A rip current at Ocean Beach caught two men off guard resulting in one man's death.
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.
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.
The episode as NWS MTR wrote it up.
A rip current at Ocean Beach caught two men off guard resulting in one man's death.
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 San Francisco Bay Area, CA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Apr 12, 1:30 PM PST, 20 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA CA
230 PM PDT SUN APR 12 2009
.DISCUSSION...AS OF 2:30 PM PDT SUNDAY...UNDER MOSTLY CLEAR SKIES
AFTERNOON TEMPERATURES HAVE WARMED NICELY ACROSS THE DISTRICT WITH
MID 50S TO UPPER 60S MOST SPOTS. THE COASTAL STRATUS HAS RETREATED
TO OFF THE COAST...BUT IS STILL HANGING ALONG THE SAN FRANCISCO AND
SAN MATEO COUNTY COASTLINES...PER LATEST SATELLITE IMAGERY. LOW
CLOUDS AND PATCHY FOG ARE EXPECTED TO FILL INTO INLAND VALLEYS ONCE
AGAIN TONIGHT WITH A MODERATE ONSHORE SURFACE FLOW IN PLACE.
THE SOUTHERN EDGE OF A LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM DUE TO AFFECT MAINLY THE
PACIFIC NORTHWEST IS FORECAST TO BRUSH ACROSS NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
LATE TONIGHT AND MONDAY MORNING. THIS IS EXPECTED TO INCREASE THE
MARINE LAYER AND ONSHORE FLOW FOR OUR DISTRICT BUT NOT BRING RAIN
THIS FAR SOUTH. BREEZY CONDITIONS ARE INDICATED BY THE COMPUTER
MODELS BEGINNING MONDAY NIGHT AND CONTINUING THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT
AS THE NORTHERLY SURFACE PRESSURE GRADIENT TIGHTENS ACROSS THE STATE.
STRONGEST WINDS ARE ANTICIPATED TO BE OVER THE COASTAL WATERS AND IN
THE IMMEDIATE NEAR-SHORE AREAS AND POSSIBLY THE COASTAL MOUNTAINS
DURING THIS TIME FRAME WITH THE LATEST NAM12 BRINGING WIND SPEEDS OF
AROUND 50 KNOTS AT THE 925 MB LEVEL OVER THE WATERS...AND LOCALLY
OVER THE IMMEDIATE COAST. COOLER TEMPERATURES ARE ALSO EXPECTED ON
TUESDAY AND WEDNESDAY AS COOL AIR SPREADS IN FROM THE NORTH. THE
PRESSURE GRADIENT IS PROGGED TO WEAKEN DURING THE DAY WEDNESDAY
WHEN THE UPPER LEVEL RIDGE STRENGTHENS OVER THE EASTERN PACIFIC AND
BEGINS TO EDGE EASTWARD OVER CALIFORNIA. THIS WILL BRING A PRONOUNCED
WARMING TREND TO THE AREA BY LATE IN THE WORK WEEK AND INTO NEXT
WEEKEND WITH CONTINUED DRY CONDITIONS.
&&
.AVIATION...AS OF 8:25 AM PDT SUNDAY...LOW CLOUDS HAVE BEGUN TO
CLEAR THIS MORNING WITH KSFO AND THE APPROACH ZONE OPENING AS THE
MARINE LAYER EVAPORATES TOWARD THE EAST BAY. KOAK SHOULD BECOME VFR
BY LATE MORNING.
OTHER PATCHES OF LOW CLOUDS EAST AND SOUTH OF THE MONTEREY BAY
SHOULD CLEAR BY NOON. OTHERWISE HIGH CLOUDS WILL MOVE INTO THE SKY
AS A LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM SLAMS INTO THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST. MVFR
CEILINGS ARE EXPECTED TO RETURN AFTER 03Z.
&&
.MTR WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
.TNGT...SCA...PIGEON POINT TO POINT PIEDRAS BLANCAS 10-60 NM.
...POINT PINOS TO POINT PIEDRAS BLANCAS 0-10 NM.
PUBLIC FORECAST: SSA
AVIATION FORECAST: EVANS
NWS ON THE WEB AT WEATHER.GOV/SANFRANCISCOThe national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 rip current. Local standard time, as filed.
Two men were in the surf about waist deep near stairway 24, just south of the Cliff House on Ocean Beach, San Francisco when a large wave knocked then off their feet and swept them away. The two men were caught in a rip current and only one of them survived.
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, San Francisco | 2009-04-12 | 48 | Male | In Water | Direct |
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in California in 2009Every state in 2009This day in weather historyWarnings in California, April 2009
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: 167427.