South Australian Forecast (issued Wednesday 17th September)

Best Days: Tomorrow morning on the Mid, Friday through Wednesday down South

Recap

The surf was terrible across both coasts yesterday with onshore winds and weak levels of swell that built through the afternoon.

Today conditions remained poor on the Mid Coast with a new long-range and inconsistent W/SW groundswell to 1-2ft while the South Coast saw more size as well but with moderate W'ly winds that quickly turned fresh SW during the morning.

This week and weekend (Sep 18 - 21)

Today's onshore change will kick up a new S/SW swell for tomorrow across the South Coast to 3-4ft+ across most locations but winds will still be onshore and lingering from the S/SW to S/SE.

The Mid Coast should be cleaner with a light S/SE breeze and easing W/SW groundswell from a very inconsistent 1ft to possibly 2ft early.

Friday will be the day to surf down South as winds swing around to the NE during the morning with a fun easing swell from 2ft+ at Middleton and 3ft+ at Waits. The Mid Coast will be ideal for beginners with offshore winds all day.

Saturday morning will start clean but slow down South with offshore NE winds and a good swell for beginners at Middleton-Goolwa and experienced riders at Waits and Parsons, but a new long-range and inconsistent SW groundswell is due into the afternoon.

This is currently being generated by a strong but unfavourably aligned polar frontal progression that's pushing east-southeast to the south-west of WA. We should see good but inconsistent 3ft sets developing at Middleton into the afternoon with 3-5ft sets at Waits but conditions will be average with fresh SE sea breezes. The Mid Coast should see the odd 1-1.5ft set through the afternoon.

The swell should drop through Sunday from a similar size to Saturday afternoon with NE winds again down South before SE sea breezes kick in.

Next week onwards (Sep 22 onwards)

Monday morning will be great at exposed beaches down South with an easing swell from the weekend and straight offshore winds from the N'th. Only late sea breezes are expected and without much strength.

Into Tuesday another long-range and very inconsistent W/SW groundswell is due across the state, generated in our far swell window in the Southern Indian Ocean.

This swell will be very inconsistent and isn't expected to top 2ft+ at Middleton while Waits should offer 3ft to occasionally 4ft sets. The Mid Coast should see a slight bump in size but only 1-1.5ft.

Conditions should be great again down South with offshore N'ly winds, tending E/SE later in the day.

Longer term there's nothing too major on the cards until later Friday and more so Saturday when a medium sized + swell may bee seen across the state. This may be followed up by an even bigger swell into the start of October, but we'll review this on Friday.