Oregon Coast Puts on a Show with First Storm of Season

Waves lap at the bottom of the stairway at Starfish Point, Newport (courtesy photo)

(Oregon Coast) – “The Stormy Weather Arts Festival blew into Cannon Beach in a true celebration of the blustery fall,” said a representative of the Cannon Beach Chamber. The tiny north coast is one of many in the throes of the first big wowing storm of the season, and it’s the first Stormy Weather Arts Festival in a few years that had actually had wild weather.

A high wind warning is currently in effect from the National Weather Service for the north Oregon coast, but it apparently started smacking the central coast on Friday and Thursday. Powerful winds and large waves are expected for the region this weekend, caused by an unusual weather phenomenon – a major hurricane-like storm - that’s parked off the coast about 900 miles.

In turn, it’s expected to bring out a few more tourists than a turn in the weather would chase away.

Stormy Manzanita

The high wind watch has been issued for the region between the southern Washington coast and Tillamook from Saturday morning through the evening hours. The area may see winds around 40 miles an hour, but gusts could hit as high as 60 miles per hour.

In Newport, Starfish Point manager Danielle Emerick was pretty amazed at the windy proceedings.

“Right now the wind is coming from the south by southeast, with wind gusts to 45 mph,” Emerick said. “I would say the storm season is upon us and it’s time to batten down the hatches.”

Yachats

She added the waves are lapping at the stairway at the bottom of the cliff, a good 100 feet from where the tide line usually is.

Newport resident Melissa Haines said the windy weather hit the central coast earlier than the north coast. She experienced some of it on Thursday night. “I slept so well that night,” Haines said. “I always sleep really well when it’s stormy out.”

In Yachats, Yachats Wine Trader manager Marsii Charron said Friday the wind and rain had been pounding that part of the central coast all day and has been making a spectacle at the wine bar. “I have only had locals, maybe the only people crazy enough to brave the storm,” Charron said. “I have been slow for a Friday night. Hopefully it picks up on Saturday. But the storm watching from the wine bar is fantastic right now.”

Stormy Nye Beach, Newport

The culprit is a rare subtropical storm, which usually does not come into existence this high in latitude. Scientists say the storm has hurricane characteristics. It looks like one from the satellite images, it has a cloudless eye, an eye wall of thunderstorms and winds around 50 knots. It is so powerful that it would normally be named if it had been in one of the routinely monitored hurricane basins. Because it formed outside the territory of any of the organizations which regularly monitor these storms, it was not named. The storm has been referred to as “Storm 91C” by the U.S. Navy.

Lenore Emery, of EVOO Cooking School in Cannon Beach, was having a blast with the weather, along with the visiting artists. “They’re having a heyday in CB with the Stormy Weather Festival,” she said. “It is actually storming this year.”

Neptune State Park, near Florence

“It’s definitely the first storm of the season,” said Melanie Richardson, manager of Inn at Arch Rock in Depoe Bay. “We took our American flag down as the Coast Guard put up the two red flags for ‘Gale Warning!’ Some good swells and lots of white caps. Even so I heard the Coast Guard Cutter go out at about 6 a.m. The clouds are hanging low enough to be dramatic, but high enough that we can look south across Depoe Bay and still see it in its entirety. The waves are crashing hard against our rocky shoreline. I’d say we’re getting gusts between 30 and 50 miles per hour - just enough to make it exciting.”

In Wheeler, on the Nehalem Bay, Old Wheeler Hotel owner Winston Laszlo was a little shocked. “Yeah, big storm,” Laszlo said. “I'd almost forgotten what it's like. Here at the Old Wheeler Hotel it makes us want to hole up, drink hot chocolate, munch popcorn, and snuggle up in a down comforter while we watch one of our collection of classic films on DVD. This building is so solid we don't hear the wind howling outside, but we do like to look up every once in while to stare out the picture windows at the stark beauty of the storm.”

Rockaway Beach and big waves

On the ground floor beneath the hotel, store owner Peg Miller was taking in the sights of the bay about 11 a.m. “There are swells and whitecaps on Nehalem Bay,” she said. “There are no fishing boats in the water right now, though they're at the Ghost Hole in Garibaldi (a fishing hole in Tillamook Bay, not the bar). It looked dangerous to me; maybe that's why they call it the ghost hole. Just saw three intrepid kayakers pull up to the dock here in downtown Wheeler. I couldn't tell from my shop if they were wobbly.”

Miller said visitors are traveling to the coast just for the spectacle. “Here at Ekahni Books, I have a sign on the front door of the bookshop saying, “It’s reading weather! C’mon in.” So I do have customers. One couple from Michigan stopped in to ask where they might get a Bloody Mary and I sent them over to the Sea Shack and told them to get a table by the window so they can watch the Bay. I also told them to order the cioppino.”

On Friday night, on the north coast, residents and tourists there were getting ready for the action, though it was quite calm there until Saturday morning. Wayne Chase, manager of The Tides hotel in Seaside, told BeachConnection.net: “There’s nothing on the storm yet.”

Monster waves near Depoe Bay

“Quiet here tonight - mild and a few folks walking around,” said Mike Exinger, owner of Zinger’s Homemade Ice Cream in Seaside. “I spoke to a few in the store this evening. They knew high winds were on the way, and said, ‘Hey, that’s the coast…we expect it this time of year.’ ”

In Rockaway, the folks who run the Tradewinds Motel are taking it all in strides, but they reiterate the warnings made by officials about staying away from the beaches and large waves. “While they have issued high wind warnings, this is quite normal for us for this time of year,” said one representative. “It's windy outside but not too bad right now. It could get worse by afternoon when they expect the brunt of the winds. High tide was at 10:34 a.m. at 8.8, but didn't see the big wave because the winds are strong enough to knock the waves down. However. it remains bad out there and is dangerous to be out in. The high tide this evening is expected to be closer to midnight and so don't expect much at that time.”

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