October on the central Oregon coast was a nice sunny fall month – until it wasn’t.
Five of the last 11 days of October saw rain totals of more than one inch in the Yachats area, which made October one of the wettest months in records kept by a group of YachatsNews weather watchers.
“Six days before the end of the month this was the driest October I had in 16 years of record keeping,” said Jim Adler, who lives three miles up the Yachats River valley. “Then BOOM, it ended up wetter than 12 of those years.”
Adler recorded 9 inches of rain in October – 1.25 inches above his 16-year average – for a 10-month total of 81.71 inches.
Eight miles up the Yachats River, Bob Williams recorded 8.94 inches of rain in October and now has 94.33 inches of rain for the year.
Julie Bailey, who lives on Radar Road high above Yachats, had five days at the end of October with more than an inch of rain: Oct. 20 with 1.30 inches; Oct. 26 with 2.22 inches; Oct. 27 with 1.34 inches; Oct. 30 with 1.56 inches and on Oct. 31 recorded 1.76 inches of rain.
Bailey’s total rainfall for October was 9.64 inches, giving her 65.36 inches of rain for the 10 months of 2024 – almost 16 inches more than the same period last year.
“Wow,” she said.
Don Tucker, who lives two miles north of Yachats, measured 8.22 inches of rain in October – his fifth highest in 17 years of weather watching. His 10-month total is 67.30 inches of rain, the second highest total in 17 years. But the number of days when rain fell was 24, same as Tucker’s 17-year October average.
“Two months to go,” Tucker said. “If future numbers are close to the past it will be a wet year, but a tad warmer.”
At the city of Yachats’ wastewater treatment plant, staff there measured 6.71 inches of rain in October for a 10-month total of 56.04 inches.
Just a block away, Adam Altson recorded 8.39 inches of rain in October, the second most to 2019 when he recorded 11.15 inches. Altson’s rain total for the year stands at 56.52 inches, his second highest in seven years of record-keeping.
“I recall reading somewhere years ago that October is very definitely our transition month,” Altson said. “Early October is usually quite pleasant most days, and by the end of the month we are more likely to have rain on a given day than a sunny day. This October most definitely lived up to that reputation.”
Other weather notes:
- Bailey: Three days of temperatures over 70 degrees with a high for the month of 76 degrees on Oct. 7; and 12 days with temperatures of more than 60 degrees. Her lowest high was 54.2 degrees on Oct. 30 and her low temperature of the month was 39.8 on Oct. 24.
- Tucker: Encourages weather watchers to check the Oregon Coast Repeater Group weather site. The weather station is on the east side of Cape Perpetua is back operating and its data updates every five minutes.