Recently, the Southern Oregon Coast experienced it’s first high surf advisory of the season. The high surf generates large swells that cause the waves to crash against the coastline cliffs. One very popular spot to watch these exploding waves is at Shore Acres State Park located along the Cape Arago Highway, just south of Coos Bay.
Many locals and tourists will visit Shore Acres just to photograph, watch and enjoy this incredibly, powerful display of nature.
Recently a friend asked me if there were alerts he could subscribe to get a heads up when the waves are huge at Shore Acres. I thought I would share what I have done to receive alerts. There are other apps available that might do the same thing, but I’ve been using this method for years and it works for me.
- Create an account at Weather.com. This website is The Weather Channel.
- Select “Manage Locations”. Add Coos Bay and any area you want to get alerts for.
- Select “Manage Alerts”. Here you can set up what type of things you want to get alerts for.
- Check the box “Severe Weather Alerts” in the “Alert Section”. Here you have a choice to choose “Moderate Severity and above” or “Severe Only”. I like to know all weather conditions so I have the first checked. You can check “Severe Only” if you don’t want as many messages.
- Also in the “Alert Section” choose “Surf & Sea Conditions”.
- You can choose to have the alerts come by email, text or both.
- Save your profile settings.
I hope this helps you have a chance to experience one of these phenomenal displays!
Great tip! How big do the waves have to be at Shore Acres to generate the vertical ‘explosions’ like seen in your phenomenal photo on this page? I assume high-tide is another contributing factor?
Hi Mike,
When the weather report says 20-30 feet swells, then it’s worth a trip there! Not always the best at high tide.
This is great, Patricia. I just checked Accuweather and Intellicast, and can’t find a similar feature, so I signed up for Weather.com
Thanks Greg! Good to know about the other weather sites!