South Australian Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Monday June 30th)

Best Days: Keen surfers Friday, beaches Saturday morning, keen surfers Tuesday and Wednesday mornings

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Smaller tomorrow AM, ahead of a new SW groundswell into the afternoon, with a secondary stronger S/SW groundswell for Wed, easing Thu
• Light N/NW winds ahead of sea breezes Tue
• N/NW tending variable SW winds Wed
• Smaller surf Thu with fresh N/NE winds, lighter into the PM
• Small Fri/Sat with fresh N/NE-N winds Fri, weakern N/NE-E/NE Sat
• Small-mod sized, inconsistent SW groundswell building later Sun, peaking Mon
• Variable offshore tending S winds Sun
• Fresh N/NW winds Mon

Recap

Saturday was the pick of the weekend down South with a mix of building swells and great conditions while the Mid Coast saw improving 2ft surf through the day under weak northerly winds.

A trough brought a change and average conditions across the South Coast yesterday while the Mid Coast offered inconsistent 1-2ft sets under variable winds.

This morning conditions are a little better but still lumpy on the South Coast with variable breezes and a moderate sized, S/SW swell, clean but tiny inside the gulf.

Nice conditions Saturday morning

This week and weekend (Jul 1 - 6)

The coming week looks fun for the South Coast with slowly increasing offshore winds and a couple of good SW-S/SW groundswells over the coming days, smaller later week.

Early tomorrow looks to start small, but into the afternoon our first pulse of new SW groundswell is due, followed by a secondary, slightly stronger increase Wednesday.

These swells were generated by a healthy polar frontal progression over the weekend, with a pre-frontal fetch of W/NW gales being followed by stronger, gale to severe-gale W’ly winds.

The first swell should build to 3ft+ later tomorrow across Middleton with Wednesday’s coming in more to 4ft, but inconsistent, with the Mid Coast remaining tiny owing to the southerly direction and source of each swell.

A light N/NW offshore is due tomorrow ahead of weak sea breezes, N/NW tending variable SW through Wednesday.

Into the end of the week, smaller, easing surf is due as winds freshen from the N/NE on Thursday, lighter into the afternoon with Friday offering persistent N/NE-N winds all day.

Middleton isn’t expected to drop below 2ft Friday/Saturday thanks to weak, persistent polar frontal activity generating background levels of mid-period swell.

It looks like winds will weaken into Saturday out of the N/NE tending E/NE, variable Sunday morning ahead of a shallow change.

Into later Sunday but more so Monday morning, a small to moderate sized SW groundswell is due, though its origins are in our far swell window and with this, we’re not expecting any major size over 2-3ft across Middleton but with favourable N/NW winds.

Longer term, a significant cold outbreak and frontal progression is due across Western Australia this weekend and early next week, bringing with it building levels of swell, wind and cold mid-late next week. More on this Wednesday and Friday.