Southern Tasmanian Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Monday September 19th)

Best Days: Tomorrow, Wednesday, Thursday morning, Friday morning, Sunday

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Inconsistent W/SW groundswell building Mon PM with SW winds, holding Tue with N/NW tending fresh E/NE winds
• Small, inconsistent W/SW swell Wed with N tending E/NE then variable winds
• Slightly bigger, inconsistent W/SW swell Thu and Fri with N tending S/SW winds Thu, variable tending S Fri
• Best pulse of inconsistent W/SW groundswell later Fri and Sat AM with fresh to strong W/SW tending SW winds
• Easing surf Sun with N winds

Recap

Tiny waves Saturday with a little lift in energy yesterday. Today we've got inconsistent 1-1.5ft sets continuing but a new W/SW groundswell should be offering 1-2ft sets this afternoon but with a shallow SW change.

This week and weekend (Sep 20 - 25)

This afternoon's inconsistent W/SW groundswell should hold an inconsistent 1-2ft tomorrow, while some lesser period reinforcing swell is expected to maintain wave heights through Wednesday ahead of our stronger swells from Thursday.

Conditions will be best tomorrow morning with a N/NW offshore, shifting fresher E/NE into the afternoon and then N tending E/NE and then variable into the afternoon Wednesday.

Moving into the end of the week and we've got our distant, W/SW swells generated by strong polar frontal activity to the east of Heard Island due.

Thursday's swell looks least consistent, generated over the weekend with sets to 2ft due across Clifton, while a reinforcing pulse was generated today by W'ly gales to the south-west of Western Australia.

2ft sets should continue, with the strongest pulse of swell expected to arrive later Friday but peak Saturday.

This will be generated by a fetch of W/SW-SW gales developing east of the Heard Island region this evening, with infrequent sets to 2-3ft due Saturday morning but it looks like we'll see a deepening trough bringing strong W/SW tending SW winds, creating poor conditions.

Thursday morning looks cleanest with a N'ly offshore ahead of a shallow S/SW change, more variable Friday morning but we'll confirm this Wednesday.

Longer term there's nothing major on the cards as mid-latitude fronts and lows spin up again across Western and South Australia. So make the most of the coming, slow westerly swells.