By YachatsNews
Punxsutawney Phil’s prediction – even though he’s in Pennsylvania — that spring weather could be arriving soon should bring a sigh of relief to the central Oregon coast.
January saw record rainfall by the weather watchers who keep track of such things for YachatsNews, and then – of course – there was the Jan. 13 ice storm that knocked out power to much of Lincoln County for days.
But mostly January was just plain wet – especially for those in the foothills of the Coast range.
Bob Williams, who lives eight miles up the Yachats River valley, measured 33.30 inches of rain in January – easily the most he’s recorded for that month since he started keeping records five years ago.
“December and January combined amounted to 62.55” of rain,” he said. “That’s an average here of 1.01 inches per day over the past two months.”
Jim Adler, who lives three miles up the valley, measured 25.21 inches of rain in January “which is more than double my 15-year average of 12.25 inches and a clear record for the month.”
Don Tucker, who lives two miles north of Yachats, has been recording weather for 17 years. He measured 20.33 inches of rain in January, which beat his previous record for the month of 17.17 inches set in 2020.
Tucker also had a record high temperature for the month of January – 71 degrees on Jan. 29. His previous high for the month was 67 degrees set in January 2018.
Tucker’s recordings also set January records for the highest average low temperature — 45.6 degrees – and the highest average monthly temp — 49.4 degrees.
“The rule hasn’t changed,” Tucker said. “Warmer temperatures typically means increased moisture.”
Julie Bailey, who lives at the 220 foot elevation of Radar Road in Yachats, recorded 17.25 inches of rain in January, a high temperature of 69.7 degrees on Jan. 29 and a peak wind gust of 54 mph at 4:45 a.m. Jan. 27.
At the Yachats wastewater treatment plant, the city measured 16.25 inches of rain in January.
In downtown Waldport, the gauge at Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue’s main station measured 16.06 inches of rain in January.
Tucker also tracks daily peak wind speeds versus daily general winds.
“It appears that peak wind speeds, on average, tend to be climbing in line with temp and moisture increases,” he said.
Adam Altson, a weather watcher who lives along Ocean View Drive in Yachats, said January’s weather “continued the trend we saw in December — significantly warmer than usual, lots of rain, and strong winds without any very strong winds.”
Altson measured 14.92 inches of rain in January, which when combined with December’s total gave him 31.96 inches for the two months – or an average of just over a half-inch a day of rain for the two months. That’s just half of what Williams measured eight miles to the east.
Altson recorded a high temperature of 71.3 degrees on Jan. 29 tying his record for highest January temperature. “… I only recorded six days in all of 2023 that reached 70 degrees,” he said.
There was a lot of wind, he said, just not high winds.
His highest wind gust in January was 49 mph, the first time since 2014 that he did not record a gust above 50 mph in that month.
“But, we had 16 days with gusts 30 mph or greater, and my average peak wind gust for the month was 34.3 mph, the second highest for any month next to January 2020,” he said. “The average wind speed for the month was 9.8 mph, tied for my second highest average ever for any month with March 2017.”
“We’re getting a lot of moderately windy days, but no storms with very strong winds,” Altson said.