South Australian Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Monday 29th April)

Best Days: South Coast magnets tomorrow morning, South Coast Friday morning, South Coast Saturday morning and Sunday morning, South Coast Monday

Recap

Clean 2ft waves on offer across the Mid Coast Saturday with the swell easing back from Friday's pulse, while Sunday was back to 1-1.5ft and bumpy. Today is clean again but tiny.

The South Coast was large though bumpy, best in protected spots for experienced surfers, cleaner yesterday though still a bit lumpy and with a touch less size. Today the surf has dropped back a little more though conditions are much better with a straight offshore wind.

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This week and weekend (Apr 30 – May 5)

We'll see the surf continuing to drop in size through tomorrow and the swell magnets on the South Coast will be best under a fresh and gusty N'ly breeze and small fading 2ft wave off Middleton.

Wednesday will be small to tiny and stronger N/NW winds will continue to keep the South Coast clean, but you'll be lucky to get a wave over 1-2ft at the magnets. The Mid Coast will see a tiny and peaky N/NW windswell pushing down the gulf.

Into Wednesday afternoon some new W/SW swell should be seen, generated by a funky mid-latitude front that's currently pushing under WA. This storm was much stronger over the weekend but in our far swell window, with it now weak and aiming a fetch of strong W/SW winds in our western swell window.

The expected size has been downgraded though we should see the Mid Coast increasing to 2ft by dark, easing from a similar size Thursday morning, with Middleton not seeing much size at all before dark Wednesday and coming in at a slow 2-3ft.

Winds will be tricky as a multi-centred mid-latitude low moves in from the west, bringing strong N/NW tending W/NW winds (too windy for the South Coat), easing later in the day. This will kick up a local increase in W'ly windswell to a stormy 3ft on the Mid Coast, above the more organised W/SW swell.

Winds will tend back to the NW on Friday morning, stronger from the W/NW into the afternoon as the low consolidates, generating a fetch of strong to near gale-force W/SW winds in our south-western swell window.

A good mid-period SW swell should be seen later Friday but more so Saturday to 3-4ft off Middleton with a W/NW tending W/SW-SW breeze. The Mid Coast will remain bumpy and to 2-3ft, easing through the day.

A swing back to offshore NE winds is due on Sunday but with the mid-period swell easing from a small 2ft at Middleton and 1-1.5ft on the Mid Coast.

Longer term a strong but late forming low to our south on Friday/Saturday looks to produce a fun S/SW groundswell for the South Coast Monday with offshore winds, with nothing too significant to follow as an upper level blocking pattern moves through (opposite to a node of the Long Wave Trough). More on this Wednesday.