South Australian Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Friday 5th October)

Best Days: Saturday and Sunday South Coast, possibly early Monday South Coast

Recap

Large and onshore surf across the South Coast yesterday with one of the biggest swells of the year impacting the state (5-10m @ 18s off Cape du Couedic). The direction was more south than west though resulting in tiny waves on the Mid Coast, though today has revealed a little more size to 1-1.5ft.

The South Coast has dropped with slightly better but still average winds and conditions.

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

This weekend and next week (Oct 6 – 12)

Conditions will improve over the weekend as our current groundswell continues to ease, slowed into tomorrow morning by a reinforcing S/SW groundswell. This groundswell was generated by a strong polar front pushing in on the tail of the severe-low generating yesterday's large groundswell and should keep the Middleton stretch around 3ft to occasionally 4ft early, easing through the day, smaller and 2-3ft Sunday morning.

The Mid Coast should ease back to 1ft tomorrow, tiny to flat Sunday.

A light N/NE breeze will create clean and improving conditions tomorrow morning, tending variable ahead of mid-afternoon sea breezes, with similar light N/NE tending N/NW and then variable winds Sunday.

Into Sunday evening a mid-latitude low moving in from the west is expected to bring a S/SE change, but the axis of the low looks to slip south into Monday morning resulting in winds tending variable and from the N/NE again ahead of a much stronger S/SW change as the low pushes east.

A small pulse of S/SW groundswell is expected Sunday afternoon, easing Monday, generated by a polar front that formed south-west of WA yesterday, generating pre-frontal W/NW gales followed by a better aligned post-frontal W/SW fetch today in our southern swell window.

2-3ft waves should continue off Middleton Sunday afternoon, easing from this size Monday morning with no size for the Mid Coast.

As this trough moves further east it's expected to form into an intense low pressure system off the East Coast and we'll see a strong high move in from the south-west at the same time.

This will direct strong onshore S/SE winds into the South Coast, producing moderate levels of S/SE windswell, building Tuesday and peaking Wednesday to a stormy 4ft or so.

The low should start moving off to the east mid-late week, resulting in winds improving across our region later week, tending E/NE-NE, but there'll be no major swells owing to the blocking high.

Therefore with a poor outlook for most of next week, make the most of the coming days. Have a great weekend!