South Australian Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Monday 15th January)

Best Days: Wednesday both coasts, Thursday South Coast, early Friday South Coast magnets

Recap

A bit of swell but with onshore winds across the Mid Coast Saturday, cleaner and funner Sunday as the swell held in at 1-2ft.

The South Coast was clean early before an onshore change moved through, with sloppy onshore waves into Sunday.

This morning poor surf continued down South, with the swell fading back on the Mid Coast.

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This week and weekend (Jan 16 – 21)

Tomorrow morning will be a low point in swell activity and with average E'ly winds across the South Coast, it won't be worth heading down for a paddle. The Mid will be clean but tiny.

Through the afternoon though we'll see an increase in new long-period SW groundswell ahead of a peak on Wednesday.

The long-period energy was generated by a 'bombing low' between WA and Heard Island late last week and over the weekend, with a fetch of severe-gale to storm-force W/NW winds projected through our swell window for over 24 hours.

The swell arrived a few hours behind schedule in Western Australia this morning, but has since kicked in strongly, and with this in mind there's probably a slight delay on the expected kick in size tomorrow.

We'll likely see the swell kicking mid-late afternoon, reaching 3ft+ across Middleton by dark but with onshore winds, and 0.5-1ft on the Mid Coast.

A peak is expected on Wednesday to a strong but inconsistent 4-5ft in the sets off Middleton, mostly around 3-4ft with 1ft surf on the Mid, possibly pulsing to 1.5ft with the favourable parts of the tide.

Conditions are looking good across both coasts with light local offshore winds due through the morning, ahead of mid-afternoon sea breezes.

Thursday will be great all day down South with a N/NE tending NW (variable breeze) and easing sets from 3ft or so. The Mid will become tiny.

There isn't expected to be much size leftover on Friday with fading 2ft sets off Middleton and an early offshore wind ahead of a S/SW change.

This change will linger into the weekend along with no new groundswell and just a building S/SE windswell across the South Coast with strong S/SE winds.

Longer term we may see some decent swell mid-late next week, but more on this Wednesday.