Rip Current in Delaware, September 29, 2002

Name: Rip Current in Delaware, September 29, 2002
Start: 2002-09-29T00:00
End: 2002-09-29T11:00
Location: Delaware

September 29, 2002 · NWS PHI · 1 event in 1 county or zone

Rip currents helped claim the life of a 33-year-old man in Rehoboth Beach. m.

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.

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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 PHI wrote it up.

Rip currents helped claim the life of a 33-year-old man in Rehoboth Beach. The man and a friend went swimming at 1 a.m. EDT early on the 29th. The friend managed to get away from the current. The body was found at 3 a.m. EDT. Later that day a woman was rescued from the surf at 11 a.m. EDT near Stockley Street. A high pressure system built over New England during the evening of the 28th and the morning of the 29th. Northeast flow around the high along the ocean usually enhances both the number and strength of rip currents.

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 Philadelphia/Mount Holly wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Sep 28, 7:15 PM EST, 4 hours 45 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Sep 28, 7:15 PM EST, 4 hours 45 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION - UPDATE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MOUNT HOLLY NJ
815 PM EDT SAT SEP 28 2002

WILL DO A QUICK UPDATE AND LOWER TEMPS AROUND 5 TO 7 DEGREES. MOST
AREAS RADIATING AND TEMPS HAVE BEEN DROPPING 5 DEGR EACH OF THE LAST
2 HRS. THEREFORE...MINS WELL DOWN IN 40S NORTH AND 50S SOUTH.
RADIATION AREAS WILL BE AT THE LOWER ENDS OF THE RANGES.

ALSO...WITH THE CHILLY TEMPS NORTH AND THE WARMER RIVERS AND
STREAMS...PATCHY VALLEY AND RIVER FOG SHOULD DVLP.

WATCHING THE SCA ON THE MARINE WHICH MAY BE DISCONTINUED THIS
EVENING.

.PHI...
DE...NONE.
MD...NONE.
NJ...NONE.
PA...NONE.

RNS

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, Sussex

When: September 29, 12:00 AM EST to 11:00 AM EST
Where: Sussex County, Rehoboth Beach
Deaths: 1 direct, 0 indirect
Reported by: NEWSPAPER
Coordinates: 38.683, -75.339 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

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, Sussex	2002-09-29	33	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 Delaware in 2002 Every state in 2002 This day in weather history Warnings in Delaware, September 2002

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: 5318862.