Victoria Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Monday 7th January)

Best Days: Tuesday morning, Thursday morning Surf COast, Friday morning exposed beaches

Recap

A small onshore start to Saturday morning, with our new moderate to large sized W/SW groundswell expected into the afternoon hitting both the Cape Sorell and Point Nepean buoys hard but observations on the coast were less than exciting. No real size was reported which is disappointing.

Sunday was much cleaner but the swell easing back from a smaller and weaker 3ft on the Surf Coast magnets, bigger though bumpy to the east.

This morning is smaller though not too bad with a weak onshore wind and 2ft to occasionally 3ft sets on the Surf Coast, lumpy and 3-4ft to the east. Our new SW groundswell is building strongly off Tasmania but this is discussed in more detail below.

Today’s Forecaster Notes are brought to you by Rip Curl

This week and weekend (Jan 8 - 13)

The weekend's fizzer of a westerly swell will be followed by a better aligned and longer-period SW groundswell later today and tomorrow, generated by a strong and slow moving polar low.

Satellite observations (which are patchy owing to the US Government Shutdown) show a good fetch of severe-gale W/SW winds aimed through our south-west swell window, and this should have been the case since late last week through the weekend.

The low is currently passing under Tassie, and we're seeing the swell building strongly off Cape Sorell already with this swell kicking solidly later today, a little ahead of schedule and likely peaking early tomorrow morning.

Surf Coast swell magnets are still expected to come in at 3-5ft tomorrow morning with 6ft to possibly 8ft sets on the Mornington Peninsula, easing through the day.

Winds aren't great but should be workable with a light to moderate S'ly breeze through the morning, freshening from the S/SW through the day.

Wednesday morning will be smaller and back to the 3ft range on the Surf Coast and conditions look average with a fresh and gusty SW'ly breeze.

Into the afternoon a small mid-period W/SW swell is due to fill in, generated by a weak frontal system projecting towards us today and tomorrow. Wind strengths will only be strong and as a result we should see the Surf Coast persisting around 3ft on the sets into Wednesday afternoon, with 4-5ft waves on the Mornington Peninsula, easing back from a similar size Thursday morning.

Conditions will become cleaner Thursday morning around Torquay with a morning W/NW breeze expected, SW at all other locations.

Friday will be a day for the exposed beaches to the east with smaller easing 2ft sets on the Surf Coast, 3-4ft on the Mornington Peninsula and with an E/NE-NE morning breeze.

The weekend isn't looking too special with the swell bottoming out on Saturday with average W/SW tending S/SW winds, while there may be a small pulse of windswell for Sunday though with SE winds.

We may see a slightly better W/SW groundswell early next week, but the storm generating this will be dipping unfavourably through our western swell window. Winds also look to be an issue with back to back highs moving through broken up by weak trough lines. This generally results in S to E winds,but more on this Wednesday.