California Braces For ‘Catastrophic’ Flooding From Hurricane
Flooding rains that started across northern Mexico will spread into Southern California and the US Southwest on Saturday.
(Bloomberg) -- California and the US Southwest are girding for dangerous flooding as Hurricane Hilary makes its way north along Mexico’s Pacific coastline with heavy rain, high winds and dangerous tides.
Hilary’s top winds dropped to 125 miles (201 kilometers) per hour, down from 130 mph earlier, making it a Category 3 hurricane on the five-step, Saffir-Simpson scale. The National Hurricane Center predicts the storm will move toward landfall on Mexico’s Baja California early Sunday. Winds are expected to weaken as it reaches land, but the storm will bring heavy rain to a large area.
Read more: Track Hilary’s latest path
Hilary may be “the wettest tropical cyclone in state history” and residents need to prepare as it moves north, California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office said.
“Catastrophic and life-threatening flooding likely over Baja California and the Southwestern US through Monday,” the hurricane center said.
Hilary, a rare storm to hit the US West, will likely bring a year’s worth of rain across the region, causing floods, mudslides and power outages and disrupting land and air transportation. In the last 10 years, flooding from rainfall has caused the most deaths from hurricanes and tropical storms in the US.
Games Rescheduled
Amtrak has canceled some services between San Diego and Los Angeles, according to the passenger rail carrier’s website. Major League Baseball has moved Sunday games in San Diego and Los Angeles to Saturday.
A widespread area will likely get as much as 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain with some isolated areas receiving 10 inches or more, especially in the mountains.
Flooding rains that started across northern Mexico will spread into Southern California and the US Southwest on Saturday even though Hilary’s eye is still far from land. In the US, flood watches reach northward to Idaho and as far east as Utah. There’s a 40% chance flash flooding may occur across Southern California and Nevada, including Los Angeles, San Diego and Las Vegas.
“California will be beginning to see today heavy rain develop ahead of the system,” said Zack Taylor, a senior branch forecaster with the US Weather Prediction Center. “Tomorrow and tomorrow night will be the peak of the heavy rainfall as the center of the storm approaches Southern California.”
“This is going to rake the Baja Peninsula pretty severely,” Daniel Swain, a climatologist at the University of California Los Angeles said in a video briefing. “Ensenada and Tijuana are going to be pretty hard hit by this storm.”
Hilary’s path across the West will help strengthen a high pressure area across the central US that is forecast to bring a punishing heat wave to at least 50 million people from Minnesota to Texas next week. High temperature will push to 100F degrees (38C) or more across a large area including St. Louis, Little Rock, Dallas and Houston.
(Updates with hurricane strength in second paragraph)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.
