Cannon Beach • Statistics for October

October: Autumn Awakening

Autumn arrives with serious intent in October. The average swell height jumps to 6ft (1.8m) and the average period stretches to 11.4s as the Aleutian Low re-establishes and the North Pacific storm track begins to fire. Swell direction is perfectly spread between W (33 percent) and WNW (33 percent), with WSW (12 percent) adding plenty of juice. This is a month of building groundswell, with a substantial share of waves in the 1.5-2.5m range, exactly what a west-facing Oregon beach needs.

Wind quality also improves dramatically. The wind is ideal for surfing 33 percent of the time, and E/ESE/SE offshore gradients become more common as high pressure builds over the interior West. While S and SSW winds still bring rain and wind ahead of fronts, the ratio of clean to stormy days is much better than in summer. Water temp is 12.2°C, air temp averages 10.8°C, and precipitation rises to 5.54 mm/day. October is a sweet spot: the water is still relatively warm, swells are starting to push overhead, and crowds are thinner than in summer.