South Carolina, 2025

Rip Current in South Carolina, July 4, 2025

July 4, 2025 · NWS CHS · 1 event in 1 county or zone

Gusty winds along the coast combined with increasing swell energy resulted in an enhanced risk of rip currents along the southeast South Carolina coast.

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 CHS wrote it up.

Gusty winds along the coast combined with increasing swell energy resulted in an enhanced risk of rip currents along the southeast South Carolina coast.

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 Charleston, SC wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 4, 9:42 AM EST, 1 hour 18 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jul 4, 9:42 AM EST, 1 hour 18 minutes before
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Hazardous weather outlook, Jul 4, 9:36 AM EST, 1 hour 24 minutes before
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In the hours before

Local storm report, Jul 4, 7:40 AM EST, 3 hours 20 minutes before
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Event by event

1 rip current. Local standard time, as filed.

Rip Current, Beaufort

When
July 4, 11:00 AM EST to 11:15 AM EST
Where
Beaufort forecast zone
Deaths
1 direct, 0 indirect
Reported by
Emergency Manager

Beaufort County Emergency Management reported that a one person drowned and several others were rescued from a rip current at Hunting Island State Park beach. The rip current occurred in front of the Hunting Island lighthouse.

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.

EventDateAgeSexWhereKind
Rip Current, Beaufort2025-07-0434MaleIn WaterDirect

What these are

Rip Current
A narrow, fast current flowing away from the beach that caused a drowning or rescue.

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

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in South Carolina in 2025Every state in 2025This day in weather historyWarnings in South Carolina, July 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: 1286227.