South Australian forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Monday April 14th)

Best Days: South Coast tomorrow, South Coast Wednesday, South Coast Thursday, both coasts Friday, South Coast Saturday morning

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Easing surf tomorrow with a N/NE tending variable wind ahead of late sea breezes
• Moderate sized S/SW groundswell for Wed AM, easing with a smaller pulse for Thu
• N/NW tending variable W/NW winds Wed, moderate N/NE tending N/NW winds Thu (lighter later)
• Moderate sized W/SW swell building later Thu, peaking Fri AM
• Variable offshore winds Fri ahead of sea breezes
• Easing swell Sat with W/NW-NW winds

Recap

Friday’s W/SW swell held well into the weekend with clean 2ft waves on offer most of Saturday across the Mid Coast while the South Coast saw a strong increase in SW swell energy to 4-6ft under light winds.

Yesterday was great down South with clean conditions and solid surf easing back from 4ft or so while the Mid Coast maintained 2ft sets but was wind affected before glassing off late.

Today we’ve got a bit less swell with variable winds across both coasts, still fun down South and holding 1-2ft across the Mid Coast for the patient.

Good sets in the mix Saturday morning

This week and weekend (Apr 15 - 20)

Our favourable run of winds for the South Coast will continue with the Mid Coast missing out on the coming swells until some new W/SW energy arrives later week.

The current mix of swells from the weekend, along with a new, long-range SW groundswell for today are due to ease back into tomorrow and a N/NE offshore wind will only tend variable into the early afternoon ahead of later sea breezes.

Middleton should ease back from 2ft to possibly 3ft with tiny waves inside the gulf.

Into Wednesday, a new S/SW groundswell is due, generated by a great but slightly poorly aimed fetch of gale to severe-gale W/NW winds that projected towards the polar shelf through yesterday, with a secondary fetch of even less favourably aligned NW severe-gales set to follow today.

From the initial fetch we should see Wednesday morning coming in an inconsistent 3ft+ across Middleton as it spreads radially up and into us, easing through the day with the swell being too south for the Mid Coast.

This swell is due to ease into the afternoon, with the secondary slightly smaller pulse due Thursday, maintaining 2ft+ sets across Middleton. Local winds will remain favourable for the South Coast and N/NW tending variable W/NW on Wednesday with Thursday offering moderate N/NE tending N/NW winds, possibly light later.

Now, into Thursday afternoon but more so Friday a fun mix of new W/SW energy is due, generated by a strong polar frontal system that’s currently forming around the Heard Island region.

A tight but strong fetch of gale to severe-gale SW winds will project towards Western Australia today, breaking down into this evening, resulting in an inconsistent W/SW swell that looks to build Thursday afternoon, reaching 1-1.5ft across the Mid Coast with Friday offering infrequent 2ft sets on the favourable parts of the tide, 3ft to occasionally 4ft across Middleton.

Conditions look great for both coasts Friday with variable, local offshore winds ahead of weak sea breezes, with the swell easing slowly Saturday under a W/NW-NW flow.

Now, the outlook from the weekend and into next week is still a bit wishy washy thanks to the models not resolving an incoming high behind troughy weather on the weekend. We’ll likely see S’ly winds kick in Sunday, possibly persisting into Tuesday/Wednesday with small surf but more on this Wednesday.