Eastern Tasmanian forecast by Steve Shearer (issued Wed February 19th)

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• New small S swell Thu with W/SW-SW tending E then NE winds
• Fading swell Fri with N/NW tending NE winds
• Building N/NE windswell Sat with strong N/NE winds
• Peak in N/NE windswell Sun, easing rapidly with NW tending W winds
• Not much next week, generally tiny for the working week
• We may see some small E/NE swell filter down from the tropics next weekend

Recap

Fun but inconsistent E/NE groundswell supplied 2-3ft surf yesterday with early W winds before a S/SE change. Size held in the 2-3ft range this morning with NW winds tending N-N/NE through the day. 

This week and next week (Feb 19 - Feb28)

The swell generating systems - the Tasman low and South Pacific low- are now out of the picture, having moved eastwards and dissipated so the trend is downwards as these duelling swells ease out. A weak front sliding under Tasmania and moving into the Tasman o/night into tomorrow will supply some minor S swell short term. Following that, high pressure moving into the Tasman will supply another round of NE windswell over the weekend.

Short term we’ll see the front generate a small 2ft+ wave Thurs on the south magnets but with tricky W/SW-SW tending E and then NE winds, fading Friday as winds switch back to the NW to NE.

By the weekend we’ll see N’ly winds start to build down the South Coast and into Bass Strait as a mid-latitude low approaches. We should see a building trend in NE windswell Sat to 3ft during the day under fresh N/NE winds, peaking on Sun in the 6ft range under fresh N/NE winds, shifting NW in the a’noon.

Source of NE windswell this weekend, peaking Sun

W’ly winds shunt the swell producing fetch away quickly so there’ll only be tiny leftovers on Mon.

Not much for most of next week under W’ly winds tending to N’lies Tues. 

Expect tiny surf Mon-Thurs with a chance of some small E/NE swell filtering down on Fri into the the weekend.

We’ll see how that looks on Fri.