Surf forecast for week Monday 20 to Friday 24 November
By Spike, Monday arvi
Summary
We're in for a big shotgun blast of wide angled multi-directional storm swell as a fat storm bears in from the deep (Swell snapshot Chart 1 at 1400 today Monday) to kap the SW Cape with a big cold front and a smeared stormsea that reaches 15ft+ but its wild. Its woolly. But on the short period side of being mammoth. Get it.
This swell pummels the West Coast down to Agulhas with a broad blast of swell, ranging from literally NW in direction at first in Slaapstad, and then going WSW to SW, with a more SW component (see that little patch of purple directly adjacent the L signifying the Low Pressure Eye of the storm.
As you can see in Chart 2 as of 14:00 tomorrow Tuesday, the swell has smashed into the land mass of southern African and spews right up the coast. At this point, its very west though and therefore not a lot will be reaching up into the E Cape, let alone much past Cape Agulhas.
However, come Wednesday and there is another storm coming in hot behind the first storm (Chart 3 at 21:00) that actually starts to merge with the first so that the wind blows across a long strung along fetch that is all very Westerly in direction that does not bode amazing for the East Coast, but see the thumbnail sequence of images for each day of the week below to get a sense of swell and wind trends.
Needless to say, there is going to be plenty of swell this week, particularly for the West Coast and Kapstad, with the bulk of the energy very much from a west direction, but also a fair bit of ambient radial edge reaching up the coast mid to late week, really just a token sized swell.
Day by Day
mon 20 nov 2pm wind
A big storm slams into Skaapstad and winds gust to galeforce NW. Pumping inland NW winds precede the front, then die off. Mild conditions to the East (the storm moves down, across and away. No real W busters, altho fresh SW ahead).
mon 20 nov 2pm swell
You can see the giant radial arc of storm swell beginning to spray the entire west coast. It arrives as dik, washy windswell in pumping NW. Grunt arrives overnight. Up E Coast, a modest 2-4ft SSW swell around.
Tue 21 NOV 2pm wind
The winds still strong NW to W along the SW Cape coast, with Kapit-stad still mangled and messy. Along the S and E Cape, clean seas with SW to W winds, and a mild buster moving up into KZN.
Tue 21 NOV 2pm swell
Dik 5-121ft + from northern burbs of Slappstad down to Agulhas, with a mangled west stormsea set to almost completely miss the East Coast. Certainly nothing yet, barring existing 2-4ft SW x 11s swell.
Wed 22 nov 2pm wind
Quite weird for summer that we have two cold fronts back to back and more strong NW blows in the SW Cape, with kiff glassy conditions up the East Coast at first, which could yield some pretty lekker conditions, altho S Coast and Kei look NE onshore.
Wed 22 nov 2pm swell
Swell still grinding in the SW Cape 8-10ft or more, and now finally some of the swell has reached around the corner and up the East Coast as the storm passed below and the fetch became more direct. Firing.
thu 23 nov 2pm wind
The storm has finally moved off into the ether, and everything calms down to a panic. Generally light winds. Glassy Weskus. Light NW Cape Town. Glassy landbreeze S Cape. Glassy light onshore E Cape. Light S to SSW in KZN. Onshores puff.
thu 23 nov 2pm swell
The swell finally wanes in West, but still 4-5ft, and a fair chunk of 6-8ft juice pours up the East Coast. This is gravity defying SW juice, solid wild side in E Cape and 4ft+ sets open side S Coast. Could be fun fun fun.
fri 24 Nov 2pm wind
Summer pauses as a High lurks but doesn't push into the West, with moderate S in Slapstad, with variable conditions from a range of patches of low and high pressure up the East Coast with a localised S buster pushing the NE away in KZN.
fri 24 Nov 2pm swell
Slaapstad much smaller now, but still solid 4-6ft easing to 3-4ft, and similar along open coast up the East Coast. Definitely waves to be had but at different times for different spots in variant wind conditions.
