A rogue wave capsized a 12 foot fishing boat at the mouth of Oceanside harbor. One man drowned, the other was injured when he and the boat were tossed onto the jetty by the wave.
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.
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 episode as NWS SGX wrote it up.
A rogue wave capsized a 12 foot fishing boat at the mouth of Oceanside harbor. One man drowned, the other was injured when he and the boat were tossed onto the jetty by the wave.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS San Diego, CA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Dec 30, 2:00 PM PST, 2 hours 30 minutes earlier.
EXTREME SOUTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN DIEGO CA 200 PM PST SUN DEC 30 2001 .SYNOPSIS...WEAK UPPER LEVEL LOW PRESSURE WILL BRING SOME SHOWERS TONIGHT INTO MONDAY...BUT MOSTLY LIGHT PRECIPITATION AMOUNTS ARE EXPECTED. WEAK HIGH PRESSURE ALOFT WILL BRING PARTLY CLOUDY WEATHER MONDAY NIGHT INTO WEDNESDAY. ANOTHER SYSTEM WILL BRING A CHANCE OF SHOWERS AGAIN THURSDAY. .DISCUSSION...MULTIPLE LOW CLOUD LAYERS...GENERALLY BETWEEN 2000 AND 5000 FEET COVERED NEARLY ALL AREAS WEST OF THE MOUNTAINS AND EVEN SOME NORTHERN DESERT AREAS. HIGH CLOUDS WERE ALSO DRIFTING OVER. THAT KEPT IT COOL WEST OF THE MTNS AND THE N DESERTS...THOUGH A WARM 5K-10KFT LAYER KEPT THINGS MILD IN THE MTNS. THE AIR IS MOISTENING IN THE LOW LAYERS...SO EVAPORATION OF THE RAIN DROPS WILL NOT BE TOO SIGNIFICANT...THOUGH RAINFALL AMOUNTS SHOULD STILL BE LIGHT DUE TO THE LACK OF INSTABILITY AND SIGNIFICANT DYNAMICS. I PREFER THE FASTER AVN SOLUTION OVER THE ETA WITH PRECIP MOST FREQUENT THIS EVENING...AND THEN A SMALLER AMOUNT POSSIBLE INTO TUE MORNING...AND RADAR SHOWS RAIN ECHOES OVER THE COASTAL WATERS NEAR THE CHANNEL ISLANDS MOVING EAST AT A RATE SO THAT THE SHOWERS COULD MOVE INTO ORANGE COUNTY BY SUNSET. RAINFALL AMOUNTS FROM ALERT GAUGES OVER SANTA BARBARA COUNTY SHOW MOSTLY UNDER 1/10 INCH IN THE LAST 3 HOURS...SO AMOUNTS WILL BE SMALL OVER OUR AREA...AND SEEING HOW THE RAIN OVER THE COASTAL WATERS HAS A SOUTHERN END...SAN DIEGO COUNTY SHOULD SEE LITTLE OR NO PRECIP WHILE ORANGE AND SAN BERNARDINO COUNTIES WILL PROBABLY SEE AVERAGE AMOUNTS AROUND OR SLIGHTLY OVER 1/10 INCH. THE PREFERRED AVN SHOWS DRYING STARTING AROUND 18Z MON...SO NEW YEARS EVE/DAY LOOK DRY. THE NEXT SYSTEM FOR THU LOOKS UNIMPRESSIVE AS IT COULD BE A REPEAT OF OUR CURRENT SYSTEM WITH LOTS OF MOISTURE BUT LITTLE INSTABILITY/DYNAMICS. THAT SYSTEM SHOULD MOVE FAIRLY FAST AND BRING A RETURN OF PARTLY CLOUDY SKIES FOR THE WEEKEND. .SAN...NONE. MAXWELL
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 high surf. Local standard time, as filed.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Surf, X W San Diego | 2001-12-30 | 42 | Male | In Water | Direct |
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in California in 2001Every state in 2001This day in weather historyWarnings in California, December 2001
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: 5274846.