UPDATE: N. Oregon Coast / Washington Coast High Surf Advisory Extended

Published 02/22/2020 at 5:28 AM PDT - Updated 02/23/2020 at 4:28 PM PDT
By Oregon Coast Beach Connection staff

(Manzanita, Oregon) – UPDATE: Surf advisories and sneaker wave dangers extended through Monday. The National Weather Service (NWS) in Portland has issued a high surf advisory for Sunday and Monday, bringing large, hazardous waves and dangerous surf conditions to the beaches of the northern half of the Oregon coast and the entire Washington coast.

The southern Oregon coast will experience somewhat large waves on Sunday but nothing in the danger-inducing range.

Meanwhile, weather along both coastlines looks to be quite windy and stormy, with heavy gusts up to 50 mph at times on the northern half of Oregon, subsiding on Monday as a fair amount of sun returns to start off the week.

The high surf advisory is in effect from 1 p.m. Sunday through 10 a.m. Monday. This includes the Washington towns of Ozette, La Push, Moclips, Ocean Shores and Long Beach; and along the Oregon beaches the towns of Seaside, Cannon Beach, Manzanita, Pacific City, Lincoln City, Newport, Yachats and Florence.

“People can be swept off rocks and jetties and drown while observing high surf,” the NWS said. “Minor beach erosion may damage coastal properties and buildings. Higher than normal water run-up is expected on beaches and low-lying shoreline.”

Sneaker waves are the biggest danger, which means you can be lulled into a false sense of security by waves that don’t appear threatening for a few minutes at a time, and then suddenly a large set of breakers offshore combine to create one big one and this comes zooming up the beach.

Good places for watching this safely include along the 804 Trail in Yachats (stay on the trail) and the seawall at Depoe Bay, as well as the parking lots at Cape Kiwanda and Oceanside.

The NWS said seas will ramp up quickly on the latter half of the weekend.

“Swell generation occurring not too far offshore is producing a fresh swell that will move into the northern waters Sunday afternoon,” the NWS said. “Spectral wave guides for buoy-29 are indicating seas will reach 22 ft at 14 sec around 4 pm and fall below 20 ft around 10 pm Sunday. Winds and seas will drop through Monday.”

When it comes to stormy conditions on land, the northern half of Oregon’s coast will get the worst. The Washington coast and the southern Oregon coast will only see gusts as high as the 30 mph range. The range between Florence and Astoria will see some major action, however.

“A fairly well defined cold front will move into the coastal region later tonight into Sunday and produce some windy conditions and rainfall along the coast,” the NWS said. “There is a decent north-south pressure gradient with this system, but low levels winds don’t support high wind warning, so will keep wind gusts in the 45 to 50 mph range along the coast.”

Earlier NWS predictions of primarily west winds for Monday have been changed, which would’ve meant an increased possibility of finding things like actual Japanese glass floats. However, with a mix of west and northwest winds on Sunday and Monday, along with the heavy surf, good beachcombing should be the rule for the week afterwards.

Sunny conditions return after Monday and slowly get better through next weekend. Oregon Coast Hotels for this event - Where to eat - Map - Virtual Tour

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