’s see how it looks on Mon.

Until then, have a great weekend!