Western Australian Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Monday 24th August)

Best Days: Swell magnets Tuesday morning, Thursday morning, early Friday Perth and Mandurah, Saturday morning, Sunday

Recap

Clean but small early across the South West Saturday before onshore winds kicked in, sloppy and to 6ft with a new W/SW groundswell yesterday. Mandurah was a clean 1-2ft Saturday (tiny in Perth), average Sunday with a bit more size across both regions.

Today the surf has cleaned up across all locations with great 4-5ft+ waves in the South West, 2-3ft in Mandurah and 2ft in Perth.

This week and weekend (Aug 25 - 30)

We’ve got small waves on the coast the next couple of days as yesterday’s swell continues to drop in size but conditions will be nice and clean and best across the South West swell magnets.

A morning E/NE offshore is due tomorrow morning ahead of sea breezes with easing sets from 3ft to maybe 4ft in the South West, 1-1.5ft across Mandurah and tiny in Perth. Wednesday looks similar in size with less favourable though light S’ly winds across the South West, morning offshore to the north.

Our new W/SW tending SW groundswell event for Thursday and Friday is still on track, with a great frontal progression currently moving through the southern Indian Ocean from south-east of Madagascar. A fetch of W’ly gales will continue east, weakening slowly south-west of us with a long-period W/SW groundswell due to fill in Thursday and peak into the afternoon, followed by a reinforcing SW groundswell Friday.

Size wise the South West should build to a great 8ft+ into the afternoon, 2-3ft across Mandurah and 2ft+ in Perth. Friday looks possibly a touch smaller, while a front pushing up and into us Friday will generate a weaker mid-period swell that looks to maintain 8ft sets in the South West, 2-3ft waves across Mandurah and 2ft waves in Perth.

This front will unfortunately spoil conditions Friday, but coming back to Thursday and a light E/NE offshore is due ahead of afternoon sea breezes, then onshore from the W/SW tending S/SW Friday with the front. Perth and Mandurah are likely to see more favourable S/SE winds early Friday though.

The mid-period swell for Saturday looks to be met with offshore winds in the morning as Friday’s front clears, good again Sunday as the swell eases.

Longer term there’s a few different new swell sources for early-mid week, the first being a strong low forming south-east of South Africa, though the remnants of this storm may bring onshore winds as the swell fills in. More on this Wednesday.