South Australian Forecast by Ben Matson (issued Monday October 28th)

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Light/mod onshore winds down south most of the week (a little stronger Thurs) with moderate, workable swells
• Small clean waves on the Mid Coast Tues/Wed/Thurs mornings (nothing amazing but a few options)
• Small and clean though blustery surf at Victor Saturday
• Decent stormy in the gulf for Sunday (inc metro beaches)
• Plenty of swell early next week

Recap

Small weak leftovers on Saturday across both coasts eased through the day, becoming tiny through Sunday. Today has started off similarly small at Victor though a new swell has built to 3ft across the Middleton strength this afternoon. Wave heights are also building on the Mid though it’s only 1-2ft. Winds are generally moderate onshore. 

This week (Oct 29 - Nov 1)

A series of modest fronts skirting the southern states probably won’t affect our local winds too much in the short term, however we will see plenty of surf.

Wave heights are currently trending up across both coasts and Tuesday morning should see size continuing around the 3ft+ mark at Middleton, with 1ft, maybe 1-2ft waves inside the Gulf. Light to moderate S/SE winds will favour the Mid for the best conditions (despite the small size and inconsistent sets) however it won’t be too bad at Victor, compared to what we sometimes see at this time of the year.

A renewal of swell across the coast overnight Tuesday will provide a similar size range to the South Coast on Wednesday, with similarly light/mod onshore winds (possibly variable at dawn). The Mid Coast should also see a repeat performance with small, inconsistent though clean waves and favourable winds. 

Conditions will worsen at Victor on Thursday thanks to the final front in this sequence which will have a little more strength, relative to the SA coast, and should increase southerly winds a notch, so conditions will deteriorate. Size should maintain a similar size range early, before slowly easing into the afternoon. Again, the Mid looks to provide small slow waves with light offshore winds in the morning, and afternoon seabreezes.

Easing swells are then expected across all coasts on Friday with a gradual easing of the southerly wind strength. 

This weekend (Nov 2 - 3)

Victor will have the best waves of the weekend.

Strengthening pre-frontal northerly winds will accompany small, easing swells on Saturday. We may see a minor reinforcement at Victor from a weak front pushing below the continent on Wednesday but it’ll probably just maintain clean 2ft sets at Middleton with bigger waves at exposed spots, though easing during the day.

There’s a chance for a brief window of clean conditions early Sunday (albeit with very small leftover swells) ahead of a vigorous westerly change by mid-morning.

The Mid Coast will see tiny surf early Saturday build a northerly windswell through the day (or low quality) before strong westerly winds build a stormy on Sunday that could reach 4ft+ by late afternoon, offering small waves across the metro beaches too. This will of course be dependent on the strength and timing of the change, but all indications are for a return to winter.

Next week (Nov 4 onwards)

Strong swells originating from a broad fetch trailing Sunday’s change (see below) will dominate early next week though it will take a few days for conditions to settle down a bit. However we are looking at quite a few days of decent waves on the Mid Coast from this pattern, and plenty of size down south (albeit with tricky winds).