High Wind Warning on Oregon Coast, Large Seas

Published 02/15/2017 at 6:09 PM PDT
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff

(Oregon Coast) - A high wind warning is in effect on the Oregon coast at this hour and the seas are enormous. Some gusts up around 65 mph have been recorded already Wednesday, and combined seas will be rising to 23 feet or more later tonight.

The National Weather Service (NWS) in Portland issued the high wind warning for essentially all of the Oregon coast, in effect until 6 a.m. tomorrow (Thursday) morning. It's the second surge of high winds since Tuesday night. The NWS said south winds 35 to 45 mph will be battering the beach towns, with gusts up to 65 mph. Headlands and beaches will get slightly higher sustained winds, but gusts as high as 80 mph may occur.

So far on Wednesday, the highest wind gusts were at Pacific City at 57 mph, another at Oceanside at 53 mph, and atop Mt. Hebo at 63 mph. The NWS said these winds will be increasing throughout the evening, ramping up even further in the overnight hours.

The general forecast calls for plenty of pounding rain along the beach towns through Thursday night, which includes the possibility of a thunderstorm. Winds calm to around 17 mph then, and dip further to around 5 mph over the weekend. Showers stick around through Monday, at least.

The large waves are the other half of the story.

Tonight will see 23-foot waves overnight, subsiding to 20 feet over the next day, and then getting closer to 14 feet on Friday. Timing of the waves is rather long, which means more problems for ocean-going craft than for those on the beaches, but extreme caution is still urged. Do not hang out on smaller beaches with no escape route over foredunes, such as those with cliffs behind the beaches – such as Gleneden Beach, Oceanside or those between Yachats and Florence. Do not ever wander onto jetties.

On Saturday, when conditions calm, this will be an excellent time to continue beachcombing for agates and other treasures. Numerous areas around the coast have bedrock showing and even ghost forest stumps (anywhere from 2,000 years to 4,000 years old). These include Seal Rock, Newport's Moolack Beach, Thiel Creek, and Arch Cape and Hug Point near Cannon Beach. More Oregon Coast Weather - Oregon Coast Hotels for this - Where to eat - Maps - Virtual Tours

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