Name: High Surf in California, November 5, 2025
Start: 2025-11-05T09:00
End: 2025-11-05T09:00
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
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The toll

Deaths: 1
Injuries: 1
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.

Shortly after 9AM on November 5, 2025, rescue crews were deployed to The Hook near Capitola as two surfers were reported in distress. One surfer was able to make it past the line of breaking waves, while the other was caught in them. When the surfer was pulled from the water, they were unconscious and was rushed to the hospital. The surfer was pronounced dead at a hospital two days later. At the time of the incident, a Coastal Flood Advisory was in effect due to high tidal flooding, and while conditions were not met for a Beach Hazards Statement, one would come into effect at 10 PM that night. Buoy 46236 (Outer Monterey Canyon) reported a wave height of 4.5 ft at a dominant period of 14 seconds, and an average period of 10.3 seconds from the west-northwest.

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 4, 2:54 PM PST, 18 hours 6 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Nov 4, 2:54 PM PST, 18 hours 6 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, Northern Monterey Bay

When: November 5, 9:00 AM PST
Where: Northern Monterey Bay forecast zone
Deaths: 1 direct, 0 indirect
Injuries: 1 direct, 0 indirect
Reported by: Broadcast Media
Coordinates: 37.022, -122.010 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

Shortly after 9AM on November 5, 2025, rescue crews were deployed to The Hook near Capitola as two surfers were reported in distress. One surfer was able to make it past the line of breaking waves, while the other was caught in them. When the surfer was pulled from the water, they were unconscious and was rushed to the hospital. The surfer was pronounced dead at a hospital two days later.

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, Northern Monterey Bay	2025-11-05	19	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

More

Every storm in California in 2025 Every state in 2025 This day in weather history Warnings in California, November 2025

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: 1295381.