Average end to the week, swell for the weekend as winds slowly improve

Craig Brokensha picture
Craig Brokensha (Craig)

Western Australia Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Wednesday 3rd January)

Best Days: Sunday morning, Monday morning and Tuesday morning across the South West

Recap

Monday's swell hung in above expectations yesterday with great clean surf to 4-5ft across the South West, while Mandurah saw surf in the 2ft range, small to tiny in Perth.

This morning we're back to small to tiny surf across the state with a deterioration in conditions.

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This week and weekend (Jan 4 - 7)

The swell will continue to ease from today into tomorrow leaving small 2-3ft leftovers across the South West, tiny to the north. A morning SE breeze should create workable conditions ahead of an onshore change associated with an approaching front.

This front is now forecast to strengthen right off the South West on Friday, kicking up a late increase in windswell ahead of a peak in mid-period energy on Saturday morning.

Before this increase we'll see some mid-period across the coast Friday morning to an onshore 4ft in the South West and 1ft+ in Mandurah (0.5-1ft Perth).

The late increase in windswell will arrive with a strong SW'ly.

Come Saturday morning, we should see sets in the 6ft range across the South West, 2ft in Mandurah and 1-1.5ft in Perth but a rapid drop in size should be seen, slowed Sunday with a reinforcing mid-period SW swell.

Winds will improve for Saturday, but only be best in protected spots with a S/SE breeze which isn't ideal with the weak swell.

Sunday is looking better with a more favourable SE offshore wind and swell to 3-4ft across the South West, only tiny to the north.

Into next week we're only looking at small to moderate amounts of mid-period SW energy from persistent weak polar frontal activity through our swell window and winds look favourable Monday and Tuesday mornings, but from Wednesday onshore winds will create poor conditions. We'll confirm this on Friday though.