South Australian Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Wednesday August 7th)

Best Days: South Coast tomorrow, Mid Coast Friday, Saturday, Sunday, South Coast Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Easing surf Thu with strong N/NW winds, easing later (N/NW windswell inside the gulf)
• Moderate + sized W/SW swell building Fri with local offshore tending variable onshore winds
• Secondary stronger swell Sat with similar winds to Fri
• Slowly easing swell Sun with variable offshore winds, tending a touch north inside the gulf, east down South
• Easing swell Mon with fresher N/NE winds
• Small, inconsistent W/SW groundswell for Wed/Thu

Recap

Our good pulse of SW swell came in nicely yesterday with 3ft+ waves on the South Coast with clean conditions all day, tiny and wind affected on the Mid Coast.

Today we’ve got our first pulse of W/SW swell to 1-2ft inside the gulf but gusty north winds are creating choppy conditions. The South Coast has eased a touch but with clean conditions.

This week and next (Aug 8 - 16)

As touched on in Monday’s notes, we’ve got a ton of frontal activity moving in through our close to medium range swell window but it’ll be all west in nature favouring the Mid Coast but with less consistent and relatively smaller surf down South.

Firstly, today’s energy will ease tomorrow and strong N/NW winds will favour the exposed beaches down South, easing in strength a little later in the day.

Into Friday, our first pulse of W/SW swell is due, generated by a fetch of strong to near gale-force W/NW winds under Western Australia yesterday afternoon and evening. This will then be followed by a weaker but broader front today, generating W’ly winds that will project closer to us.

Two separate pulses of W/SW swell are due, the first for Friday with a secondary pulse for later in the day and more so Saturday.

The first should build to 2-3ft across the Mid Coast into the afternoon Friday, with more consistent 3ft surf into Saturday, easing slowly from 2-3ft on Sunday.

The South Coast only looks to build to a slow 2-3ft Friday afternoon across the Mid Coast with Saturday coming in at 3ft+, easing slowly from 3ft Sunday, smaller Monday.

Coming back to the local winds and we’ve got favourable, light local offshore winds Friday morning (E/NE Mid Coast, NW-N/NW South Coast) ahead of variable sea breezes, similar Saturday and even Sunday but with a touch more north in the wind across the Mid Coast.

This should create a great weekend of waves for both regions.

Fresher N/NE winds will favour the South Coast Monday but with small surf, 1-2ft inside the gulf.

We then look at an inconsistent, long-range W/SW groundswell for later Tuesday but more so Wednesday/Thursday next week.

This swell looks to be the least reliable of the coming period, generated high up in the Indian Ocean which will result in a big loss of consistency and size once it arrives across our region. 

Winds look favourable for exposed breaks on the South Coast with bumps inside the gulf but we’ll review this Friday.