The first fall storm of 2026 will bring strong winds to the area Thursday night, Sept. 24, into Friday.
A gale warning is in effect from 11 p.m. Thursday to 2 p.m. Friday for offshore waters in Pacific and Clatsop counties and elsewhere along the coast, with the National Weather Service forecasting isolated gusts nearing 60 mph. A high-wind warning has not yet been issued for areas on land.
Although not a noteworthy top wind speed for the North Pacific Coast, the storm comes as most deciduous trees still have their leaves. Power outages and other damage are possible.
An AR2 atmospheric river advisory is in place from the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes, on a scale from zero to five. An AR2 is considered mostly beneficial, bringing substantial rainfall after a dry summer.
“Autumn began yesterday at 5 PM and the atmosphere has taken notice,” Cliff Mass, an atmospheric sciences professor at the University of Washington, wrote in his popular weather blog on Wednesday. “A significant midlatitude cyclone will cross the northern Oregon coast late Thursday and Friday morning, bringing strong winds and localized power outages. … Wow. A very intense, but small, low-pressure center will make landfall on the northern Oregon Coast, with gusts up to 70 knots.”
Gusts to 72 mph are predicted just west of Pacific and Clatsop counties by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which is particularly noted for its accuracy.
Mass expressed puzzlement over why the National Weather Service had not — as of 6 a.m. Thursday — issued a stronger warning for the coast — especially south of the mouth of the Columbia River — which is expected to bear the brunt of the storm.
“I am concerned about the lack of coastal wind warnings by the National Weather Service offices in Seattle and Portland … They really need to have some kind of warning out for the northern Oregon coast.”
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