South Australian Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Monday 14th November)

Best Days: Wednesday morning South Coast, Thursday morning at swell magnets South Coast

Recap

Plenty of messy swell on the Mid Coast all weekend with 2ft sets Saturday and 2-3ft waves Sunday.

The South Coast was small and choppy Saturday with plenty of size Saturday but with a strong onshore wind continuing to lash the coast.

Today the surf has dropped back to a bumpy 1-1.5ft on the Mid, while the South Coast has continued around a stormy 4ft or so. We should see the size abating steadily through the day though, as the mid-latitude low responsible for the swell moves off to the east.

This week and weekend (Nov 15 – 20)

A temporary low point in swell is due tomorrow morning with small weak leftovers to 2ft across Middleton and 1ft on the Mid Coast.

A new inconsistent SW groundswell should arrive through the morning though, generated by a pre-frontal fetch of W/NW gales, south-west of WA late last week and early in the weekend.

Middleton should build to a stronger 2-3ft, with 1ft waves on the Mid, and conditions will be OK with a light variable breeze on the Mid, (light W/NW early around Victor) before S/SW sea breezes kick in.

Wednesday should be fun down South as the swell eases from a similar if not slightly smaller size range under a morning NE'ly down South before sea breezes kick in.

A fresher N'ly wind on Thursday will create super straight and clean conditions but only small 1-2ft waves are due off Middleton, with 2-3ft sets at Waits and Parsons.

The end of the week will be poor with tiny surf and a strengthening S'ly wind and building S'ly windswell across the South Coast.

This will be due to a strong surface trough moving in across us, weakening while continuing east Saturday resulting in easing onshore S'ly winds and an easing S'ly windswell.

Sunday isn't looking too interesting either as S/SE winds persist with small amounts of swell.

Longer term onshore winds and moderate amounts of swell are on the cards for next week, but more on this Wednesday.