Sometimes it’s sunny and warm, other times stormy and tempestuous. To describe October on Oregon’s North Coast in just a few words though, it would only be accurate to say she is “beautifully unpredictable.”
No one could deny that Seaside is beautiful in the summer time. And, many Octobers here seem to be a warm extension of summer’s reach, the fairer season’s last hurrah.
But every once in awhile, an early fall storm will blow into town and bring with it a special brand of visitor to the coast: the storm watcher.
Frequent fall visitors to Seaside know that on any October trip to Seaside, you could find yourself playing Frisbee on the beach in shorts and a t-shirt, or curled up with a warm cup of cocoa by the fireplace in the comfort of your oceanfront hotel room, watching an impressive storm roll past.
This weekend is a good example of the latter. The forecast brought high surf warnings with seas swelling to above 20 feet, winds at 50+ miles per hour, inches of rain, and large amounts of debris expected along impacted coastal zones.
As tumultuous as that sounds, some visitors love Seaside best when it’s stormy! In fact, we’ve had more than a few folks at the Visitors Center lately who were excited to get settled into their room in time to watch the storm.
I asked a frequent visitor to Seaside from Lake Oswego, about her favorite part of storm-watching here. “All of it,” she said, “Reading a good book by the window and witnessing nature’s power first hand. And the beachcombing afterward,” she added, “you’d be surprised what you find out there after a storm!”
Yes, October is unpredictable, but that is part of her charm. Sometimes I think it’s just Mother Nature keeping us on our toes.
Editor’s Note: Be prepared for all weather when you visit Seaside in any season. Layering clothing, we’ve found, works best. To all you storm watchers out there, please, please exercise caution when enjoying the storm tousled coastline. Sneaker waves and rip currents are often prevalent during storms and they have been known to hit with forces strong enough to cause bodily harm, or even whisk a person or a pet out into the frigid waters of the Pacific Ocean. Keep a safe distance from the surf, at least a couple hundred feet, and stay off jetties entirely.
