Southern Tasmanian Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Friday January 19th)

Best Days: Tomorrow, Saturday, Sunday morning

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Small background S/SW swell tomorrow with N winds, tending N/NE-NE, then variable and stronger NE late
• Easing surf Wed with strengthening N/NE winds
• Weak W/SW swell building later Fri with strong W-W/SW winds
• Small W/SW swell Sat/Sun with fresh W/NW tending W winds
• NW tending W/NW then SE winds Sun

Recap

A good pulse of S/SW swell into Friday afternoon held well into Saturday morning with variable winds and solid closeouts across Clifton. Other options were better with yesterday coming in tiny but with a lingering onshore breeze from a change Saturday.

Today, stronger onshore winds are blowing and the surf is a mess, picking back up to the 2ft range.

Ruffled swell Sat AM

This week and weekend (Jan 23 - 28)

Today's onshore winds are due to back off into tomorrow morning and swing offshore from the N'th, cleaning up conditions across the South Arm with some fun background mid-period swell to 2ft.

Winds will shift N/NE-NE through the afternoon before going more variable and then stronger NE late so this should provide plenty of time for a surf.

Wednesday may see lingering 1-2ft sets, easing through the day with strengthening N/NE winds

Tiny conditions will follow into the rest of the week with the next swell source arriving from the west later Friday but more Saturday/Sunday.

A healthy frontal system is currently projecting towards Western Australia but it's track will go too far north of our swell window, resulting in no real size from this source above 1ft.

The remnants of the frontal system will pass under us Friday afternoon and evening, generating a better aligned but weaker fetch of W/SW winds and some new W/SW swell for Saturday/Sunday to 1-2ft.

A late increase in size might be seen Friday but with strong W/SW winds, cleaner Saturday morning with W/NW tending W winds. Sunday should be cleaner across more open locations with a NW offshore, shifting W/NW ahead of S/SE sea breezes.

Longer term, more small W/SW swell energy is on the cards for mid-late next week but more on this Wednesday.