South Australian Surf Forecast (issued Fri 14th Mar)

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Craig started the topic in Friday, 14 Mar 2014 at 11:59am

South Australian Forecast (issued Friday 14th March)

Best Days: All weekend in protected locations down South, early Monday and Tuesday mornings down South, Wednesday morning on both coasts

Recap

Wednesday afternoon's increase in W/SW swell held surprisingly well into yesterday morning on the Mid with good 2ft+ sets under light offshore winds. This created good waves on the beaches and reefs. The South Coast also offered good waves with a moderate swell and offshore winds.

Today a stronger increase in SW groundswell is filling in across the South Coast, rising from a clean 3-4ft on the South Coast, while the Mid is also offering good 1-2ft sets. The swell should reach 3-5ft at Middleton and 4-6ft at Waits during the day as winds tend more W/NW.

This weekend (Mar 15 - 16)

There's plenty more swell on the way for the weekend as today's SW groundswell is replaced by a new W/SW swell into the late afternoon and more so Sunday.

This is being generated by a strong mid-latitude front racing in from the west that will push through the Bight, kicking up 2-3ft of W/SW swell for the Mid Coast and keeping the South Coast ticking at 3-4ft along the Middleton stretch with 4-5ft sets at Waits.

Unfortunately winds will be generally from the W-W/NW all weekend, creating poor conditions on the Mid, but clean surf in protected locations on the South Coast.

Next week onwards (Mar 17 onwards)

The strong pulse of SW groundswell on the cards for Tuesday next week has been pushed back slightly with the swell due to arrive later in the evening and peak Wednesday now.

This swell will be generated as the Long Wave Trough intensifies over Victoria next week, directing a vigorous polar low from the Heard Island region up towards them over the weekend.

Unfortunately the low is expected to stall in our far swell window Sunday night as a cold front sheds off and races towards us early next week, generating an initial medium sized SW groundswell for Monday afternoon and Tuesday under W/NW to W/SW winds. So surf early each morning for the best of it.

The groundswell should peak Wednesday morning though to a solid 4-5ft at Middleton and 5-6ft+ at Waits under light E/SE winds. The Mid Coast should pulse to 1-2ft Tuesday afternoon and ease from a similar size Wednesday under cleaner offshores.

Longer term a new swell is on the cards for next weekend, but we'll review this Monday.