Good swells with improving winds
South Australian Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Wednesday August 6th)
Best Days: Both coasts tomorrow and Friday, South Coast Saturday morning, South Coast Sunday morning Mid Coast early Monday, South Coast Monday and Tuesday morning
Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)
- Large SW groundswell tomorrow with variable offshore winds ahead of sea breezes
- Reinforcing, mod-large SW groundswell Sat with variable offshore winds (E/NE-NE South Coast) ahead of sea breezes
- Easing swell Sat with NE tending E/NE winds
- Smaller Sun with N/NE tending E/NE winds
- Moderate sized W/SW groundswell for later Sun, peaking Mon AM with N/NE tending N/NW winds (NE early Mid Coast)
- Smaller Tue with variable tending S winds
Recap
Our large W/SW groundswell didn’t really impact the South Coast as big as expected with slow 2-3ft sets seen across Middleton under offshore winds, 2-3ft across the Mid Coast but choppy with the fresh to strong onshore breeze.
Today a trough has moved through and brought improving conditions across the Mid Coast with 2ft+ of easing swell, onshore down South with 2-3ft of swell hanging in the mix.
This week and weekend (Aug 5 - 10)
The coming days look great for surfing as we see back to back, moderate to large SW groundswells impacting the state with favourable winds.
Today’s trough is linked to a strong but weakening frontal progression moving across us, with it firing up to the south-west of Western Australia earlier this week.
A great fetch of gale to severe-gale W/SW winds during the earlier stages of the progression has generated a large SW groundswell for tomorrow, coming in at 4-6ft across Middleton with the Mid Coast seeing 2ft to occasionally 3ft on the favourable parts of the tide.
A secondary pulse of reinforcing SW-S/SW groundswell is then due on Friday with it upgraded since Monday, produced by a secondary polar frontal progression passing under the country today and tomorrow. This is coming in stronger than forecast on Monday, with a great, broad fetch of W/WN to W/SW gales due to generate 4-5ft of swell for the South Coast with the Mid easing back to a slower 1-2ft, easing into Saturday.
Local winds look locally offshore tomorrow morning ahead of sea breezes, with Friday playing out similar but with a little less favourable NE-E/NE ahead of sea breezes.
Saturday looks good again with local offshore winds (NE down South in the morning), E/NE into the afternoon with easing sets from the 4ft range off Middleton (tiny Mid Coast), while Sunday looks great under a N/NE tending E/NE breeze with smaller surf again.
Into late Sunday but more so Monday, an inconsistent W/SW groundswell is due, generated by a strong polar low pushing up and across the Heard Island region over the coming days.
A great fetch of W/SW gales will flare up before weakening quickly tomorrow evening, leaving a moderate sized W/SW groundswell for us Monday morning, coming in at a slow 1-2ft on the Mid Coast and 2-3ft across Middleton but with a wait for the sets.
N/NE-NE winds are again expected on Monday morning, variable into the afternoon from the N/NW, with easing surf Tuesday under variable winds ahead of a trough and S’ly winds.
For the rest of the week there’s nothing major on the cards until Friday but more so next weekend, but we’ll have a closer look at this Friday. In the meantime make the most of the coming swells.
Comments
Just a heads up that there's been another fish kill washing up across the Mid Coast beaches.
Can vouch for that. Instantly sick
Man there are tens if not hundreds of dolphins very very active around Christies at the moment. Hope it isn't algae related....
Loads of salmon and bait fish there currently mate.....
Heard on the radio quite a few at Seacliff Beach.
damn damn damn.. who knows where this will all go.. in 10 years will we look back on a few years of algae and be taking steps with certain species cos we are still recovering.. or will we be in long-term extinction mode? and wearing swim goggles and a mask when we go near the water. fuck.
The amount of algae foam inside the reef at Porties and then outside South Port Beach yesterday was hectic, this thing has no end in sight :(
Thousands of dead marine life along port willunga beach this morning. I walk it every morning and that’s the worst I’ve seen so far.
Shit. Can't believe it's still going :(
it just makes me wanna weep. every post or report the body goes numb. should be a thread in the forum for people to openly grieve and share. maybe in @stu's article on 'sea sick'.. the gulf is our port phillip, our sydney harbour.. glad it's getting national concern, but fuck, what's it matter..
I haven’t really posted on these forums but I am active reader and these personal accounts are just heartbreaking. Australia is defined by its coast, by its towns that hug its rugged shores and people who embrace all of its moods and find joy and life in the ocean. I can’t imagine what our South Australian brethren are going through for if this was to happen to the stretch of coast I love and call home it would be devastating to the community.
I'm hearing ya b6.
I feel heartbroken by the situation. Mostly for my kids.
I don't surf much in my present stage of life but we do as a family like to go down the rivermouth on hot summer mornings and loll about in the one footers. My girl got her first soft top last year.
It's dawning on me now that this possibly won't happen this coming summer, the gulfs becoming the perfect unflushable petri dish.
This pales into insignificance considering the wider implications.
Unfortunately it seems nothing can be done to remedy the bloom in the short term and the long term is looking pretty bleak.