Considering that with this latest storm Seaside was clocking 100+ mph winds and many inland areas were flooded, what should we call this one?
A powerful cold core mid-latitude system, like this one on the far left.
While both Hurricanes and Mid-Latitude look similar, their nature and beginnings are much different. Just to put things simple, because it is very complicated, Hurricanes are warm core lows that feed fully off the warm moist air of the surface of warm oceans, and pulling it up into the atmosphere like a big vacuum.
A Cold Core system on the other hand has a cold side and a warm side which become warm and cold fronts. This is a extreme example, this was the 1993 Superstorm, a powerful NW Mid-latitude storm or a Nor'Easter that formed extremely far south.
The way the strengthen is also much different aswell. Hurricanes rely on warm moist air to draw up into the column, if they move over land or cold water that moist air is choked off, and so they die. Cold Core systems on the other hand rely more on troughs, Upper level energy and the difference between air masses. If the Low can suck in more warm air it will strengthen and thus more cold air will flood around thus strengthening the gradient. But if the cold front ever totally overtakes the warm sector or supply of warm air, the low will occlude and die, albeit much more slowly than a tropical cyclone.
Mid-latitude storms can and often do cause wind gusts of over 90mph, as people who live in the NW and Western Europe knows. But, most of the time, the higher wind speeds they generate is due to the pressure gradient between very powerful Low and Highs.
