Southern Tasmania Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Friday 5th April)

Best Days: Sunday morning, Monday afternoon, Tuesday morning, Thursday morning

Recap

Easing 2ft waves yesterday but a little raw and lumpy with a variable wind. Today was cleaner and more lined up with easing sets from 1-1.5ft.

Today’s Forecaster Notes are brought to you by Rip Curl

This weekend and next week (Apr 6 - 12)

West, west, west.

That'll be the theme for the coming forecast period with acute though strong westerly swells due.

Tomorrow will start tiny though a strengthening and east-southeast tracking front will produce a burst of strong to near gale-force W/SW winds through our western swell tomorrow.

The strength of this system has been downgraded slightly and we're now due to see a short-lived spike in swell later tomorrow to 1-2ft, easing rapidly from a small 2ft Sunday morning.

Conditions will be clean though with a N/NW offshore persisting all day.

We then look to our W'ly groundswells due next week, and Monday's has been brought forward in timing a little and increased in size.

This is due to the distant polar low linked to it now expected to maintain its strength through today and the weekend as it pushes east towards us. A fetch of severe-gale W/SW winds will be produced on the edge of our western swell window.

This will produce a large and powerful W/SW groundswell for Monday, building into the afternoon and likely reaching a strong though inconsistent (due to the westerly nature) 3ft across Clifton by dark with gusty offshore NW winds.

The secondary stronger front will actually push a little too far north and just out of our swell window, but the strength of it should help keep wave heights up around an inconsistent 3ft through Tuesday, easing into the afternoon and smaller from 2-3ft Wednesday owing to trailing fetches.

Winds on Tuesday look OK and from the W/NW early, shifting SW into the afternoon and then possibly lingering from the SW Wednesday. We'll review the odds of an early W'ly on Monday.

Following Tuesday's swell there's nothing significant on the cards so make the most of the coming tricky westerly swells. Have a great weekend!