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

Best Days: Wednesday mid-morning onwards, Thursday, Friday and Saturday South Coast

Recap

Small clean waves best suited to magnets on Saturday down South, tiny Sunday. The Mid Coast was tiny all weekend, with some new W/SW swell coming in today but with average winds. Sets to 2ft were on offer, with cleaner conditions down South though small waves.

Today’s Forecaster Notes are brought to you by Rip Curl

This weekend and next week (May 29 – Jun 3)

We've got a mixed week of swell ahead with varying winds initiall, owing to passing fronts before things settle down into the end of the week.

The intense low that was expected to generate a good new W/SW-SW pulse for tomorrow came in much weaker than Friday's forecast and as a result the SW swell due into tomorrow afternoon has been downgraded.

We'll see another short-wave feature race in from the west today though and generate a fetch of strong to gale-force W/SW winds right under KI and the South Coast early tomorrow morning, generating a short-lived spike in size through the afternoon.

During the morning though we've got a mix of long-range SW groundswell that's already showing on the Cape du Couedic Buoy, and weak W/SW swell on the Mid Coast from strong W/SW winds pushing through the Bight.

Middleton should see inconsistent 2-3ft sets early, spiking temporarily to the 3ft range through the afternoon, then back to 2-3ft on Wednesday morning.

Our models are incorrectly combining all these swells and over-forecasting the expected size.

The Mid Coast looks to come in at 2-3ft all day tomorrow with gusty W/SW winds (2ft Wednesday), while the South Coast should see a W/NW breeze at dawn, likely swinging W/SW shortly after.

Wednesday may see less than ideal W/SW winds at dawn, but these will swing W/NW through the morning with a front approaching from the south-west.

Moving into Thursday and Friday, a new SW swell is expected off a strengthening front pushing in from under WA tomorrow.

A fetch of strong to gale-force W/SW winds will generate a fun SW swell for Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.

No major size is expected but Middleton should build towards 3ft and ease from a similar size Friday morning, while the Mid Coast hovers around 1-1.5ft.

Winds Thursday look mostly favourable and from the W/NW tending variable NW with an approaching front and then fresh N/NW Friday as the swell eases.

Into the weekend some fun new long-period SW groundswell is due, generated by a patchy and unconsolidated but strong low forming south-west of WA and drifting south-southeast while producing a fetch of severe-gale to storm-force winds.

While not the best structured storm, the core wind speeds should help produce a fun pulse to 3ft off Middleton into Saturday afternoon, easing from a similar size Sunday. The Mid Coast looks tiny and to 1ft Saturday, with possibly a touch more size to 1-1.5ft Sunday.

N/NW winds are due Saturday, while a trough is likely to move in Sunday bringing S/SE breezes. More on this Wednesday.