Southern Tasmanian Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Wednesday April 20th)

Best Days: Protected spots tomorrow, Friday morning, Saturday morning, Sunday morning, Monday and Tuesday mornings

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Large SW groundswell tomorrow with mid-period energy in the mix with fresh W/SW tending SW winds
• Easing mix of swells Fri with W/NW tending SW winds
• N/NW tending W/SW winds Sat
• Moderate sized + SW groundswell Sun with W tending S/SW winds
• Easing surf Mon and Tue with N/NW tending S/SE winds

Recap

Monday afternoon's pulse of swell eased back from a clean, though tiny and fun 1-1.5ft yesterday, with tiny surf seen today.

This week and next week (21 - 29)

Moving into the end of the week we've got our large SW groundswell due, mixed in with mid-period energy tomorrow, with plenty of back up activity into the weekend and early next week.

The source of these swells will be a strong polar frontal progression, with the first being a strong polar low that formed earlier this week, south-west of Western Australia.

A great fetch of gale to severe-gale W/SW winds were generated, with the groundswell due to peak tomorrow morning to a strong 4-5ft across Clifton.

A trailing front spawning off the back of the low will produce some solid reinforcing mid-period swell but also bring fresh W/SW tending SW winds tomorrow.

Both swells are due to ease Friday from 3ft+ and with better W/NW tending SW winds into the afternoon.

Now, into the weekend, trailing polar frontal activity, with one significant polar fetch of gale to severe-gale W/NW winds should generate some new SW groundswell for Sunday. Saturday isn't due to get below 2ft with Sunday's swell pulsing back to a strong 3-4ft across the South Arm.

Saturday will be clean with N/NW winds ahead of a weak W/SW change, then W tending S/SW on Sunday. Protected spots will be the go for the keen.

Easing surf with morning offshore winds is expected into early next week as the polar frontal activity settles and we see mid-latitude storms firing up later in the week. This isn't ideal for swell generation from our south-western window but there might be a S/SE groundswell to keep an eye on later in the week. More on this Friday.