South Australian Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Wednesday December 18th)

Best Days: Today Mid Coast, tomorrow morning both coasts, Saturday afternoon and early Sunday Mid Coast, Wednesday morning South Coast

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Easing W/SW swell tomorrow with E winds on the Mid, NE down South ahead of freshening sea breezes and a stronger change
• Smaller Fri with stronger S/SW-SW winds
• Small-mod sized W/SW building Sat, peaking Sun AM
• Strong S/SE winds Sat, early S/SE tending strong SW Sun
• Mix of swells Mon/Tue with strong S/SW winds Mon, weaker S/SE Tue
• NE tending SE winds Wed
• Moderate sized, inconsistent W/SW swell Thu/Fri with winds unsure

Recap

Apart from an early light breeze and small to tiny swell on the South Coast, conditions were poor and windy across both regions yesterday with a building W/SW swell into the afternoon.

The Mid Coast kicked to 2ft+ late as winds and conditions slowly improved while this morning was cleaner but very full and slow to 2-3ft.

The tide is now running out and conditions are cleaner with more consistent 3ft sets and it should pulse a little and remain clean for the incoming. The South Coast was poor early but winds have since shifted east, creating improving conditions.

Plenty on across the Mid Coast today

This week and weekend (Dec 19 - 22)

Make the most of today’s swell inside the gulf as the easing trend will be quite steady and tomorrow morning’s big high tide will again swallow up the swell.

Slow 2ft sets are expected across the Mid Coast with easing 3ft sets across Middleton/Goolwa under favourable local offshore winds (E’ly Mid Coast, NE Victor)

A mix of an approaching trough and developing sea breezes will bring freshening onshore winds into the afternoon, while come Friday, a stronger S/SW-SW change is due after dawn variable winds. With the smaller swell it’s not worth driving far for a wave down South.

This trough will bring strong S/SE winds through Saturday along with some localised windswell down South, while the Mid Coast should see some fun W/SW energy arriving through the day, peaking Sunday morning.

The W/SW energy looks a touch better now, with it generated by  a relatively weak but healthy Southern Ocean frontal progression moving in from the South West of Western Australia, under the country on Thursday/Friday.

The Mid Coast is likely to see infrequent 1-2ft sets on the favourable parts of the tide Saturday afternoon and Sunday, with the South Coast only coming in around 2-3ft or so.

Winds on Sunday look S/SE at dawn but quickly shifting S/SW-SW and strengthening ahead of the next swell generating system.

This looks to be a weak front moving up, into the state, bringing no real decent size for the Mid Coast Monday, likely easing from 1-1.5ft with the South Coast coming in at 2-3ft but with strong S/SW winds.

Smaller, easing surf is expected Tuesday but with lingering S/SE winds, likely cleaner Wednesday as winds tip E/NE-NE down South but with a small, fading swell.

Longer term, another moderate sized W/SW swell is due Thursday/Friday but with tricky winds, likely switching from N’th to S/SW. More on this Friday and in the meantime get surfing out on the Mid Coast!