Cooler-than-normal summer doesn’t deter visitors

Gray skies and cold ocean temperatures don’t stop people from getting wet at Harris Beach State Park this summer. The Pilot/Arwyn Rice

With records going back to the 1850s, this July ranks in the coolest 15, and June was in the coolest 25.  August isn’t looking too hot either, National Weather Service forecaster Brett Lutz said Friday.

“October looks like it will be the best month,” Lutz said.

Nighttime temperatures have been in the upper 40s to low 50s.

On the morning of July 1, a low of 47.3 degrees was recorded, only three degrees warmer than the all-time low for the month.

Only seven days have broken the 70 degree mark, three of them reaching 80 degrees or warmer.

The cold, foggy weather hasn’t detered beachgoers. Last weekend hundreds of visitors flocked to Harris Beach. Many were forced to park on the bluffs above and hike to the beach when the beach parking lot filled early.

Dozens of children played and boogie-boarded in the unusually heavy surf.

Kimberly Hayes, 14, of Federal Way, Wash., jumped into the water, but gave up after too many large waves knocked her down. 

“We’re going up the (Chetco) river,” Hayes said.

Area hotels are seeing a solid summer, based on visitors seeking relief from sizzling hot inland temperatures.

Ken Bryan, owner of the Wild Rivers Motor Lodge on Chetco Avenue has seen an influx of visitors from Medford, Ashland and northern Oregon. He also gets a large number of visitors from father away, including Georgia, Florida, New York, and Vermont.

“The draw is the redwoods,” Bryan said. “They expect it to be cold and foggy.”

The summer tourist season began slow for Bryan, mostly due to the late spring rains, but business has been improving. On Friday the lodge was full for the weekend.

Brookings Inn and the Best Western Beachfront Inn also reported a solid summer but nothing spectacular.

“When it’s 100 degrees in the valley a lot of people come out to escape the heat,” Beachfront Inn owner Dave Snazzuk said.

People coming from the hot interior are looking for a change, he said.

However, when the temperatures inland are not terribly hot, cool gray days are less attractive, Bryan said. On those days visitors are more interested in warm, sunny beaches.

Multiple construction projects on Highway 101 from Pistol River to Astoria have not helped matters, he said. The combination of traffic delays and 60 degree forecasts has cooled interest in the coast. 

The summer of 2009 was also cooler than average while the rest of the U.S. experienced the second hottest summer in recorded history, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website.

The Pacific Northwest is one of only two areas in the world with normal or cooler than average temperatures this summer, according to NOAA. 

A complex interaction of natural climate factors prevents the region from warming up like the rest of the country, creating a regional climate that is somewhat independent of what is happening in the rest of the world Lutz said.

First, the West Coast winds come directly from the Pacific Ocean and do not get the effect of being warmed on land.

The pool of air that forms over the ocean is cooled by ocean temperatures. With an offshore current coming directly from Alaska, that air is normally cool.

A new factor only recently discovered by scientists is the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO). The PDO is a shifting in ocean temperatures  similar to the El Nino and La Nina phenomenon, but has a much longer cycle, about 20-30 years.

When Alaskan waters are warmer, the waters off of British Columbia, Washington and Oregon are much cooler, and vice versa.

The last cold cycle of PDO began in the 1950s, Lutz said, and the warm cycle began in the mid 1970s.  Only recently ocean temperature readings indicate a return of the cold cycle PDO.

That cold cycle will drop ocean temperatures by a few degrees, and the air masses above it are likely to follow suit, Lutz said.

The first scientist to discover the PDO was a fish biologist studying the cycles of salmon.

PDO is associated with increased eastern Pacific cold water upwellings, improved conditions for salmon and other fisheries, and cooler weather for the region, Lutz said.

Another natural ocean cycle that affects Pacific Northwest weather are the El Nino and La Nina ocean temperature patterns in the South Pacific.

Brookings is on the border between effects, with El Ninos causing higher rainfall in the south, and La Ninas leading to high rainfall in the north. The South Coast can fall on either side of the divide, depending on the strength of the cycle, Lutz said.

This winter and spring a moderate to strong El Nino brought higher than normal rainfall to the coast, and a moderate to strong La Nina may be felt as far south as Eureka, Calif. this fall and winter, he said.

Brookings should be prepared for a late winter, with a late onset of the rainy season, but with colder temperatures and wetter storms, Lutz said.

While this summer’s cooler than normal temperatures may be influenced by the PDO and La Nina, most of it is due to smaller scale effects.

The Oregon coast is always cooler, and the difference is most extreme when the central Oregon valleys are especially hot, he said.

When a warm inversion heats up the valley, the warm air rises. The rising air creates a low pressure system that sucks the cool marine layer inland, keeping the coast cool and foggy.