South Australian Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Monday 28th August)

Best Days: South Coast Tuesday morning, Wednesday morning, Thursday, Friday

Recap

Tiny clean waves to 1-1.5ft across the Mid Coast Saturday, back to a tiny 0.5-1ft Sunday.

The South Coast was excellent on Saturday with an initial SW groundswell for the morning and stronger S/SW swell into the afternoon with favourable conditions. Sunday saw a bit more size with a mix of mid-period S/SW swell but poor S/SE wind in the wake of a strong cold front.

This morning conditions cleaned up down South with a variable wind from the north and glassy 4ft sets. The Mid Coast saw a touch more size with 1ft+ sets across the coast with early favourable winds.

This week and weekend (Aug 29 – Sep 3)

We're looking at a couple of fun days of surf across the South Coast with variable tending light offshore winds each morning and weak afternoon sea breezes.

The surf will be smaller, but a reinforcing S/SW swell should keep 3ft sets hitting the Middleton stretch, similar Wednesday with another reinforcing swell from pre-frontal polar W/NW gales over the weekend.

The Mid Coast is looking tiny with 0.5ft sets.

Into Thursday another new mid-period S/SW swell is expected, generated by a broad but relatively weak polar front developing south of WA this afternoon and projecting up across Tassie.

A spike in size to 3ft+ is due Thursday morning across Middleton, easing during the day and smaller into Friday to 2ft. Winds will become excellent for exposed breaks across the South Coast with a fresh and persistent N/NE'ly Thursday and N/NW tending variable winds Friday.

Into the weekend there's no new swell due until Sunday afternoon as a large blocking high deflects any major frontal systems away from us. In saying this, a weak mid-latitude trough projecting through the south-east Indian Ocean is expected to produce a small W/SW swell for the Mid Coast, coming in at 0.5-1ft through the morning, building to 1-1.5ft into the afternoon. NE tending NW winds will see conditions deteriorate into the afternoon though, while the South Coast will be clean but tiny.

The new swell for Sunday will be generated by a strong polar front projecting up towards West Oz mid-late week, producing a moderate sized W/SW groundswell.

This swell should build to 2ft+ on the Mid Coast into the afternoon with inconsistent 3-4ft sets down across Middleton, but the remnants of the frontal system will move through, bringing W/NW tending strong SW winds.

Longer term an even stronger polar frontal progression should produce large surf into early next week, but more on this Wednesday.