Southern Tasmanian Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Wednesday February 2nd)

Best Days: Friday for the keen, Saturday morning, Sunday

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

• Small-moderate sized S'ly swell tomorrow with strong W/SW tending S winds
• Building S/SE groundswell Fri, peaking late with moderate SW tending S winds
• Easing S/SE swell Sun with N/NW tending S winds
• Small SW swell Sun with E/NE winds

Recap

Great conditions but tiny surf yesterday while today a new spike of mid-period S/SW swell has kicked wave heights to 3ft with early favourable winds. Conditions have now deteriorated with an onshore breeze.

This week and weekend (Feb 3 - 6)

A deepening low forming in a trough has kicked up today's S/SW swell and this low is now sitting south-southeast of us. This low looks to move off a touch quicker than forecast on Monday but we'll still see a great fetch of strong to gale-force S-S/SE winds generated through our swell window, generating a good pulse of S/SE groundswell for Friday, building towards a peak into the afternoon, easing Saturday.

We'll likely fall between swells tomorrow with surf to 2-3ft across Clifton, with Friday kicking to 3ft to possibly 4ft late afternoon (smaller 3ft in the morning), then easing from 2ft to possibly 3ft on Saturday morning.

Winds tomorrow will unfortunately be poor with a strong W/SW change before dawn, shifting S'ly into the afternoon creating choppy conditions, weaker Friday and moderate from the SW, tending S'ly through the day.

Saturday looks cleaner with offshore winds ahead of another trough and S/SE change as that S/SE swell eases.

Into Sunday our small mid-period S/SW swell is still on the cards, generated by a weak polar front skirting around a strong high moving in from the west. This should provide 2ft sets with E/NE winds, favouring selected spots.

Unfortunately there's nothing major at all to follow up this swell next week so make the most of the coming days of swell.