South Australian Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Wednesday January 8th)

Best Days: This morning South Coast, Mid Coast Sunday for the keen

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Tiny with variable tending S winds tomorrow, freshening
• Moderate to fresh S/SW-S winds Fri, strengthening through the day
• Tiny Sat with early W/NW tending fresh S/SW winds, S/SE early on the Mid
• Moderate sized W/SW groundswell arriving later Sat, peaking Sun AM, easing Mon
• S/SE-SE tending S/SW then S/SE winds on the Mid Sun, S/SE-S down South
• S/SE winds Mon
• New mix of swells for mid-late next week

Recap

The Mid continued to offer 1-1.5ft waves through yesterday with all day offshore wind, tiny today.

The South Coast was a mess with easterly winds and a junky 3ft+ of S/SE windswell, cleaner into this morning and easing back from 2ft+. Make the most of it as the coming outlook is poor.

This week and weekend (Jan 9 - 12)

The end of the week looks tiny with today’s energy due to ease further tomorrow as dawn variable winds shift S’ly mid-morning as a trough moves in from the west.

The trough will linger in the region Friday bringing moderate to fresh S/SW-SW winds that will strengthen more through the day.

Saturday will be another lay day with no new swell and possibly early light W/NW winds down South, SE on the Mid before freshening again from the S/SW.

Later in the day but more so Sunday, our new W/SW groundswell should be in the water, with it due to be generated by a strong, slow moving low that’s developing south-west of Western Australia today. A good fetch of W/SW gales will be projected through our western swell window, with the low stalling and then slowly breaking down into tomorrow.

An inconsistent but moderate sized W/SW groundswell is due from this source, building later Saturday but peaking Sunday morning.

The Mid Coast might see 1.5ft waves (possibly rare bigger ones at the peak) later Saturday, holding Sunday while the South Coast looks to come in around 3ft+ across Middleton but with freshening S/SE-S winds. These will favour the Mid Coast with winds likely to only go S/SW for a short period before reverting back to the S/SE later.

The swell will ease into early next week and S/SE winds will continue to create poor conditions down South Monday, with a strong low possibly moving in Tuesday evening/Wednesday, bringing with it strong south-west winds and a mix of building windswell and groundswell from the earlier stages.

All in all it looks to be another active swell cycle mid-late week.

More on this Friday.