Windy S-S/SE swells ahead of a stronger S/SW groundswell

Craig Brokensha picture
Craig Brokensha (Craig)

Southern Tasmania Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Wednesday 7th August)

Best Days: Thursday morning, protected spots Sunday and Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning

Recap

The S/SE swell due yesterday was only reported at 2ft+, a bit under the expected 3-4ft, with tiny leftovers seen into this morning. A small and tight mid-latitude low moving under us during the day should have kicked up a pulse of W/SW swell to the 2ft range but with onshore winds.

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This week and next (Aug 8 - 11)

Any swell generated by the small low this afternoon will ease back tomorrow from 1-2ft max across Clifton. Conditions look great with a persistent N'ly breeze holding all day.

The dynamics surrounding the deepening low drifting south-east across us into the end of the week and weekend have changed, as has the strength of the polar front projecting up towards us early next week.

We're now looking at a weaker system moving across us with a late burst of strong S'ly winds into us Friday evening being followed by a broader and better fetch Saturday evening and Sunday.

A weak onshore 3ft of S'ly swell with W/SW winds is now due on Saturday, kicking more to 4-5ft on Sunday out of the S/SE with strong S/SE winds.

We'll then see a strong polar front projecting a broad fetch of strong to gale-force S/SW winds up through our southern swell window on Sunday will generate a larger S/SW groundswell for Monday to 4-5ft+. Winds look to shift back to the W/SW-SW, favouring protected spots, back to the W/NW on Tuesday as the S/SW swell eases.

The surf will continue to ease into next week with favourable winds and there's nothing of significance due until the following weekend, therefore try and work the coming swells.

Comments

ShaneAbel's picture
ShaneAbel's picture
ShaneAbel Wednesday, 7 Aug 2019 at 6:28pm

Why does your surf model forecast not match your notes Forecast
This discrepancy does occur quite often so which one should we take

Craig's picture
Craig's picture
Craig Wednesday, 7 Aug 2019 at 6:56pm

The notes first and the model guidance as a guide.

This is a really dynamic system and keeps changing slightly with each update, resulting in a change in the size of the windswell and biggest days and varying model guidance.

On this, Monday's swell from the front is now gone, aghhh, with the polar front now forecast to form further east and not pushing north. It's been going back and forth but hopefully it slips back a little.

truebluebasher's picture
truebluebasher's picture
truebluebasher Thursday, 8 Aug 2019 at 12:05am

Tassie Devil dusts the snow fields shoots north & blows Gold Coast off the Map.
30 kn Ekka Winds arrive a week early to rise a rare 'westerly' one day spike.
Equally as rare the westerly swell spike from The Red Wave that wipes out NZ Alps.
Blink & yer miss it...Bummer! Should've been here a second ago!

Just a few days to scout around for a weep-hole in The Great GC Storm Bank.
Only takes a hot flush to fire up the weekend crew....tbb spoke too soon!

superfish's picture
superfish's picture
superfish Thursday, 8 Aug 2019 at 4:00pm

I liked it when you used the forecaster notes based on the other models which gave an idea of whether they were converging/diverging from the WAMS and swellnets model. Anyways hopefully this weekend delivers yew cheers craig

Craig's picture
Craig's picture
Craig Thursday, 8 Aug 2019 at 4:15pm

Yeah that's what I usually do, forgot to check with EC in this case though! Ughh.