South Australian Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Wednesday 12th August)

Best Days: Desperate surfers Mid Coast Thursday afternoon and Friday

Recap

Fun waves across the whole South Coast yesterday (best magnets) with a small 1-2ft of swell at Middleton. The Mid Coast was tiny and choppy, similar today.

The swell has bottomed out across the South Coast today though with fresher offshore winds.

This week and weekend (Aug 13 - 16)

Today's freshening breeze is linked to a broad and weakening mid-latitude low moving in from the west.

The South Coast is set to remain tiny tomorrow, but a broad and strong fetch of W/SW winds through the Bight is generating a fun pulse of mid-period W/SW swell for the Mid Coast.

This swell should build through tomorrow and reach an easy 2ft, if not for the odd set near 3ft across the swell magnets into the afternoon.

The swell is then due to ease through Friday from 2ft+ on the Mid Coast, with the South Coast possibly seeing 1-2ft sets towards Goolwa.

Winds tomorrow will unfortunately be onshore and moderate to fresh out of the N/NW across the Mid Coast, a touch lighter and N/NW tending NW on Friday. While not ideal there'll be a couple of options for the desperate.

A more variable breeze is likely dawn Saturday on the Mid Coast but the swell will be back to a slow 1ft to possibly 2ft or so. The South Coast will remain small to tiny with a morning W/NW breeze.

Unfortunately Sunday isn't expected to offer much more in the way of surf though conditions should be clean across both regions with a morning variable breeze.

Next week onwards (Aug 17 onwards)

The surf will remain tiny into early next week owing to another mid-latitude low pushing up and across WA on the weekend, blocking our immediate swell windows.

From the middle to end of the week though we'll see a significant W/SW swell event owing to the low dipping under WA's South Coast and directing a fetch of gales through the Bight. The models still diverge a little regarding this but we're likely to see a large W/SW groundswell for mid-late week, though the winds are up in the air.

Check back here on Friday for a clearer idea on what's in store for next week.