Coos Bay and Beach cities in Oregon

[Psychoma]

Originally Posted by spacefae

Do you get hurricaines often on the West Coast?

Hurricanes like warm waters, around 78 degrees F or higher usually, US west coast is colder so as was mentioned no hurricanes. Remnants of them may help bring some rain into South CA, or AZ, NM, NV, etc. though occasionally. As previous post mentioned there are other weather systems that can bring strong storms into the West coast though, but they're not hurricanes.

I saw you had also recently posted question about hurricanes in se VA forum, so you may want to check out the hurricane climatology page from NHC...scroll towards the bottom to 'Hurricane Return Periods' and the images show how often hurricanes hit the east coast (or 'average' return period). May be of some use to you (again just averages) here: https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/climo/

[texasdiver]

Hurricanes rarely make it north of Mexico on the Pacific Coast. They are generated by warm waters and travel east to west along with the prevailing trade winds, so aren’t going to ever hit the PNW. If they get north enough in the Atlantic they will get out of the trade winds and catch the prevailing westerlies which turn them back east. But that doesn’t happen in the Pacific near Oregon because the water is too cold.

The ones that reach the West Coast of Mexico are those that originate in the Gulf, cross over Mexico, and then turn north. But they never make it past Mexico because the water is too cold.

Here are all the hurricane tracks for the past several decades



All of these storms are classified as tropical cyclones. Those that originate in the Atlantic are called Hurricanes, even those that wrap around and hit the West Coast of Mexico because they originate in the Atlantic or Gulf. Those that originate in the western Pacific are called Typhoons. Those that originate in the Indian Ocean are called Cyclones.

That said, the North Pacific does frequently experience winter storms with hurricane force winds (over 74 mph) but that doesn’t make them actual hurricanes, they are just winter storms. Happens all winter long in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska and sometime off the Oregon Coast too.

Fun fact. Notice no hurricanes ever occur at the equator? That’s because the Coriolis Force doesn’t exist at the equator so there is no force causing the hurricane to spin up clockwise as in the Southern Hemisphere or counterclockwise as in the northern hemisphere. Hurricanes fall apart if they approach the equator.

[AZDesertBrat]

Originally Posted by Willamette City

We do get major rain/wind events. Not often though. The one I will always remember was the Columbus Day storm. 100 MPH winds and heavy rain. I think that was in 1962. Nothing at all like the coastal south.

I was living in Coos Bay when that storm hit. Yes, it was 1962. We lived right on the hiway to Charleston and the bay across the road. My husband was a volunteer fireman and was out in it. Scary thing.

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by AZDesertBrat

I was living in Coos Bay when that storm hit. Yes, it was 1962. We lived right on the hiway to Charleston and the bay across the road. My husband was a volunteer fireman and was out in it. Scary thing.

I heard they clocked wind at 170 mph on top of Hebo. In the valley it was more like gusts to 100-120 mph. Anybody who could climb a ladder got a job as a roofer. Our power was out for 2 weeks, though I think people in town got power back quicker.

I remember a lot of weather events. There was the Christmas Flood of 1964, the big drought of 1976-1977 when Bull Run almost ran out of water, and the ice storms of the late '70s with exploding transformers everywhere. Things seem to have calmed down in recent years, but there have been some whopping big coastal storms. I have seen the ocean tossing house sized boulders around on the Columbia south jetty. I also saw houses on the beach as the ocean ate a neighborhood in Newport. Coos Bay is far enough inland for that to not happen there.

[forzalugano]

Water us too cold, tropical cyclones are like giant engines that use warm, moist air as fuel. That is why they form only over warm ocean waters.