Sydney, Hunter and Illawarra Surf Forecast (Fri 2nd Jan)

Sydney, Hunter and Illawarra Surf Forecast by Craig Brokensha (issued Friday 3rd January)

Best Days: Sunday, Wednesday morning, Thursday morning, Friday morning

Recap

A tiny mix of average swells were seen yesterday across the coast, while today a new S'ly swell is filling in and should reach 2-3ft at south facing beaches during the middle of the day.

Light to moderate N-NE winds will freshen from the NE during the day keeping south facing beaches relatively clean.

This weekend (Jan 4 – 5)

Today's S'ly swell will drop back temporarily into early tomorrow morning but a fresh increase in S'ly windswell is due during the day ahead of a stronger short-range S'ly swell Sunday.

This will be related to an intense mid-latitude low pushing across Tassie with south facing beaches expected to peak through the day Sunday to 3ft. Winds will be similar to today on Sunday with an early N/NE'ly that will swing fresh NE into the afternoon.

Next week (Jan 6 onwards)

Monday morning should see a small mix of easing S'ly swell from Sunday and NE windswell from overnight strong NE winds coming in at 1-2ft at most spots.

An early S'ly change will be related to another mid-latitude low moving across Tassie and into the Southern Tasman Sea, with a fresh kick in S'ly windswell expected during the afternoon to 2-3ft.

A stronger pulse of S'ly groundswell should be generated for later Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday though as the low aims a fetch of W/SW tending S/SW gales in our swell window Monday evening and then pushes up the coast through Tuesday.

At this stage we're looking at waves reaching anywhere between 3-5ft across south facing beaches later Tuesday and into Wednesday morning but winds will be average and from the S/SE on the former but better and from the SW Wednesday morning.

The second half of the week should see plenty of fun S/SE swell generated by the low as it moves off slowly to the east during the middle of next week while continuing to aim a fetch of S'ly winds through our swell window.

Winds will linger from the SW to SE though with no real N'ly kicking in at all. We'll review this again on Monday though.