South Australian Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Wednesday July 24th)

Best Days: South Coast today, tomorrow afternoon and Friday morning, South Coast Saturday morning, both coasts Sunday morning, South Coast all next week

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Mix of building W windswell and new moderate sized, mid-period W/SW swell for tomorrow PM and Fri AM, easing thereafter
• Strengthening NW winds tomorrow, strong N/NW Fri
• Moderate + sized mid-period W/SW swell Sat, easing Sun
• Gusty W/SW winds Sat (W/NW down south during the AM)
• Local offshore winds Sun (E/SE Mid - W/NW-NW South) ahead of sea breezes
• Easing swell Mon with N/NE tending NE winds
• Small W/SW swell Tue with N/NE tending NE winds
• Moderate sized, inconsistent W/SW groundswell for next Thu/Fri

Recap

A good reinforcing SW groundswell maintained 2-3ft sets on the Mid Coast yesterday and 3-5ft waves down South, but strong N’ly offshores continued to create choppy conditions inside the gulf, best around Victor Harbor.

Today the swell is easing down South with gusty offshore winds, while a reinforcing W’ly swell is maintaining 2ft waves inside the gulf but with choppy conditions.

This week and weekend (Jul 25 - 28)

A temporary low point in swell is due tomorrow morning, but into the afternoon, a new pulse of mid-period W/SW swell is due, peaking overnight and easing Friday.

As touched on in Monday’s notes, the source was a healthy but not overly strong frontal system that’s been projecting towards Western Australia and is now weakening south of the country.

The Mid Coast should offer 2ft+ sets later tomorrow and Friday morning, with the South Coast coming in around 3ft.

Winds will strengthen from the NW tomorrow, kicking up some additional windswell for the Mid Coast, holding Friday as winds remain strong from the N/NW. With this the South Coast will be the pick later tomorrow and Friday morning - choppy inside the gulf.

Now these strengthening winds will be ahead of a strengthening mid-latitude frontal progression pushing in through the Bight tomorrow and Friday.

We’re set to see fetches of strong to gale-force W/NW-W winds projected through our western swell window, generating a moderate + sized, mid-period W/SW swell for Saturday.

The Mid Coast should bump up to 2-3ft with Middleton coming in around 3ft+ in the morning, easing through the day.

Unfortunately winds will be onshore for the Mid Coast Saturday and gusty from the W/SW-SW in the wake of the swell generating front, while Victor will likely see winds tend W/NW for a period during the morning owing to local topography and steering effects.

Sunday morning looks cleaner across the Mid Coast with an E/SE offshore (light W/NW-NW down South) along with easing 2ft sets and 2-3ft waves across Middleton.

Next week onwards (Jul 29 onwards)

Next week will be dominated by N’ly winds and smaller but fun swells that will favour the more exposed regions.

A strong high will sit over the south-east of the country, directing a favourable offshore wind pattern across the state, but there’ll be no real major swell generating systems firing up in our close to medium range swell windows.

Over to the south-west of Western Australia, a strong cold outbreak should bring some fun W/SW groundswell next Thursday/Friday but we’ll have a closer look at this on Friday.