Rip Current in Guam, July 4, 2001

Name: Rip Current in Guam, July 4, 2001
Start: 2001-07-04T18:20
End: 2001-07-04T19:00
Location: Guam

July 4, 2001 · NWS GUA · 1 event in 1 county or zone

At 1830, the Guam Police Department received a call of a swimmer stranded off the reef. The individual, a male, was kayaking outside the reef near the Nikko Hotel with his friends.

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 1
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.

At 1830, the Guam Police Department received a call of a swimmer stranded off the reef. The individual, a male, was kayaking outside the reef near the Nikko Hotel with his friends. Witnesses said they saw the guy flip over in his kayak. Three bystanders went to assist the man only to find themselves drifting out as well until police arrived. The surf was reported as very rough with waves reaching as high as 10 feet and crashing into the reef. Other people in the area reported as seeing another body in the water. Guam Fire Department rescue units and a Navy HC-5 squadron helicopter were activated. They found out that it was just floating debris. The swells that generated the Hazardous Surf conditions was generated by Tropical Storm Utor, which passed west of the Mariana Islands.

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 Jul 4, 3:58 PM SST, 2 hours 22 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 4, 3:58 PM SST, 2 hours 22 minutes before

AFDPQ
AREA SYNOPTIC DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TIYAN GU
1 PM GUAM LST THU JUL 5 2001

WESTERN NORTH PACIFIC BETWEEN EQUATOR AND 25N FROM 130E TO 180.

HIGH PRESSURE DOMINATES MOST OF THE AREA...ESPECIALLY FROM THE
EQUATOR TO 25N BETWEEN 130E AND 140E AND FROM THE EQUATOR TO 20N
BETWEEN 150E AND 170E. AS A RESULT...THERE ARE ONLY ISOLATED SHOWERS
AFFECTING WESTERN YAP STATE AND THE REPUBLIC OF PALAU.  LIKEWISE,
ONLY ISOLATED SHOWERS ARE AFFECTING POHNPEI STATE, KOSRAE STATE, AND
MOST OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE MARSHALL ISLANDS.

THE COMBINATION OF AN UPPER LEVEL LOW LOCATED NEAR 16N144E AND AN
INVERTED TROUGH THAT STRETCHES FROM 1N143E TO 19N144E ARE
CREATING WIDESPREAD CLOUDINESS. SCATTERED SHOWERS AND ISOLATED
THUNDERSTORMS ARE OCCURRING OVER AN AREA BOUNDED BY 18N140E TO
18N143E TO 9N150E TO 8N140E BACK TO 18N140E.

SCATTERED SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS ARE LOCATED EAST
OF MAJURO AND OVER THE GILBERT ISLANDS 100 MILES EITHER SIDE OF A
LINE FROM 2N171E TO 8N180.

A SHEAR LINE IS PRODUCING SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS
100 MILES NORTH OF A LINE FROM 22N159E TO 23N170E. DIVERGENT UPPER
LEVEL FLOW IS ALSO CREATING AN AREA OF ISOLATED SHOWERS AND
THUNDERSTORMS BOUNDED BY 12N165E TO 20N170E TO 13N173E BACK TO
12N165E.

Event by event

1 rip current. Local standard time, as filed.

Rip Current, Guam

When: July 4, 6:20 PM SST to 7:00 PM SST
Where: Guam County, Central Portion
Injuries: 1 direct, 0 indirect
Reported by: NEWSPAPER

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 Guam in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history Warnings in Guam, July 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: 5259793.