South Australian Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Friday 21st December)

Best Days: South Coast Monday and Tuesday morning, Mid Coast and South Coast Thursday

Recap

Nothing to surf on the Mid the last two days, while a junky and poor S'ly windswell with strengthening onshore winds was seen down South, smaller and still a mess today.

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This weekend and next week (Dec 22 - 28)

There's been no change to the weekend outlook with poor conditions due to persist through tomorrow with a moderate to fresh S'ly tending S/SW breeze. Size wise the Mid will remain flat, while the South Coast should see a small mix of easing SW groundswell and windswell from 2ft off Middleton.

Sunday is still looking cleaner with improving conditions under an E/NE tending NE breeze, though Middleton looks to be tiny and to 1-1.5ft, with 2ft sets out at Waits and Parsons for desperate surfers.

Moving onto our new SW groundswell for Monday/Tuesday and a strengthening frontal system that's currently developing south-west of WA will generate a good fetch of pre-frontal W/NW gales through our western swell window, followed by a tighter fetch of severe-gale W'ly winds, dipping quickly east-southeast through our south-western swell window.

This fast track away from our swell window isn't ideal at all, and with this I've lowered expectations from this swell a little more from Wednesday unfortunately.

One plus though is that winds look as if they'll be more favourable for Christmas Day, but back to Monday, and early looks small, but the swell should be seen from mid-morning, building to a good 3ft off Middleton into the afternoon and 1ft on the Mid Coast.

Winds will be great as the swell builds down South Monday with a N/NE offshore, tending N/NW before giving into mid-afternoon sea breezes, while Tuesday also looks good with a lighter and more variable E/NE-NE wind and slowly easing surf from a similar size.

A change is due into the afternoon bringing fresher S'ly winds, persisting from the S/SE-SE on Wednesday.

Into the afternoon a small reinforcing mid-period W/SW swell is expected, generated by a broad fetch of strong W/SW winds projecting up and under the Bight Sunday and Monday. We should see this swell kicking the Mid Coast to 1ft, peaking Thursday morning to 1-1.5ft if we're lucky, with small 2-3ft sets off Middleton. A better N/NE offshore is also expected Thursday, likely variable into the afternoon as heat builds up across the state.

Longer term fun levels of W/SW swell are on the cards into the New Year, but more on this Monday. Have a great weekend!