Easing surf tomorrow, new swell Monday but cleanest Tuesday

Craig Brokensha picture
Craig Brokensha (Craig)

Western Australia Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Friday 20th January)

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Best Days: Margs early tomorrow, Perth Monday morning, Margs Tuesday morning, both coasts next Saturday

Recap

Terrible conditions yesterday with a small to tiny swell and gusty onshore wind.

Today though a large new SW groundswell peaked this morning to 6ft+ across the South West with decent winds, 2-3ft around Mandurah and 2ft in Perth. We'll see the swell tail off through the day as sea breezes kick in.

This weekend and next week (Jan 21 – 27)

Today's good SW groundswell will continue to ease through tomorrow and conditions will be a little dicey, with an early S/SE'ly across Margs (E/NE in Perth).

The South West should be easing from 3-5ft, with tiny waves up in Perth. Sunday will then be poor with onshore S/SW winds and small surf, building a little through the day.

Monday's SW swell (which should build later Sunday) is still looking average, with a relatively weak but persistent polar low currently south-west of us, generating a fetch of strong to sub-gale-force W/SW winds through our south-western swell window.

This swell should come in at 5-6ft across the South West Monday morning, with 1-2ft sets in Perth, easing off into the afternoon and further Tuesday.

Winds Monday will still be onshore from the S/SW across the South West, while Perth will be a bit better with a morning S/SE'ly.

Tuesday is the day to surf around Margs with an offshore E/SE wind and smaller easing 3-4ft+ waves. Perth will be tiny.

A low point in surf is due Wednesday and Thursday next week with SE-S/SE winds, but later in the week and more so the weekend some better SW groundswell is on the cards.

A slow upwards trend is size is due from Thursday owing to a broad and slow moving polar low from the Heard Island region, towards us most of next week.

Initial post-frontal and pre-frontal winds will generate a small mid-period swell for Thursday, but behind this, stronger W/SW gales spread out over half the southern Indian Ocean should produce a longer-period swell for Friday and Saturday.

At its peak the swell should reach 5-6ft or so on the sets in the South West and 1-2ft in Perth Saturday with what looks to be S/SE winds.

Longer term we might be looking at a larger swell into the next week, more on this Monday. Have a great weekend!