High Surf, Guam
- When
- August 25, 4:30 PM SST
- Where
- Guam forecast zone
- Deaths
- 1 direct, 0 indirect
- Injuries
- 3 direct, 0 indirect
- Reported by
- NEWSPAPER
High Surf in Guam, August 25, 2004
A young man, 18, was wave watching with three friends at Oka Point in Tamuning, when someone dropped something into the water. The young man went down into the water to retrieve the dropped item and was overcome by waves.
The toll
- Deaths
- 1
- Injuries
- 3
- 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 young man, 18, was wave watching with three friends at Oka Point in Tamuning, when someone dropped something into the water. The young man went down into the water to retrieve the dropped item and was overcome by waves. The three friends tried to rescue him by forming a human chain, but another big wave came and washed all four out over the reef. The three friends were rescued and taken to Guam Memorial Hospital, where they were treated and released. The young man's body was never found. The high surf was associated with Typhoon Chaba, which had passed through the region on August 22nd and 23rd.
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 25, 4:08 PM SST, 22 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Aug 25, 4:08 PM SST, 22 minutes before
AREA SYNOPTIC DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TIYAN GU 1 PM GUAM LST THU AUG 26 2004 WESTERN NORTH PACIFIC BETWEEN EQUATOR AND 25N FROM 130E TO 180. SUPER TYPHOON CHABA IS CENTERED FAR NORTHWEST OF THE MARIANAS NEAR 24N136E AND IS MOVING NORTHWEST AT 9 MPH WITH MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS OF 160 MPH. HEAVY RAIN AND THUNDERSTORMS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 120 MILES FROM THE CENTER. FARTHER OUT...SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS ARE FOUND BETWEEN 15N AND 25N FROM 130E TO 141E. SEE JOINT TYPHOON WARNING CENTER BULLETIN WTPN32 PGTW FOR MORE DETAILS. A MONSOON TROUGH EXTENDS FROM 23N130E THROUGH SUPER TYPHOON CHABA TO A CIRCULATION EAST OF THE MARIANAS NEAR 13N153E...WHICH IS CURRENTLY THE SUBJECT OF A TROPICAL CYCLONE FORMATION ALERT FROM THE JOINT TYPHOON WARNING CENTER. FOR MORE INFORMATION...SEE BULLETIN WTPN21 PGTW FROM THE JOINT TYPHOON WARNING CENTER. THE MONSOON TROUGH THEN CONTINUES EAST TO A WEAK CIRCULATION NEAR 12N170E THEN EASTWARD TO BEYOND THE DATE LINE AT 10N. SCATTERED SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS ASSOCIATED WITH THE CIRCULATION EAST OF THE MARIANAS ARE FOUND BETWEEN 12N AND 17N FROM 149E TO 154E. SCATTERED SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS ASSOCIATED WITH THE WEAK CIRCULATION NORTH OF MAJURO ARE OCCURRING BETWEEN 8N AND 14N FROM 166E TO 177E.
In the hours before
Special weather statement, Aug 25, 11:15 AM SST, 5 hours 15 minutes before
GUZ001-002-003-004-262300- SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TIYAN GU 815 AM LST THU AUG 26 2004 ...TROPICAL DISTURBANCE DEVELOPING EAST OF THE MARIANAS... A TROPICAL DISTURBANCE IS DEVELOPING EAST OF THE MARIANA ISLANDS AND MAY BE UPGRADED TO A TROPICAL DEPRESSION IN THE NEXT 24 HOURS. AT 7 AM...THE CIRCULATION CENTER OF THE DISTURBANCE WAS LOCATED ROUGHLY AROUND LATITUDE 13 DEGREES NORTH AND LONGITUDE 153 DEGREES EAST...OR ABOUT 550 MILES EAST OF GUAM AND 500 MILES EAST-SOUTHEAST OF SAIPAN. THE SYSTEM IS EXPECTED TO MOVE SLOWLY WEST OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS... PERHAPS REACHING THE MARIANA ISLANDS AROUND SUNDAY. HOWEVER...SINCE THIS IS NOT YET A WELL-ORGANIZED SYSTEM...ITS IMPACT ON OUR WEATHER REMAINS UNCLEAR. NEVERTHELESS...RESIDENTS OF THE MARIANA ISLANDS SHOULD CLOSELY MONITOR THE PROGRESS OF THIS SYSTEM. STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO...WHICH IS ALSO AVAILABLE ON GUAM BY DIALING 811 ON THE TELEPHONE...OR TUNE IN TO LOCAL MEDIA SOURCES FOR THE LATEST WEATHER INFORMATION. THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GUAM WEBSITE IS LOCATED AT HTTP://WWW.PRH.NOAA.GOV/GUAM (LOWER CASE). HENDRICKS/MA
Event by event
1 high surf. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High Surf, Guam | 2004-08-25 | 18 | Male | In Water | Direct |
What these are
- High Surf
- Large waves breaking on the shore that caused damage, erosion or casualties.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
- Lightning Strike in Florida, August 25, 2004
- Flash Flood in Mississippi, August 25, 2004
- Heat in Texas, August 25, 2004
- Hail in Nebraska, August 25, 2004
- Lightning Strike in Kansas, August 25, 2004
- Tornado and Damaging Winds in Michigan, August 25, 2004
- Hail and Damaging Winds in Iowa, August 25, 2004
- Lightning Strike in Florida, August 25, 2004
- Lightning Strikes in Florida, August 25, 2004
- Flash Flooding and Hail in Illinois, August 25, 2004
- Hail and Damaging Wind in Texas, August 25, 2004
- Hail and Damaging Winds in Missouri, August 25, 2004
More
Every storm in Guam in 2004Every state in 2004This day in weather historyWarnings in Guam, August 2004
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: 5432265.