Western Australia Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Monday 20th January)

Best Days: Protected spots Wednesday and Thursday morning, Friday morning in the South West, Sunday morning in the South West, Tuesday morning in the South West

Recap

A low point in swell Saturday with clean conditions, much better Sunday with a new swell from Saturday afternoon, easing back from the 4ft range in the South West, tiny to the north.

Today was smaller and with less favourable winds, leaving average waves for keen surfers in the South West.

This week and weekend (Jan 21 - 26)

Tomorrow will be a lay day as a strengthening cold front moves in from the south-west bringing strong SW tending S/SW winds and an increase in mid-period SW energy through the day. No major size is expected, but we'll see a larger long-period groundswell arriving later in the day, peaking on Wednesday.

This swell, discussed through last week was generated by a vigorous and slow moving polar low that developed south-east of South Africa.

The swell will be a little inconsistent owing to the low weakening around the Heard Island region, but the South West swell magnets should see 6-8ft sets, 2-3ft in Mandurah and 2ft across Perth Wednesday, but with less than ideal winds. Margs will see fresh to strong S/SW breezes, so try protected spots, a touch better and S/SE to the north.

Winds will back off in strength and persist out of the S/SE around Perth and Mandurah Thursday morning, S'ly across Margs, leaving protected spots with the best conditions as the swell eases from 5-6ft in the South West, 2ft to the north on the sets.

Friday will be smaller with more favourable S/SE-SE winds across the South West.

Looking at the weekend and conditions look mostly clean with morning SE offshores but the swell will be on the small side. A background SW swell is due Saturday, keeping the South West around 3-4ft+, tiny to the north.

Moving into next week and a stalling polar low south of us is expected to see embedded fronts spinning around it, just on the edge of our southern swell window.

No major size is expected off this low, but we should see a kick in size Tuesday next week to 4-5ft across south swell magnets in the South West, tiny to the north.

Following this there's nothing of note until later next week, but more on this Wednesday.