Rip Current in California, August 5 to 7, 1997

Name: Rip Current in California, August 5 to 7, 1997
Start: 1997-08-05T06:00
End: 1997-08-07T15:00
Location: California

August 5 to 7, 1997 · NWS SGX · 1 event in 1 county or zone

1 rip current, as filed by the National Weather Service.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

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The toll

Deaths: 1
Injuries: 3
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 rip current. Local standard time, as filed.

Rip Current, Orange

When: August 5, 6:00 AM PST to August 7, 3:00 PM PST
Where: Orange County, Corona Del Mar
Deaths: 1 direct, 0 indirect
Injuries: 3 direct, 0 indirect
Coordinates: 33.677, -117.776 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Surf whipped up by Hurricane Guillermo pounded beaches in Orange County with waves from 6 to 12 feet high. Hundreds of people were rescued, but rip currents were blamed for three injuries and one death. On the fifth, a 19 year old man was swept away about a mile north of the Huntington Beach Pier. His body was recovered several days later. On the sixth, a teenage boy and girl were pummelled on a beach in Corona Del Mar. Another 18 year old was pulled ashore and sent to the hospital with neck injuries. In Newport Beach, lifeguards made nearly 300 rescues on the fifth and sixth alone.

The people who died

As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.

Event	Date	Age	Sex	Where	Kind
Rip Current, Orange	1997-08-05	19	Male	In Water	Direct

What these are

Rip Current: A narrow, fast current flowing away from the beach that caused a drowning or rescue.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in California in 1997 Every state in 1997 This day in weather history Warnings in California, August 1997

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5616231.