Special Marine Warning for Santa Barbara Channel and Surrounding Waters
This alert is no longer in effect.
NOAA issued it on April 12, 2026, 4 months ago. Warnings of this kind stay in effect for hours to a few days, so this page is a historical record of what was issued, not a current warning. For conditions where you are right now, check weather.gov (US), weather.gc.ca (Canada), the Met Office (UK), or the Bureau of Meteorology (Australia).
Areazine synthesizes this NWS weather alert directly from NOAA's official public data feed. See our methodology for full source attribution and refresh cadence.
A Special Marine Warning has been issued by NWS Los Angeles/Oxnard CA for the East Santa Barbara Channel and nearby areas, with waterspouts and wind gusts up to 40 knots expected until 2:00 AM PDT.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Special Marine Warning
- Affected area
- Santa Barbara Channel and western California waters
- Issued
- April 12, 2026
- Issuing authority
- NWS Los Angeles/Oxnard CA
Marine notices apply to named waters or shoreline zones. They may not describe conditions on land, even when the nearest place name is the same.
Record status: historical. It was issued 4 months ago; use the issuing agency's live warning service for current conditions in Santa Barbara Channel and western California waters.
Alert Details
A Special Marine Warning has been issued by the National Weather Service (NWS) Los Angeles/Oxnard CA. This alert is effective from 12:04 AM PDT on April 12, 2026, until 2:00 AM PDT on the same day.
Affected Areas
The warning affects the East Santa Barbara Channel from Pt. Conception to Pt. Mugu CA, including Santa Cruz Island, and the waters from Pt. Sal to Santa Cruz Island CA and westward 60 nm, including San Miguel and Santa Rosa Islands.
What You Should Do
Residents and mariners in the affected areas should move to safe harbor immediately due to gusty winds and high waves. Waterspouts can easily overturn boats and create locally hazardous seas, so seek safe harbor immediately.
Expected Conditions
Hazards include waterspouts and wind gusts to 40 knots, as detected by radar.
Timeline
The alert is effective from 12:04 AM PDT on April 12, 2026, and ends at 2:00 AM PDT on April 12, 2026.
Original source: NOAA Official Notice ↗
Related Weather Alerts
All Weather Alerts →Nationwide notices with similar length or severity timing 8
Two Areazine-derived peer sets for this NWS weather alert: nearest notices by body length and by same severity near the same agency date. Peers come from other categories so they are not the same-feed Related list above.
Similar body length
Nearest notices by article body length (932 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to April 12, 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about this NWS weather alert.