Sydney, Hunter and Illawarra Surf Forecast (Mon 25th Nov)

Sydney, Hunter and Illawarra Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Monday 25th November)

Best Days: Tuesday morning protected spots, Wednesday morning, Thursday morning

Recap

A mix of short-range E/NE swell and NE windswell amounted to 3ft across open beaches Saturday morning with light variable winds from the northern quarter. A shallow S'ly change didn't really surface and instead NE sea breezes kicked up into the afternoon.

The swell backed off to a smaller 2ft Sunday with less than favourable S'ly winds during the morning. Winds swung more S/SE during the day as the swell pulsed a little out of the SE.

This morning the beginnings of a new S/SE swell was in the water, coming in at 2ft+ across south facing beaches, but we should see the swell build considerably during the day as a new S/SE groundswell makes its way up the coast. Winds will unfortunately swing fresh S'ly around midday.

This week (Nov 25-29)

A low pressure system that deepened at the entrance to the Southern Tasman Sea yesterday aimed a fetch of strong to gale-force S-SE winds towards us. This has generated a medium sized pulse of S/SE groundswell that will pulse strongly this afternoon.

Along with this though we'll see some shorter-range S/SE swell arriving as the low projects a fetch of strong S/SE winds up the coast this afternoon. This fetch will stretch from us down to the tip of New Zealand's South Island, with a fetch of SE gales projecting towards us early tomorrow morning (pictured right).

What will result is a medium to large S/SE swell early tomorrow ahead of a drop in size into the afternoon and then reinforcing pulse of SE groundswell for Wednesday afternoon to 3-5ft or so.

Winds tomorrow will unfortunately be less than ideal, swinging from a fresh S/SW'ly around to the S/SE into the afternoon.

Wednesday looks like the best day of this swell though as winds swing offshore from the West ahead of E/NE sea breezes.

The rest of the week will see the SE swell fade with NW winds Thursday morning and variable winds Friday morning.

This weekend (Nov 30 onwards)

We should see another spike in medium to large S'ly swell this weekend as a surface trough moving offshore Friday deepens significantly while sliding up the coast. We should see a fetch of strong to gale-force S/SE winds aimed into the coast kicking up a messy S/SE windswell.

Conditions and weather look poor at this stage but check back here Wednesday for an update on all of this.