High Surf — Redwood Coast, California

2006-10-22 · Redwood Coast, California

Event narrative

A sneaker wave knocked down and pulled into the ocean a 4-year-old girl. Witnesses reported that the girl was high on the dry sand when the unusually large sneaker wave occurred. A 21-year-old women attempted to rescue the girl and both the girl and the woman died in the surf.

Wider weather episode

During the morning of October 22, distant storms caused waves to affect the coast of Humboldt County that had a significant height of seven feet and a dominant period of sixteen seconds. These wave conditions produced sneaker waves, which are infrequent waves that are much higher than the rest of the waves occurring during a period.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 8483. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.