Fading surf until late week

Craig Brokensha picture
Craig Brokensha (Craig)

Western Australia Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Monday February 20th)

Best Days: Friday morning, Saturday and Sunday mornings in the South West, Monday morning in the South West 

Features of the Forecast (tl;dr)

  • Fading swell tomorrow, smaller Wed, bottoming out Thu AM
  • Dawn E/SE winds tomorrow, tending S/SE shortly after and S/SW into the PM
  • Fresh S/SE tending S/SW winds Wed, strong S/SW Thu
  • Moderate sized + mid-period SW swell Fri with fresh SE winds ahead of stronger sea breezes
  • Easing surf Sat with E/SE tending S/SW winds
  • Fun reinforcing mid-period S/SW swell Sun with E tending SW winds
  • Easing surf Mon with morning SE winds

Recap

Great conditions on Saturday with offshore winds and a fun pulse of mid-period swell that kicked Friday afternoon and easing back from 4-6ft. Mandurah was good and to 2ft with clean conditions, 1-2ft across Perth.

The swell faded through the day with Sunday coming in smaller under less favourable winds with a bit more south to them.

Into yesterday afternoon a small pulse of mid-period SW swell arrived, with it holding 4ft this morning under varying winds in the South West. Some spots are very blustery with others less so while Perth and Mandurah were clean but to 1-1.5ft.

Windy Yals this morning

This week and weekend (Feb 21 - 26)

Looking at the week ahead and there's nothing decent surf wise due until Friday.

The small mid-period SW swell for today will back off through tomorrow and Wednesday along with pre-dawn E'ly offshore winds tomorrow, shifting S/SE just after dawn and SW into the afternoon.

Wednesday looks less favourable with S/SE tending S/SW winds and nowhere to surf, followed by strong S/SW winds Thursday as a weakening front pushes up and clips us.

This front is currently in a much stronger form, that being a healthy polar low in the Heard Island area, with a good fetch of sub-gale-force W/NW to W/SW winds being generated in our south-western swell window.

The low will weaken while projecting north-east towards us, with the swell expected to kick later Thursday but peak Friday to 6ft+ in the South West, 2ft across Mandurah and 1-2ft in Perth.

Winds look to improve on Friday, tipping SE across all locations through the morning ahead of sea breezes, with E/SE offshore winds Saturday morning with the swell on the ease from 4-5ft in the South West, a little tiny to the north.

 

Sunday looks fun in the South West again with a new, reinforcing pulse of mid-period S/SW swell, generated by a front dipping south-east and then east around a strong high sitting west of us later this week.

While not ideally aimed, fun sets to 4-5ft should continue in the South West, tiny to the north but with great E'ly offshore winds, giving into afternoon sea breezes.

Following this there's nothing significant on the cards so make the most of the coming swell later week and workable conditions.