South Australian Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Wednesday 15th April)

Best Days: Friday keen surfers Mid Coast, protected spots early South Coast, Saturday mid-morning onwards both coasts, Sunday

Recap

Great surf down South yesterday with our reinforcing S/SW swell keeping sets to 3ft hitting Middleton with ideal conditions, favourable into the afternoon with variable sea breezes. Today conditions are excellent again (photo just below) but the swell is on the way out with easing 1-2ft waves off Middleton.

The Mid Coast has been near flat with just tiny windswell ripples from the north.

This week and weekend (Apr 16 - 19)

Tomorrow looks like a lay day with our current swell due to bottom out in the morning, replaced only by a building and weak W'ly swell through the day with as an approaching mid-latitude front weakens and dips south-east.

Winds will be onshore and fresh from the SW on the Mid Coast, W/SW-W down South but with no size before shifting SW mid-morning. The Mid may see 1-2ft waves develop into the afternoon but the quality will be low.

Friday and the weekend are much better. We'll see a moderate sized W/SW swell fill in Friday, generated by the mid-latitude front pushing under WA last night and through the Bight today.

The Mid Coast should offer 2-3ft waves, though the tides aren't big for that extra push unfortunately, with Middleton coming around 3-4ft off Middleton.

Winds will be onshore out of the W/SW-SW creating bumpy conditions, W/NW early down South for the keen.

On the back of the mid-latitude front, an additional cold front and then low will see stronger SW gales followed by severe-gale SW winds through our south-western and then southern swell windows.

We'll see the swell muscle up further Saturday down South out of the SW, with a larger S/SW groundswell for late in the day, easing Sunday though still solid.

Size wise, the Mid Coast should hold around 2ft+ Saturday, with the South Coast coming in around 4-5ft across Middleton, with 6ft sets likely later in the day, easing from 1-2ft on the Mid Sunday and 4ft+ off Middleton.

Conditions on Saturday still look a little dicey but a dawn onshore W/SW-SW breeze is likely to tend more variable across both coasts through the morning, fresher into the afternoon again, cleaner Sunday with local light offshore winds, fresher N'ly into the afternoon with an approaching front.

Looking further into early next week and a strengthening mid-latitude front moving in through the Bight on Sunday (linked to the freshening N'ly winds) and Monday looks to generate a fresh pulse of moderate sized + W/SW swell for late Monday but more so Tuesday with westerly winds. We'll have a closer look at this Friday.