South Australian Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Monday 9th April)

Best Days: Mid Coast Wednesday afternoon, both coasts Thursday morning, South Coast Friday and Sunday mornings 

Recap

Great conditions Saturday for South Coast swell magnets with a smallish swell and unreal conditions until mid-late afternoon. Sunday was a bit smaller but clean again ahead of a midday onshore change. The Mid Coast was tiny all weekend.

This morning the swell was smaller again and winds variable, creating OK conditions for desperate surfers down South, tiny on the Mid.

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This week and weekend (Apr 10 - 15)

As talked about on Friday, we've got a couple of slow days on the cards for the region with the swell bottoming out through tomorrow and Wednesday morning down South, while we'll start to see some new W/SW swell building across the Mid Coast on Wednesday.

A N/NW offshore will create clean conditions tomorrow morning but Waits and Parsons will be the only surfable option, though don't expect anything over 1-2ft. An afternoon onshore change looks weak, with a return to light E/NE winds Wednesday morning before freshening from the S/SE as a surface trough moving in from the west deepens.

When this S/SE winds strengthens we should see our first pulse of W/SW groundswell filling in, produced by a strong frontal system projecting towards and then under WA today while weakening.

This swell will be best suited to the Mid Coast with sets due to build to 2ft through the day, while Middleton may see 2ft+ sets later, mixed in with a more consistent and visible S/SE windswell.

A secondary weaker fetch of strong W/SW winds, and more polar strong to gale-force SW winds will be better placed in the South Coast's swell window, producing a W/SW swell filling in through Thursday and peaking through the middle of the day.

Sets should reach 3ft across Middleton, as the Mid Coast persists around 2ft on the sets at swell magnets. Winds are still a little unsure with the models divergent on the positioning and movement of the surface trough, but we'll hopefully see variable breezes on both coasts ahead of an onshore change. Check back Wednesday for a better idea on the local winds.

Come Friday the swell will be on the ease under strengthening N/NW tending W/NW winds with an approaching vigorous front.

This front will be the first in a flurry of activity through our swell window owing to a strengthening node of the Long Wave Trough moving through the Bight over the weekend and onwards to Victoria.

A couple of vigorous initial mid-latitude fronts will be followed by broader and stronger polar storms.

The first moving in Friday will kick up an increase in W/NW windswell to 2-3ft later in the day on the Mid, followed by some W/SW groundswell Saturday to 3ft.

The South Coast isn't due to see any size Friday though come Saturday a secondary front projecting a fetch of W/SW gales through our swell window should see wave heights building to 4-5ft off Middleton later in the day, holding Sunday morning.

Beyond this the stronger and broader polar activity looks to generate large surf for early next week, all under west to south-west winds, but more on this Wednesday.