South Australian Forecast (issued Friday 11th July)

Best Days: Saturday afternoon on the Mid, Sunday down South, Monday through Wednesday morning down South

Recap

Wednesday afternoon's kick in stormy swell on the Mid eased back from 2-3ft yesterday with poor conditions while the South Coast saw moderate levels of swell developing but also average conditions through the morning. An afternoon swing to W'ly winds cleaned up conditions in protected locations though, offering good waves for the late surf.

Today the swell has eased back to a smaller 2-3ft along the Middleton stretch with better 4ft sets out at Waits and conditions were great with offshore NW winds. We'll see the swell continue to ease as winds tend W/NW ahead of a late and strong S/SW change (probably after dark). The Mid Coast continued in the choppy 2ft range with unfavourable N'ly winds.

This weekend (Jul 12 – Jul 13)

There's been no real change to the large S/SW groundswell due across the coast tomorrow with the South Coast expected to jump up to 5-6ft at Middleton through the day with larger bombs at Waits and Parsons. Conditions will be write-off through with strong but easing S'ly tending S/SE winds. This will favour the Mid, although there isn't expected to be any major size above 1-1.5ft, but clean conditions should be seen into the evening.

Sunday is still the day to surf down South over the weekend as a ridge of high pressure moves in from the west and swings winds offshore from the N/NE down South before tending more E'ly into the afternoon.

Middleton should still be solid and easing from 4-5ft, with 6ft and overpowering sets at Waits and Parsons. Even with the light N/NE winds the ocean is still likely to be lumpy and unorganised through the morning.

Next Monday (Jul 14 onwards)

Monday is looking excellent on the South Coast as the S/SW groundswell continues to ease, but from 3ft+ across Middleton and 3-5ft at Waits under fresh offshore N/NE winds. This should create great conditions from Goolwa to Parsons, with the afternoon probably the most manageable west of Victor.

As touched on last update, a strong node of the Long Wave Trough pushing in from the Southern Indian Ocean should then move across Southern Australia.

This should bring with it a flurry of polar frontal activity, initially in our western swell window before shifting more to our south-west window later in the week.

With this we should see medium sized pulses of long-range W/SW groundswell ahead of a possible larger SW swell into the end of the week.

The first pulse is due through Tuesday afternoon ahead of a much better pulse later Wednesday and into Thursday morning. Size wise the Mid Coast should see easy 3ft of groundswell later Wednesday and into Thursday morning, but some localised windswell may push this a touch higher.

The South Coast will miss most of the size due to the westerly swell direction Tuesday and Wednesday but as one of the fronts pushes across us Wednesday evening, a larger stormier S/SW swell is due but with onshore winds. Tuesday and Wednesday morning will be much better anywhere with offshore winds from the N/NW. More on all of this on Monday though. Have a great weekend!