Sydney, Hunter and Illawarra Surf Forecast (Fri 20th Dec)

Sydney, Hunter and Illawarra Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Friday 20th December)

Best Days: Saturday morning, Sunday morning at south swell magnets, Monday

Recap

Tiny surf continued yesterday morning but an afternoon kick in NE windswell was seen with fresh N/NE winds. Today the swell was continuing around 2ft across north-east facing beaches with lighter N'ly winds. The swell should persist all day as winds freshen from the N/NE again.

This weekend (Dec 21 - 22)

The NE windswell should come in at a similar size to 2ft across north-east facing beaches tomorrow morning, but a southerly change is coming in earlier with morning SW winds tending fresh S/SE and then SE from mid-late morning.

This change will kick up a weak windswell for the afternoon across south facing beaches to 2ft+. The trough linked to the change will weaken while approaching Sydney as winds swing more S/SE and this will see the swell easing from 2ft out of the S/SE Sunday.

Winds will swing more favourable though for locations picking up the most size Sunday with a morning W/NW'ly ahead of fresh NE sea breezes.

Next Week (Dec 23 onwards)

A better NE windswell is expected Monday across the coast as a stronger northerly ridge develops down the Southern NSW coast Sunday afternoon and evening, aiming a fetch of strong NE winds into us (pictured right).

A peak to 3ft is expected across north-east facing beaches Monday morning, but conditions will be far from perfect with a light N/NW'ly ahead of a weak SE change later in the afternoon. We may even see NE sea breezes kick in again before the change.

Again, another increase in S'ly windswell is due in the wake of Monday afternoon's change, but not above 2ft+ across south facing beaches Tuesday and with SSE winds. Come Christmas Day, there's been no change since the early forecast, with the S'ly swell expected to ease from 1ft to nearly 2ft.

Unfortunately there's still nothing major on the cards for the longer term so make the most of the small swells over the coming period.