South Australian forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Monday January 27th)

Best Days: Saturday, Sunday and Monday mornings South Coast, Mid Coast next Monday

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Easing surf tomorrow with strong S winds
• Small-mod sized mid-period S/SW swell filling in Wed, holding Thu AM, then eaasing
• Fresh S/SE winds Wed AM, strengthening
• Mod-fresh S-S/SE winds Thu, freshening
• Easing swell Fri with lighter E-E/SE winds ahead of sea breezes
• Mix of inconsistent SW groundswell Sat AM and building mid-period swell Sat PM with E/NE tending S/SE winds
• Easing swell Sun with N/NE winds, tending S into the PM
• Stronger SW groundswell Mon with variable tending S/SW winds

Recap

It’s been a fun run across the South Coast with clean conditions and a building swell Saturday from 2-3ft through the morning to 4ft into the afternoon but with fresh sea breezes.

Sunday came in a bit lumpier and not as clean as Saturday morning though with more size to 3-4ft, while a secondary pulse of groundswell kicked into the afternoon again but with the winds making a bit of a mess of it.

This morning, the early was the go with moderate to fresh offshore winds and easing 3ft sets before winds really picked up out of the NW ahead of an approaching trough. This will bring a cool, onshore change around midday.

The Mid Coast offered tiny waves all weekend, pulsing to 1.5ft at times with the favourable parts of the tide but mostly novelty.

Before and during the wind this morning

This week and weekend (Jan 28 - Feb 2)

Once the change moves through today, it will write off the surf for the rest of the week across the South Coast, improving once we hit the weekend.

Persistent southerly winds will create average to poor conditions across the South Coast depending on the strength, with tomorrow and Wednesday coming in the windiest.

Swell wise, some new mid-period S/SW swell due into Wednesday and Thursday will be too south in nature to get into the Mid Coast, blocked by Kangaroo Island.

A couple of strengthening lows moving under us will generate Wednesday/Thursday’s mid-period swell with Middleton likely to come in around 3ft+ before easing Friday.

Winds won’t back off enough to offer a grovel until Friday when weaker E-E/SE breezes are due but with easing 2ft+ sets.

The weekend looks much better for a surf thanks to the arrival of a mix of new SW groundswell Saturday morning and more consistent mid-period SW swell for afternoon as winds slowly improve.

The source of swell for Saturday morning will be an initial strong but distant polar low that's currently around the Heard Island region, generating an inconsistent groundswell to 2ft to occasionally 3ft across Middleton, tiny inside the gulf.

A more consistent, stronger pulse of mid-period SW swell into the afternoon will be generated by a flurry of pre-frontal W/NW winds followed by slightly stronger post-frontal W’ly winds, developing south-west of Western Australia Wednesday before pushing under the country Thursday.

A little better size to 3ft is due across Middleton Saturday afternoon, easing Sunday from a similar size while the Mid may see 1ft to occasionally 1.5ft sets.

Winds on Saturday morning look E/NE creating OK conditions ahead of sea breezes, with Sunday seeing better, N/NE offshore winds ahead of a freshening S-S/SW breeze as a mix of the developing sea breeze and a trough moving through combine.

There’s the possibility of variable winds into Monday morning again ahead of a stronger pulse of SW groundswell, generated by a strong low developing south of Western Australia Saturday. We’ll have a closer look at this Wednesday though.