What They Don't Tell You About Oregon Coast This Time of Year

Published 09/14/2014

(Oregon Coast) – For some reason, it's not touted much. It seems that out of all the visitor centers on the Oregon coast, Newport is apparently the only one talking about what's really going on this time of year.

What's the big secret? Right now is the warmest and most pleasant time of year on the coast, with less winds and more blue skies. They call it the “Second Summer,” meaning September and early October are really the most inviting in terms of weather – even more so than the actual summer.

On top of it, less traffic, less crowds and then prices start really dropping at lodgings all about now, making this a pretty amazing time.

All this downright balminess generally lasts well into the middle of October. Usually, things start to turn to more windy, slightly wild weather by then, but about a third of the time you'll find really nice weather sticking around beyond the first two weeks of that month

The famed Second Summer is getting known more and more in recent years. You can see the steady rise in people over that time, so crowding is sometimes now an issue in September. So much so that Seaside actually doesn't start cutting lodging prices until the end of September. They know they can pull in the customers quite easily so the summer rates mostly remain.

Other towns are starting to cut prices a bit less now as well. The trend does seem to be catching on. But there's still a good two weeks of awesome conditions in October, when the cost of a coastal night's stay really starts to sink.

A good rule of thumb is that the more expensive the place, the more it will drop in price. Less expensive hotels or motels will drop less.

Couple all this with less lines at your fave restaurant and fewer cars on the roads, and the Second Summer is a kind of paradise.

What's behind all this? The weather science is interesting.

Because the valley has cooled off a bit and the Pacific Ocean has been warmed by summer's heat, this levels out the temperature differences between the two areas. In turn, this allows warmer air flows from the east and from California to help warm things up even more. This leveling out of temperatures also decreases upwelling, which in turn decreases wind.

Meanwhile, less differences in temperature kill out that phenomena that sucks in unevaporated air off the ocean, which is the mechanism that gets the beaches so foggy during the summer.

Essentially, the ocean heats up the beach towns, while the lack of higher temps inland allow warmer winds in.

All that Second Summer action has been in full swing lately along the beaches, although last September was a striking oddity that featured an early windstorm so severe it shut down the SOLVE Beach Cleanup for the first time in its history.

Why do you not hear much about Second Summer from coastal officials? Hard to say. It's seems like a marketing oversight. However, there are many on the coast - even in the business community - who will tell you this time of year is their favorite as well. There's just a hint of them wanting to keep this a secret, it seems, and keep these conditions for themselves.

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