Western Australia Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Friday 18th July)

Best Days: Early Saturday for desperate surfers, Thursday, early Friday

Recap

Yesterday was excellent across the state with offshore winds and a strong easing swell in the South West and pumping waves around Perth and Gero. Today the swell is smaller but still great with better than expected offshores around Margs this morning, but these have since swung NE and strengthened.

This weekend onwards (Jul 19 onwards)

A fun pulse of inconsistent SW groundswell is due across the state later tomorrow, peaking through Sunday but winds look to be an issue. Early NE winds are due to swing N/NW through the day, creating poor conditions.

Sunday isn't looking any better as the trough responsible for the NW winds slips across us bringing fresh to strong SW tending W/SW winds to all locations Sunday.

As touched on last update, the outlook for next week is poor as a series of vigorous mid-latitude lows push into us along with a large SW groundswell pulse for Tuesday and then Thursday.

Tuesday's swell is currently being generated by an intense mid-latitude front pushing through the Southern Indian Ocean and this will be followed by a secondary system through the weekend. While peaking through Tuesday winds look poor and strong but easing from the S/SW. Wednesday morning will be no better as winds tend back to the W/NW ahead of another approaching front.

Thursday and Friday's large W/SW groundswell should be produced by a flurry of vigorous and broad mid-latitude frontal activity pushing all the way from under South Africa, through the Southern Indian Ocean towards us through the weekend and early next week.

A couple of embedded pulses are due, with a peak expected Thursday afternoon to 8-10ft+ in the South West, 3ft+ in Perth and 6ft+ up at Gero. A drop from a similar size is then due Friday morning.

Winds look to remain an issue through Thursday, lingering but weakening from the SW around Margs, while further north more variable and likely light offshore breezes are expected. Come Friday another approaching front looks to swing winds to the NW ahead of an early NE'ly but we'll review this Monday.