Southern Tasmanian Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Friday April 21st)

Best Days: Most days, though smallest tomorrow and for beginners

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Tiny tomorrow
• Moderate sized W/SW swell for Sun, easing Mon with W/NW tending light SE-E winds Sun, N tending SE winds Mon
• Moderate sized W/SW groundswell building Tue, peaking in the PM, easing Wed
• N tending N/NE winds Tue, N tending NE winds Wed
• Moderate sized SW groundswell for Fri PM through Sun

Recap

A peak in W/SW swell yesterday with clean conditions and slow but strong 2-3ft sets across Clifton, still 2ft this morning.

Good but straight sets yesterday

This weekend and next week (Apr 22 - 28)

The surf will ease off further tomorrow leaving tiny 1-1.5ft waves, ideal for beginners, possibly increasing later in the day, but more so Sunday with a new mid-period W/SW swell filling in. This swell and a secondary stronger pulse will be generated by strengthening frontal systems pushing in from the west today and tomorrow.

The first system isn't ideal, tracking fast to the east-southeast and producing a fetch of strong to gale-force W/NW winds, while a secondary system passing under us Saturday evening should generate a better fetch of gale to severe-gale W'ly winds.

Size wise, Clifton should come in at 3ft to possibly 4ft, easing from 2-3ft on Monday.

Winds tomorrow will be good most of the day and N/NW tending W/NW, with Sunday seeing W/NW tending light SE-E winds. Monday morning will be clean again with N'ly offshores ahead of SE sea breezes.

Tuesday looks smaller to start off with, while a fleeting pulse of W/SW groundswell generated by a strong but slightly poor structured low drifting east-southeast through our swell window.

A fetch of gale to severe-gale W/NW winds should produce a good kick in size to 2-3ft through the afternoon and winds look favourable with a N/NW tending N/NE breeze.

Wednesday will remain clean as the swell eases back from 1-2ft under N tending NE winds.

Longer term a stronger polar frontal progression developing south of the country during next week should generate a decent run of SW groundswell from Friday through Sunday next weekend, coming in the 2-3ft range. Winds look to be favourable each morning but we'll review this Monday. Have a great weekend!