Western Australia Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Wednesday February 23rd)

Best Days: Monday morning, protected spots Tuesday and Wednesday in the South West, next Thursday morning

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Inconsistent mid-period SW swell building tomorrow PM, peaking Fri with gusty SE tending strong S/SE winds
• Easing surf on the weekend with strong S/SE winds Sat, fresh SE tending S/SE on Sun
• Inconsistent SW swell building Mon with fresh E/SE tending S/SW winds, peaking Tue with fresh S/SE-S tending S/SW winds
• Inconsistent SW groundswell Wed with S/SE winds, easing Thu with E/SE tending S/SW winds

Recap

Small to tiny yesterday morning with peaky waves in Perth and Mandurah, clean but tiny in protected spots in the South West. A new pulse of swell was seen into the afternoon and this has dropped a touch into this morning back to the 3ft range across the South West while remaining tiny to the north.

This week and next (Feb 24 - Mar 4)

The surf will remain small into tomorrow morning but through the afternoon some inconsistent, new, mid-period SW swell is due to build and peak on Friday.

The source of this swell was broad but relatively weak polar frontal activity with sets to 3ft+ due into tomorrow afternoon with 3ft to occasionally 4ft sets Friday, tiny in Perth and Mandurah.

Winds should improve slightly from today into tomorrow morning and shift SE but be fresh to strong, limiting surfing options with similar, gusty SE winds into Friday morning. Both afternoon's will see strong S/SE breezes.

The weekend looks less favourable with gusty S/SE winds from the get go and easing levels of swell. Therefore flag the weekend for wave chasing.

Into next week we should see some better, moderate sized mid-period swell filling in, along with one inconsistent pulse of groundswell. The source of these swells will be a healthy, elongated polar frontal progression developing west of and travelling east of the Heard Island region over the coming days and weekend.

An initial weak low should generate some inconsistent, weak swell for Monday, building to 3-4ft+ later in the day across the South West, but a secondary stronger system tracking in behind will generate a better fetch of strong to near gale-force W'ly winds.

This should produce more size Tuesday to 4-5ft+ across Margs, 1-1.5ft in Mandurah and 1ft+ in Perth.

Come Wednesday, a less consistent but stabilising SW groundswell is due generated by the initial stages of the secondary low firing up west of Heard Island. This should provide 4-6ft sets, with Perth and Mandurah remaining tiny, easing through the afternoon.

Looking at the local winds and unfortunately Monday is the only clean day with a moderate to fresh E/SE breeze shifting S/SW into the afternoon and then shifting S-S/SW on Tuesday as a trough moves in from the west. This looks to keep unfavourable S'ly winds blowing across our region through Wednesday, possibly improving Thursday with some better reinforcing swell energy.

We'll have a closer look at this in Friday's update though. Longer term there's continued weak polar frontal activity and mid-period swells inbound but more on this next update.