Western Australia Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Friday 16th February)

Best Days: Early Sunday morning in the South West, Tuesday morning Perth and Mandurah, Wednesday morning in the South West, Friday morning all locations

Recap

Clean conditions yesterday morning with a gusty offshore wind but small easing swell from 3-4ft across the South West, tiny to the north.

This morning it was smaller again with magnets across the South West the only option.

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This weekend and next week (Feb 17 – 23)

Tomorrow should be a lay day as the swell continues to drop away with less than ideal S/SE winds across the South West and possible weak onshore breeze to the north, though no swell.

Sunday is still looking fun with a very inconsistent SW groundswell that was generated south of South Africa earlier in the week due to peak.

The swell should build later tomorrow but a peak is due Sunday morning to a very infrequent 3-5ft across swell magnets, easing through the day.

Winds have shifted a little more to the SE for Sunday morning which is a little unfortunate owing to an inland surface trough and approaching cold front, shifting more onshore late morning. Monday then looks poor with small leftover surf and a lingering SW breeze.

Our new pulse of W/SW swell for Tuesday is still on track, with a small mid-latitude low that's currently in the Indian Ocean, north of Heard Island.

A fetch of strong W/SW winds are being projected towards us, producing a small W/SW swell for Tuesday, while a secondary fetch of less favourably aligned S/SW gales in our southern swell window should produce a reinforcing S/SW groundswell arriving at a similar time through Tuesday.

The W/SW swell should provide 1-2ft sets across Perth and Mandurah through Tuesday, with the S/SW groundswell building to 4-5ft+ or so by late morning across the South West under gusty S/SE tending SE winds ahead of sea breezes.

The swell should then ease Wednesday under fresh E/SE offshores.

Longer term a new long-range and inconsistent SW groundswell is due late week, generated by a strong low forming south of South Africa this weekend,. A fetch of gale to severe-gale W'ly winds should move east across the Heard Island region before weakening once east and closer to us, producing a moderate to large long-period SW groundswell.

We're probably looking at a peak in swell around 6ft to occasionally 8ft across Margs Friday morning, with 2ft+ sets in Mandurah and 1-2ft waves in Perth. Winds also look favourable but we'll review this Monday. Have a great weekend!