Large and onshore Tuesday/Wednesday, clean Thursday

Craig Brokensha picture
Craig Brokensha (Craig)

Western Australia Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Monday 14th July)

Best Days: Wednesday in protected spots, Thursday, early Friday

Recap

The window of opportunity was very short-lived on Saturday down in the South West with fresh and gusty E/NE winds swinging NE by mid-morning, favouring only a selected few breaks. Further north was cleaner and better with an easing swell from late last week.

Sunday was poor in the South West but cleaner around Perth in Gero but without too much swell.

Today a change has moved through along with the arrival of a large new W/SW groundswell but conditions are poor across all coasts.

This week (Jul 15 - 18)

The much larger pulse of W/SW groundswell due tomorrow has not been changed with the vigorous mid-latitude frontal progression responsible for this swell currently pushing across the state.

With this we should see the South West building to 12-15ft through the day with 3-4ft waves in Perth and larger 8ft+ waves developing around Gero into the afternoon.

Unfortunately there'll be no real options for a decent wave with fresh and gusty W/SW winds across most of the state all day (SW around Gero).

The W/SW groundswell is expected to ease into Wednesday, but a secondary large pulse of SW groundswell will take its place, generated by a trailing polar front pushing up towards us and then clipping us tomorrow.

This front will move off quickly to the east and as a result winds will improve quickly behind it.

The large SW groundswell should peak Wednesday morning and ease from 10-12ft+ in the South West, 3-4ft in Perth and 6-8ft+ up at Gero as winds swing from the S/SW around to the S/SE around Perth and Gero through the morning, while Margs should see winds tending light into the afternoon, favouring protected breaks.

Thursday is the day to surf though with offshore E'ly winds and large easing surf.

Wave heights will continue to ease into Friday as winds tend more north-easterly, favouring selected breaks across all regions.

This weekend onwards (Jul 14 onwards)

The weekend is looking a little dicey wind wise which is unfortunate as we're expecting to see a good pulse of SW groundswell fill in through the day. This will be a long-range swell from an unfavourable by strong mid-latitude polar frontal progression drifting south-east across Heard Island.

The swell should arrive Saturday afternoon and pulse to 5-6ft later, holding into Sunday but early N/NE winds are expected to swing N/NW into the afternoon with weaker S/SW winds into Sunday.

Longer term a larger W/SW groundswell is on the cards for Tuesday next week but with average winds. We'll review this again Wednesday though.