Western Australia Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Monday January 2nd)

Best Days: Exposed spots tomorrow morning in the South West and the swell magnets Wednesday morning, protected spots Sunday morning, Monday morning, Tuesday morning

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Final pulse of moderate sized mid-period S/SW swell tomorrow AM with gusty E/SE tending strong S/SE winds, smaller Wed with gusty E/SE winds ahead of sea breezes
• Moderate sized + building mid-period swell Sat PM, peaking Sun AM
• Strong S/SE winds Sat mod-fresh S/SE tending S/SW Sun
• Large SW groundswell for Mon AM with gusty SE tending strong S/SE winds
• Easing surf Tue with gusty SE winds

Recap

Smaller, bumpy surf on Saturday ahead of a good pulse of new mid-period SW swell into the afternoon, better yesterday though only in protected spots with early cross-offshore winds. Perth and Mandurah were tiny Saturday, better yesterday but to only 1-2ft (a little under expectations)

This morning was cleaner across the South West but with a dropping swell from 4-6ft this morning, 1-2ft in Mandurah and 1ft across Perth.

This week and weekend (Jan 3 - 8)

The surf will slowly ease over the coming days, slowed in the South West tomorrow by a reinforcing mid-period S/SW swell that was generated by a weak final front projecting towards us on the weekend.

The South West should be 4-5ft tomorrow morning but tiny further north in Mandurah/Perth and to 1-1.5ft. Winds look to be best for slightly-protected spots and out of the E/SE-SE, gusty through the morning ahead of strong afternoon S/SE winds (S/SW Perth and Mandurah).

Wednesday will become smaller but conditions clean again through the morning with gusty E/SE winds, smaller again Thursday with straighter E'ly offshore winds.

A trough moving through Friday will bring a change, possibly variable at dawn and size wise, there'll only be some small background swell in the mix across the South West.

This trough will be attached to a strengthening polar frontal progression firing up to our south-west, with back to back lows due to develop.

The first will be weakest, generating a mid-period SW swell for later Saturday but more so Sunday while the second will generate a fetch of gale to severe-gale W/SW-SW winds through our south-western swell window.

The first swell should come in around the 6ft range across the South West, 2ft in Mandurah and 1-2ft across Perth. The second swell looks great and to 8-10ft in the South West, 2-3ft across Mandurah and 2ft in Perth.

Locally winds will start to improve on Saturday as a high moves in but with strong S/SE breezes, weaker Sunday and moderate-fresh S/SE, best on Monday and more SE through the morning.

We'll review this again on Wednesday though.