The coastline again has turned dangerous for anyone not paying attention, the National Weather Service is warning. “Sneaker waves” were expected to arrive Monday along with a northwest swell heading to the Bay Area’s coastal region.
“There will be an increased risk of sneaker waves into the late afternoon with swells of 3-4 ft at 16-17 seconds. Never turn your back to the ocean,” Weather Service officials tweeted on Sunday.
These waves are “deadly, larger-than-average swells that can suddenly and without warning surge dozens of feet higher up the beach than expected. Beachgoers encountering sneaker waves can be knocked down and dragged into the cold turbulent ocean.”
That precise scenario has repeatedly occurred along the Bay Area shores. A 12-year-old Fremont boy was swept away on Jan. 18 when a powerful wave raced ashore and dragged him from Cowell Ranch State Beach into the ocean off San Mateo County. He was caught by a rip current and drowned before anyone could reach him. In the seven weeks before that tragedy, seven other people — men, children, a woman, a toddler — were fatally swept from Bay Area beaches into the Pacific.
Because sneaker waves can leap from the ocean suddenly and powerfully, even where the waters have been calm, the National Weather Service urges people to stay back from the waves as well as refraining from turning their backs to the sea. In addition, people should not try to swim after someone who is swept out but should throw a rope or life preserver if possible, and call 911 and “keep an eye on them until help arrives,” the officials say.
The sneaker waves form during offshore storms that transfer energy to the ocean surface, and then make their way to the coasts.
Rita Beamish is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rbeamish@sfchronicle.com
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November 01, 2021 at 09:24AM
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New warning for dangerous 'sneaker' waves along coast - San Francisco Chronicle
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