Despite deluge during last three days of February, the month was very cold and dry in Yachats area

You wouldn’t know it from the last few days, but February was a dry, cold month in the Yachats area.

A rain and wind storm that pummeled the central coast the last three days of the month also delivered half of the Yachats area’s February rainfall total, according to weather watchers who report their data to YachatsNews. In spite of that, February rainfall amounts were the lowest in 9-11 years, according to weather watcher records.

Jim Adler, who lives three miles up the Yachats River, measured 7.05 inches of rain in February, the lowest for that month since 2013. His two-month total for 2022 is 18.83 inches – double that of weather watchers in the city of Yachats.

Donald Tucker, who lives two miles north of Yachats and east of U.S. Highway 101, recorded 5.66 inches of rain in February, the lowest since 2011. “We were headed to a record low rainfall for the month till the deluge on Feb. 28 of 2.96 inches …” he said.

Bob Williams, who lives eight miles up the Yachats River, recorded 8.01 inches in February giving him 20.60 for the year. Jean-Marc Rolland, who lives two miles farther east, recorded 6.52 inches in February, giving him 19.35 inches for 2022.

The “official but unofficial” measurement at the city of Yachats’ wastewater treatment plant showed 4.05 inches of rain for February and 9.91 inches for the first two months of 2022. The city’s 10-year average for February is 8.19 inches.

Adam Altson, who lives a block from the treatment plant, measured 4.13 inches of rain in February, giving him 9 inches for the year.

Some other weather observations:

• For the fifth straight year, February’s average temperature of 52.3 degrees was colder than January’s average of 56.6 degrees, Altson said.
• Altson recorded a low temperature 24.3 degrees on Feb 23, the lowest he has measured since December 2013. “I never got below freezing at all for the calendar years of 2020 and 2021,” he said.
• That was not the case for Tucker, who recorded five days of freezing or below-freezing temperatures in February; the lowest was 25 degrees.
• Peak wind speeds at Altson’s house on the east side of Ocean View Drive reached 58 mph at 7:30 a.m. and 6:40 p.m. Monday and averaged 24.4 mph for the entire day “the fourth highest daily average I’ve ever measured.”