Not Tornadoes Nor Complete Squalls, the Oregon Coast Weather You May Have Noticed

Published 09/01/2026 at 9:55 a.m.
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection Staff

(Cannon Beach, Oregon) – Snapping away on the Oregon coast or even Washington coast, you may have noticed something curious in the clouds out at sea. Little dark tendrils are extending down from the clouds. In the meantime, those clouds are dark and brooding, and maybe you can clearly see a squall way out there threatening to make its way in. (All photos Oregon Coast Beach Connection)

Like in this shot above and below: taken at Cannon Beach one spring day, you clearly see the outline of these objects.

Yet there's something a bit off or different about those lines coming out of the clouds. They look a bit like the beginnings of water spouts. But they also look like squalls.

So, what are we looking at?

Brian P. Nieuwenhuis, senior meteorologist at the Medford office of the National Weather Service (NWS), answered the long-pondered question here at Oregon Coast Beach Connection. We've caught a lot of these on-camera over the last two and a half decades.

“Those are tendrils of light rain,” Nieuwenhuis said. “Being backlit by the sun makes them much more visible. If the rain is evaporating and not reaching the surface, like these appear to be, it's called virga.”

It turns this is no real mystery, but it is sometimes mistaken for waterspouts – otherwise known as tornadoes, but on water.

It's a bit of a surprise to learn it's more common in the western United States and in desert areas. Yay, Oregon coast.

A Look Into Virga

Rain that evaporates before reaching the ground is known as virga, and although common it creates an unusual look. It seems ghostly and ethereal. Getting deeper into the phenomenon, it offers a clear look at how dry air can strip moisture from passing storms.

The NWS / NOAA said on its website that this aspect of weather creates thin, trailing streaks beneath clouds, marking the path of precipitation as it evaporates. That evaporation cools the surrounding air, and in rare cases the cooled air can plunge downward, producing a sudden microburst with concentrated wind, rain or hail.

Some of these shots over the years have been dramatic, like this giant vertical dark swath in the lefthand side of this photo from Cannon Beach, showing Terrible Tilly (Tillamook Rock Lighthouse) off a ways.

Virga forms when falling rain or snow meets a deep layer of dry air. Radar still shows precipitation overhead, but little or none reaches the surface. Meteorologists note that this setup often makes droughts harder to break, since storms may deliver far less moisture than they appear to.

“Have you ever seen a radar image that suggested it should be raining or snowing at your location, but it wasn't?,” the NWS said. “The radar isn't lying, rather, the the rain or snow is not hitting the ground. If you have a dry air mass in place in the low levels, sometimes rain cannot completely penetrate that dry layer before it evaporates.”

Virga photographed prominently in Oceanside.

The dry air part is a fascination aspect of all this. If the dry air mass is closer to the ground, it's rain, rain, rain. If it's a bit higher, then you're looking at light rain. Get that air mass high enough and it's almost like the rain gets eaten before it hits the ground.

Most of the time, though, virga is simply a visual reminder of storms aloft. Powerful weather systems may be moving overhead, but on the ground the only sign is the wispy fall streaks drifting through the sky.

“I think virga makes for great pictures,” Nieuwenhuis told Oregon Coast Beach Connection.

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