Lightning Strike in Guam, August 27, 2003

Name: Lightning Strike in Guam, August 27, 2003
Start: 2003-08-27T13:45
End: 2003-08-27T15:00
Location: Guam

August 27, 2003 · NWS GUA · 1 event in 1 county or zone

An 18 year-old Japanese tourist died when she was struck by lightning. The woman was swimming with her father about 150 feet from the shoreline behind the Hyatt Regency Hotel when she was hit.

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.

An 18 year-old Japanese tourist died when she was struck by lightning. The woman was swimming with her father about 150 feet from the shoreline behind the Hyatt Regency Hotel when she was hit. Her father found her floating in the water and she appeared lifeless. There was blood coming out of her mouth, nose and ears. It was evident that she was struck by lightning. At 1353 the Guam Fire Department responded to a report of a possible lightning victim at the hotel's beach side. Medics performed CPR on the lady. She was brought to Guam Memorial Hospital and was pronounced dead at 1445. She had suffered cardiac arrest and third-degree burns.A spokesperson for the hotel said that when the thunderstorms began, hotel employees took precautions and asked guest to get out of the pool, but the victim was quite a distance away from the shore.

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 Aug 27, 3:59 AM SST, 9 hours 46 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Aug 27, 3:59 AM SST, 9 hours 46 minutes before

AREA SYNOPTIC DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TIYAN GU
1 AM GUAM LST THU AUG 28 2003

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

A MONSOON TROUGH EXTENDS FROM 13N130E TO 13N144E TO 12N150E TO
12N158E TO 9N167E AND TO 8N173E. SCATTERED SHOWERS AND ISOLATED
THUNDERSTORMS ASSOCIATED WITH THIS TROUGH ARE FOUND IN THE AREA
BOUNDED BY YAP TO GUAM TO 5N146E AND BACK TO YAP. FURTHER EAST ALONG
THE TROUGH...SCATTERED SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS ARE
OCCURRING WITHIN 150 MILES EITHER SIDE OF A LINE FROM 10N154E TO
7N170E TO 7N178E AND TO 12N180. THIS INCLUDES AN AREA NORTHEAST OF
CHUUK...POHNPEI...KOSRAE...KWAJALEIN AND MAJURO.

A WEAK CIRCULATION CENTERED NEAR 19N139E IS PRODUCING SCATTERED
SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS IN AN AREA BOUNDED BY 20N137E TO 21N146E
TO 15N140E AND BACK TO 20N137E.

A SURFACE TROUGH OF LOW PRESSURE COMBINED WITH FAVORABLE UPPER-LEVEL
WINDS IS PRODUCING SCATTERED SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS
WITHIN 50 MILES OF A LINE FROM 23N157E TO 18N159E...AND WITHIN 60
MILES OF A LINE FROM 13N162E TO 15N166E. THESE AREAS ARE WEST AND
SOUTHWEST OF WAKE ISLAND.

AN UPPER-LEVEL LOW NEAR 27N175E IS PRODUCING SCATTERED SHOWERS
ACROSS WAKE ISLAND BETWEEN 19N AND 21N FROM 166E TO 172E.

Event by event

1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.

Lightning, Guam

When: August 27, 1:45 PM SST to 3:00 PM SST
Where: Guam County, Central Portion
Deaths: 1 direct, 0 indirect
Reported by: NEWSPAPER

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
Lightning, Guam	2003-08-27	18	Female	In Water	Direct

What these are

Lightning: A lightning strike that killed, injured or caused damage.

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

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Guam in 2003 Every state in 2003 This day in weather history Warnings in Guam, August 2003

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: 5338230.