Western Australian forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Wednesday March 26th)

Best Days: This morning, the South West tomorrow morning, the South West Sunday morning and Monday

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Easing surf tomorrow with light-mod E/NE winds ahead of relatively weak sea breezes
• Small mid-period SW swell Fri with strengthening S/SE winds (variable to the north)
• Easing surf Sat with gusty SE tending strong S/SE winds
• Small mid-period SW swell Sun with E/SE winds ahead of sea breezes
• Tricky, small to moderate sized, inconsistent S/SW groundswell filling in Mon with gusty E/NE winds, tending more N and easing
• Easing swell Tue with S/SE winds
• Stronger swells likley later next week

Recap

Monday afternoon’s strong kick in large groundswell held well into yesterday morning across all locations with better than expected conditions seen across the Margaret River region. Sets were still a great 8ft, easing slowly through the day with 3ft waves in Mandurah and 2-3ft sets across Perth. Conditions were a touch funky to the north with variable winds.

Today the swell was still a decent 5-6ft across the South West with fairly good conditions, 2ft+ across Mandurah and Perth, with it worth making the most of ahead of a slow period ahead.

This week and next (Mar 27 - Apr 4)

The coming outlook is quite slow, with the current swell due to continue easing into this afternoon and tomorrow but with a light to moderate E/NE offshore wind ahead of relatively weak sea breezes. Expect easing 3-4ft sets across the South West, tiny to the north.

Into Friday, a small pulse of mid-period SW swell is due off a short burst of strong W/NW winds to the south-west of us yesterday evening, and this may maintain surf in the 4ft range across the South West with tiny waves to the north. 

Unfortunately a trough will bring strengthening S/SE winds on Friday (variable early to the north), limiting options across the South West.

The weekend looks slow with fading surf from Friday as winds shift more SE through the morning on Saturday, then E/SE Sunday along with a small boost of background swell energy to 3-4ft or so.

Moving into next week, and a late forming polar frontal progression to our south-west Friday evening through Saturday should produce a fetch of poorly aligned W/NW-NW gales.

This will generate some inconsistent S/SW groundswell for Monday, building to 4-5ft on the regional south magnets in the South West with no real size further north.

Gusty E/NE winds will favour these locations though, tending more N’ly through the day and easing, with Tuesday coming in smaller and with a return to unfavourable S/SE winds.

Longer term the outlook is a little healthier with a strengthening polar frontal progression to our south-west likely to generate building levels of S/SW swell mid-late week. Winds look a little south in nature, but more on this Friday.