High Wind in Southern Monterey Bay and Big Sur Coast, California

The California Highway Patrol received initial reports of a vehicle going over the cliff off of Highway One into the ocean at 4:20 PM on 2/10/2026. Nearby PGE observation stations reported 40 mph (Coast Road, 404 ft in elevation, north of accident site) and 45 mph (Funt Ranch, 995 ft in elevation, due east and uphill of accident site) gusts at 4:00PM. Sites in the wider vicinity of the accident reported light rain was occurring between 4PM and 5PM. The CHP incident report stated at 4:20PM that it was too windy to see vehicle at the bottom of the cliff. The CHP report mentions a 30 mph gust at 4:52 PM after Coast Guard operations began to reach the vehicle. The Monterey County Sheriff stated that weather conditions made recovery efforts extremely challenging. The victim was recovered around 8:45 PM, one fatality was confirmed as a result of the accident. At the time of the incident, a Wind Advisory was in effect for the Big Sur coast due to the strong wind gusts in the area.

A surface cyclone approached the Central Coast on February 10, resulting in the first substantial rainfall in over a month for much of the Bay Area and Central Coast. A Wind Advisory was issued for all of Monterey and San Benito Counties as wind gusts up to 50 mph were expected across the region late on the 10th and into the early morning of the 11th. The orientation of the low favored rainfall for the Santa Cruz and Santa Lucia ranges, where rain totals reached 1-3 inches in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and 2-5 inches in the Santa Lucias.