In a summer of extreme weather events, Hurricane Hilary is yet another atypical occurrence — a tropical storm headed for the West Coast of the United States.
What it will likely mean for Southern California and the southwest is potential heavy flooding — and even flash flooding — with up to seven inches of rain forecast in some areas and tropical storm force winds up to 73 mph as it moves over land.
Though California has had hurricanes before, it’s extremely rare because cold water flows from Alaska typically make the Pacific coast an unsuitable environment for them, which rely on water surface temperatures higher than 26 Celsius to form and grow powerful. Hilary, a Category 4 storm as of Saturday afternoon, is expected to make landfall on Sunday morning, likely in northern Mexico around Baja California, according to the National Hurricane Center.
While people on the southeastern coast — particularly in Florida up through the Carolinas, and along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico — are likely well-versed in hurricane preparation, and live in states with storm-hardened infrastructure, that’s not so for Southern California and parts of the southwest where the hurricane is expected to hit. Though Hilary is expected to weaken as it heads northward and makes landfall, it could still bring several inches of rain — as many as ten inches are forecast in some parts — and heavy winds.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a press release Friday outlining the government’s preparation for the storm and urging Southern Californians to prepare themselves for “the wettest tropical cyclone in state history and the first-ever Tropical Storm Watch issued for California.” According to Axios, 43 million people in California and Mexico are under tropical storm warnings, and 27 million under flash flood warnings, in an area stretching all the way to Idaho.
California has already had an extremely wet year, though that’s unrelated to Hilary’s development…
Read the full article here