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Brookings - Harbor Chamber of
Commerce
P.O. Box 940
Brookings, OR 97415
(541) 469-3181
(800) 535-9469
Fax: (541) 469-4094
Email: chamber@wave.net
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Anytime of Year
is the right time to come to Brookings!
Thanks to the unique
Brookings Effect, the Brookings-Harbor area is also known as the
"Banana Belt" of the
Pacific Northwest. While much of the coast is covered
by clouds and fog, the Banana Belt typically basks in the warmth
of sunny skies.
During the summer, Banana Belt mornings may be cool and
foggy, but in no time at all, the temperature levels off in the
upper 60s or low 70s before dropping off to the mid-50s at
night. The ocean stays cool at around 60 degrees while area
rivers warm up to about 70 degrees. Perhaps best of all,
rainfall is rare during the summertime.
That's not to say the Banana Belt stays dry. It averages
about 80 inches of rain per year, but nearly all of that falls
from November through April. And in between storms, the sun once
again takes charge.
In fact, it's not uncommon for the winter thermometer to
read in the 70s; and on occasion, it will soar into the 80s. For
the most part, though, the winter temperature will range from
the upper 50s to the low 60s before dropping to the mid 40s at
night.
In other words, snow and sleet are as rare during the
wintertime as rainfall is during the summertime. For that
reason, the Banana Belt is also referred to as the Home
of Winter Flowers.
But what, pray tell,
creates the Brookings Effect? For years, no one really knew for
sure. Then in 1955, Jack Capell, a television weather man from
Portland, solved the mystery.
According to Capell,
the area's unseasonably warm temperatures are caused by a
thermal trough. Whenever a high-pressure system moves through
northwest Oregon, this low-pressure thermal trough basically
pulls it towards the harbor. The trough creates a vacuum and, in
turn, generates heat through the compression of air.
Of course, it doesn't
hurt that Mount Emily and Cape Blanco naturally shelter the
Brookings Harbor area from wind. Most coastal towns are laid out
north to south. But to Brookings Harbor's temperate advantage,
it stretches from the southeast to the northwest. |
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