South Australian Forecast (issued Wednesday 30th March)

Best Days: Thursday and Friday down South, Saturday afternoon/evening on the Mid, both coasts Sunday, South Coast Monday and Tuesday mornings

Recap

Good waves down the South Coast yesterday morning with a clean good sized swell in the 3ft+ range across the Middleton stretch with light E/NE winds before sea breezes kicked in. The Mid Coast was nice and clean with tiny 1ft+ sets.

Today the surf was clean and glassy again with a light variable wind and good fun 2-3ft sets along the Middleton stretch. The Mid eased back to a tiny 0.5-1ft with decent conditions through the morning.

This week and weekend (Mar 31 – Apr 3)

South Coast: Tomorrow morning will be smaller but super clean across the coast, with 2ft+ waves at Middleton and 3-4ft sets at Waits and Parsons (especially into the afternoon) under offshore N/NW tending variable winds from the W/NW.

Friday is still looking excellent, with a strong new S/SW groundswell due to peak through the morning under offshore N/NW winds. This swell has been generated by a vigorous polar low with satellite observations confirming core wind speeds to 50kt.

Middleton should see strong but slightly inconsistent 3-5ft sets, with 4-6ft waves at Waits and Parsons early, easing through the day as winds tending more NW, and then W/NW late.

Therefore an entire day of good waves is on the cards for Friday.

Into the weekend, our strong pulses of groundswell are shaping up real nice, with a strong node of the Long Wave trough currently moving east through the Southern Ocean.

The Long Wave Trough steers and strengthens polar fronts up and just to the west of where it is positioned, and we'll see this occur over the coming days, with a vigorous polar front projected firstly up towards WA and towards the Bight, to then be overtaken by a secondary vigorous system projecting through the Bight and under us Friday.

A couple of large W/SW-SW groundswell pulses are due, the first building Saturday ahead of a large secondary pulse peaking Sunday morning.

Middleton should build from 3-5ft Saturday morning more towards the 4-6ft range into the afternoon, peaking Sunday morning to 5-6ft, with larger bombs at Waits and Parsons.

Winds, are looking average Saturday with onshore S/SW tending S/SE winds in the wake of one of the swell producing fronts moving through early morning.

Sunday however looks fun with better E/NE winds due ahead of afternoon sea breezes.

Mid Coast: The Mid Coast will remain tiny tomorrow, with no real size from the S/SW swell Friday above 0.5-1ft.

Saturday however should see the first pulse of W/SW groundswell building from 1-2ft in the morning, to 2-3ft later in the day, easing back from 2-3ft Sunday morning.

Winds will improve for the afternoon and evening Saturday and swing S/SE, with offshores Sunday morning ahead of afternoon sea breezes.

Next week onwards (Apr 4 onwards)

Easing levels of SW swell are due through early next week with light variable winds due each morning, creating clean conditions. Beyond this the models diverge due to the presence of a deepening mid-latitude low over WA, but more on this Friday.