South Australian Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Monday 27th February)

Best Days: Tuesday late morning to early afternoon, Wednesday morning

Recap

Terrible conditions across the South Coast with a building swell Saturday, while the Mid came in at 1-1.5ft through the morning, kicking a little into the afternoon with the tide.

Sunday was a touch better down South with a light E'ly breeze, but the swell was still all over the place. The Mid Coast was clean but tiny to flat.

This morning the swell has eased back to 2ft off Middleton with better sets out at Waits and Parsons under a light offshore wind, while the Mid Coast was flat.

This week and weekend (Feb 28 – Mar 5)

Tomorrow morning is expected to start small to tiny on the South Coast before a new S/SW groundswell arrives for the afternoon.

This swell was generated over the weekend by an intense polar low, and satellite imagery has confirmed a fetch of gale to severe-gale W'ly winds in our southern swell window.

We'll see this swell building to an inconsistent 2-3ft into the afternoon across Middleton, tiny on the Mid, and easing from 2ft+ Wednesday morning.

Winds tomorrow will be great all morning with a light N/NE offshore, giving into sea breezes early/mid-afternoon. So you're best chance to surf is probably late morning/midday when the swell should be starting to kick.

Wednesday morning is looking clean again with a light N'ly offshore before sea breezes kick in.

Into the rest of the week and weekend we're looking at poor conditions with a deepening low off the southern NSW coast due to ridge against a strong and stationary high to our south, resulting in persistent S/SE winds across the South Coast.

This will kick up some poor windswell through the end of the week, easing back a touch into Saturday as winds turn more E'ly, but then up again through later Sunday and Monday.

It will also spoil a new S/SW groundswell due Saturday, produced by a strong polar low forming late in our swell window. The Mid Coast will be clean but the southerly swell direction will be blocked by Kangaroo Island.

So therefore make the most of the next two days of waves before things go downhill.

Longer term there's nothing major on the cards as the stalling high puts a block across our main swell window. We'll have another look at this Wednesday.