Rip Current, Guam
- When
- February 26, 11:30 AM SST to 2:26 PM SST
- Where
- Guam County, Piti
- Deaths
- 1 direct, 0 indirect
- Reported by
- NEWSPAPER
Rip Current in Guam, February 26, 2001
A 5-year-old girl died after being pulled from the waters off Piti Beach. The girl was brought to Naval Hospital in unstable condition and in full cardiac arrest.
The toll
- Deaths
- 1
- Injuries
- 0
- 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.
What happened
The episode as NWS GUA wrote it up.
A 5-year-old girl died after being pulled from the waters off Piti Beach. The girl was brought to Naval Hospital in unstable condition and in full cardiac arrest. The girl was taken off ventilation at the request of her parents at 1426. Strong high pressure moving out of Asia increased winds north between Guam and Japan. This created long period swells, which resulted in strong rip currents along northwestern, northern and northeastern shorelines of the Mariana Islands. Piti Beach faces north-northwest and was susceptible to these swells.
What forecasters said that day
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 GUA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Feb 26, 4:02 AM SST, 7 hours 28 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Feb 26, 4:02 AM SST, 7 hours 28 minutes before
AREA SYNOPTIC DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TIYAN GU 1 AM GUAM LST TUE FEB 27 2001 WESTERN NORTH PACIFIC BETWEEN EQUATOR AND 25N FROM 130E TO 180. A WEAK MONSOON TROUGH STRETCHED FROM 7N130E...PASSING SOUTH OF PALAU AND YAP TO THE EQUATOR AND 145E. SCATTERED SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS ARE OCCURRING FROM 131E TO 139E BETWEEN 5N AND 11N. WITHIN THIS AREA...STRONG SURFACE WIND FLOW CONVERGENCE TO THE NORTH AND EAST OF THE TROUGH IS GENERATING NUMEROUS SHOWERS AND SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS WITHIN A 100 MILE RADIUS OF 7N135E. THUNDERSTORM WITH HEAVY SHOWERS ARE BEING REPORTED AT PALAU. A COLD FRONT EXTENDS FROM 25N165E TO 20N147E TO 20N130E. OVERCAST LOW LEVEL CLOUDINESS AND PATCHES OF RAIN ARE ALONG AND UP TO 300 MILES NORTH OF THIS BOUNDARY. A WEAK SHEAR LINE EXTENDS FROM 25N168E SOUTHWESTWARD THROUGH THE MARIANA ISLANDS NEAR ROTA TO ABOUT 12N141E. BROKEN LOW LEVEL CLOUDINESS AND ISOLATED SHOWERS ARE ALONG AND UP TO 100 MILES NORTH OF THIS BOUNDARY. AN AREA OF SCATTERED HEAVIER SHOWERS EXISTS NEAR THE SOUTHWESTERN END OF THIS BOUNDARY AND IS CURRENTLY AFFECTING GUAM...ROTA...TINIAN...AND SAIPAN. THIS AREA IS FROM 141E TO 148E BETWEEN 11N AND 16N. LOW LEVEL CONVERGENCE IN THE EASTERLY TRADES IS GENERATING A LARGE AREA OF CLOUDS AND WIDELY SCATTERED SHOWERS THROUGHOUT MUCH OF THE CAROLINE ISLANDS. THIS AREA EXTENDS FROM 143E TO 160E BETWEEN THE EQUA8TOR AND 8N. NEAR EQUATORIAL TRADE WIND CONVERGENCE IS GENERATING SCATTERED SHOWERS IN THE SOUTHERN MARSHALL ISLANDS FROM 165E TO 176E BETWEEN THE EQUATOR AND 6N.
Event by event
1 rip current. Local standard time, as filed.
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, Guam | 2001-02-26 | 5 | Female | 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
- Heavy Snow in California, February 26 to 27, 2001
- Winter Storm in Kansas, February 26 to 27, 2001
- High Surf in Hawaii, February 26 to 28, 2001
- Winter Storm in Nebraska, February 26 to 27, 2001
- Heavy Snow and High Wind in Alaska, February 26 to 28, 2001
- Winter Storm in Kansas, February 26 to 27, 2001
- High Wind in Alaska, February 26 to 27, 2001
- Flash Flooding in Texas, February 26, 2001
- Winter Storm in Nebraska, February 26 to 27, 2001
- Dense Fog in Florida, February 26, 2001
- Flooding in California, February 26, 2001
- Heavy Snow in Colorado, February 26 to 27, 2001
More
Every storm in Guam in 2001Every state in 2001This day in weather historyWarnings in Guam, February 2001
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: 5229834.