South Australian Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Friday 20th October)

Best Days: Mid Coast Saturday, South Coast Monday morning, swell magnets down South Tuesday morning

Recap

Tiny surf down South yesterday, kicking very slightly with an onshore change through the day, while the Mid Coast started near flat, followed by some weak tiny W/SW windswell through the afternoon.

Today the South Coast was still poor with a tiny weak windswell, while some good W/SW energy was showing on the Mid to 1-1.5ft. A much stronger pulse of groundswell is due later today and we'll hopefully see 2-3ft sets across the Mid (currently 2ft on the sets - shown below). The South Coast should also increase in size, building to 3-4ft by dark across Middleton.

This weekend and next week (Oct 21 - 27)

We're currently seeing a strong W/SW groundswell filling in across the state, with the Mid Coast providing 2ft sets. We should see this swell reach 2-3ft through the late afternoon/evening, though slowed a bit by the peak of the high tide. Middleton should reach 3-4ft but conditions will remain terrible with the S'ly wind.

This swell which was generated by a vigorous mid-latitude over the past couple of days, will ease back through tomorrow from 3ft+ off Middleton and 2ft on the Mid Coast (back to 1-1.5ft Sunday).

A reinforcing S/SW groundswell is due later in the day and early Sunday morning for the South Coast, produced by a good pre-frontal fetch of W/NW gales that are currently south-southwest of us.

While not ideally aimed, we should still see good sets to 2-3ft off Middleton Sunday morning. Behind this weak but persistent W'ly fetches should keep similar sized but slightly weaker mid-period energy impacting Middleton Monday morning, easing into the afternoon and further from 2ft Tuesday.

Coming back to the local winds, and the South Coast looks poor all weekend with a persistent S/SW breeze, while the Mid should be clean Saturday morning with a S/SE breeze, less than ideal Sunday with an early S'ly.

Monday is the best day to surf down South as a ridge of high pressure moves in from the west bringing variable tending light offshore winds.

Tuesday morning looks clean again with a morning NE'ly as a weak mid-latitude low moves in from the west possibly kicking up a small W/SW swell for the Mid on Wednesday/Thursday.

The South Coast should see a new SW groundswell later Tuesday and early Wednesday, produced by a small tight low forming south-west of WA during today.

Inconsistent 2-3ft sets are likely off Middleton, though winds are unsure due to the positioning of the incoming mid-latitude low. We'll go over this again Monday.

Longer term there's nothing significant on the cards until later next weekend, but we'll look at this in more detail in the next update. Have a great weekend!