South Australian Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Wednesday 1st May)

Best Days: South Coast tomorrow morning and Friday morning

Recap

Small clean and fun waves at Waits and Parsons yesterday, clean all day while the Mid Coast was tiny and bumpy with an afternoon increase in windswell which has peaked this morning to 1-1.5ft. The South Coast was clean again but tiny and only for desperate surfers.

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

This week and weekend (May 2– May 5)

A new W/SW swell is due to fill in this afternoon across the Mid Coast, increasing slightly down South, generated by a initially strong but then relatively weak mid-latitude front that passed under WA earlier this week.

We should see the Mid Coast increasing to 2ft but conditions will be poor with the NW breeze, possibly strong late.

The South Coast should remain clean but only be a small 2ft+. A peak in size is expected tomorrow morning to 2ft to possibly 3ft down towards Cliffs and Goolwa, while the Mid Coast should hold around 2ft.

A broad and multi-centred mid-latitude low forming in the Bight will aim a great fetch of S/SE winds towards WA, but be positioned too far west to generate any swell for our regions, besides maybe the Far West Coast Friday.

The low will eventually swing a fetch of strong W/SW winds through our western swell window tomorrow afternoon and evening, though push in with the swell and across us on Friday.

Ahead of the low on Thursday we'll see favourable though fresh N/NW tending W/NW winds develop on the South Coast, best in the morning, while a gusty N/NW breeze will shift W'ly into Friday afternoon with building surf on the Mid Coast to 2-3ft. The South Coast looks to remain small and only be 2ft or so off Middleton.

In the wake of the mid-latitude low moving east across us Friday, a late onshore change will then leave poor S/SW winds across both coasts on Saturday with no new significant swell. A weak S/SW windswell looks to build in the wake of the change, easing Sunday with a light morning E/NE-NE breeze down South, but no decent size.

Unfortunately the longer term outlook remains poor with a weak upper level blocking pattern taking hold next week. This will see any major swell generating systems (which there won't be) steered away from us along with persistent winds from the eastern quadrant, more southerly from late next week if another mid-latitude low forms. More on this Friday though.