Name: High Surf in California, November 18, 2024
Start: 2024-11-18T13:45
End: 2024-11-18T14:45
Location: California

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.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

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The toll

Deaths: 1
Injuries: 4
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 MTR wrote it up.

Sonoma County 911 dispatch was called on November 18 around 1:45pm PST after a caller reported seeing three people aboard a boat being battered by waves and waving a red flag for help. Four boaters were eventually rescued and taken to the hospital, an additional boater washed up dead on the shore. At the Bodega Bay buoy (46013), mean wave direction was NW with heights ranging between 13.5 and 15.7 feet and NW winds ranged between 11 and 18 knots during the 1:45pm timeframe on Monday (11/18).

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 San Francisco Bay Area, CA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Nov 18, 9:52 AM PST, 3 hours 53 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Nov 18, 9:52 AM PST, 3 hours 53 minutes before

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The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 high surf. Local standard time, as filed.

High Surf, Coastal North Bay Including Point Reyes National Seashore

When: November 18, 1:45 PM PST to 2:45 PM PST
Where: Coastal North Bay Including Point Reyes National Seashore forecast zone
Deaths: 0 direct, 1 indirect
Injuries: 4 direct, 0 indirect
Reported by: Newspaper
Coordinates: 38.290, -122.835 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Sonoma County 911 dispatch was called on November 18 around 1:45pm PST after a caller reported seeing three people aboard a boat being battered by waves and waving a red flag for help. Four boaters were eventually rescued and taken to the hospital, an additional boater washed up dead on the shore.

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, Coastal North Bay Including Point Reyes National Seashore	2024-11-18	69	Male	In Water	Indirect

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

More

Every storm in California in 2024 Every state in 2024 This day in weather history Warnings in California, November 2024

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 2026-09-30. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 1220523.