Tropical Storm Remnants of a Hurricane that Lasts for 220 Hours and is Going to Sweep across Southern California and Nevada
That’s why tropical storms like Hilary, even if they don’t become more frequent, could pack a bigger punch than they used to. “When those storms do occur because the ocean temperatures are getting warmer, they are going to produce more rain and stronger winds,” Easterling says.
Hilary, which was downgraded from a hurricane on Sunday, has been barreling through Mexico near the Baja California peninsula. At least one person died of drowning in the Mexican town of Santa Rosalia amid the storm. Mexico’s hurricane watch has ended, but the Baja California coast is still under threat of flash floods.
The storm was roughly 220 miles south-southeastern of San Diego and moving at 25 miles per hour. According to the National Weather Service, it is going to sweep across southern California by the afternoon.
The portion of southern California and southern Nevada that gets between 3 to 6 inches of rain is expected to receive up to 10 inches. Some parts of the country may receive more rain in a day or two than they do in an entire year. Winds will also be particularly strong and gusty on elevated terrain.
The other thing to keep in mind is that places unaccustomed to tropical storms are usually less prepared when they do arrive. Even though a tropical storm that hits California might be weaker than storms that frequently roll through Gulf Coast communities, the lack of preparation can lead to outsize impact. If there aren’t proper building codes or if there has been a lot of development in flood prone areas, the risks could be greater.
On Saturday night, California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a state of emergency for several counties, including Fresno, Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, San Bernardino, Tulare, Orange and Ventura. Some of those communities, like parts of San Bernardino County, have already received evacuation orders.
The California National Guard, Cal Fire and the Flood Operations Center are on alert in the event of a flood. The state encouraged residents to sign up for flood warnings from their local governments as well as prepare for the possibility of a fire if they need to evacuate.
The remnants of that storm are moving across Nevada today, where the Las Vegas Valley Water District issued a boil water order for some residents because of flooding.
Tropical Storm Hilary and Tropical Storm Franklin move on from California, leaving a trail of damage and debris: Evidence from Puerto Rico and other coastal storms
The impact of those storms depends on the capacity of a community to handle it. said Gonzalo Pita, an associate scientist and director of the MSE in Systems Engineering.
“The ocean temperatures off the coast of Baja California are much warmer than usual right now,” Swain says. It’s a pretty significant increment of the fuel that comes from hurricanes.
The federal researchers say that a majority of the world’s oceans are experiencing heat waves.
Hurricanes form over hotter water in the ocean, which makes them larger and more powerful, and this summer is the warmest on record.
We still haven’t reached the peak of what’s expected to be an above-average hurricane season. The season is predicted to have two to three named storms and six to 11 hurricanes, both up substantially from the original forecast released in May.
Strong winds and heavy rains are expected in Puerto Rico during the middle of this week due to Tropical Storm Franklin. Two other storms — Emily and Gert — are moving through the open Atlantic and don’t appear poised to make landfall.
A Simultaneous Fall and Windstorm Across the Santa Barbara-Vetera Flare: Emergency Responders and Evacuation Procedures in Del Norte County
The earthquake’s epicenter was registered along the Sisar fault in Ojai, which is located between Santa Barbara and Ventura, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office and Los Angeles Fire Department both reported no immediate damage or injuries.
In a similar way, just as the usual summer storm was making landfall, Southern California experienced a highly familiar phenomenon: a magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck the area. The term “hurriquake” took off on social media.
But in a sign of the state’s colliding natural disasters, over 12,000 of those outages were coming from Del Norte County in the northwest corner of the state, an area where the storm’s impact was minimal. The power lines had been shut off for a much more familiar reason: to minimize the impact of an approaching wildfire, local news outlets reported.
Over half a million students in the San Diego, Pasadena, and Coachella Valley districts were impacted by the closings as of Monday.
Palm Springs residents were urged to text or call the non emergency number to reach the nearest police or fire station. The city declared a local emergency on Sunday after flooding washed out roads and closed the area’s major freeway, the I-10, in both directions.
An estimated 75,000 LA County residents don’t have access to a permanent home or shelter, and advocates say they remain at an exponentially higher risk of being injured or killed by floodwaters, falling debris and hypothermia.
But emergency responders did have to rescue and evacuate dozens of people, including from a mobile home park in the Coachella Valley and a homeless encampment along the San Diego River.
Los Angeles, California, During a Tropical Tropical Cyclone, a Big Break of Los Angeles Rainfall Record by 3 a.m. Monday
The public heard the message to be prepared and stay home, which helped a lot, according to the LAist reporter. “So that old adage ‘better safe than sorry’ seems to have been the wisdom of the weekend.”
Early Monday, officials reclassified the storm as a post-tropical cyclone and forecast it would travel north through Nevada, posing more flood risks. But as of midday Monday, the damage appeared to be less than originally feared.
The National Weather Service Los Angeles said at 3 a.m. local time that the storm had broken “virtually all rainfall daily records.” The previous record for rain in downtown Los Angeles was set in 1906.
The storm traveled from northern Baja California in Mexico into the United States, dropping parts of California on the coast and in the mountains.
The first tropical storm to hit the region in nine decades dropped as much as 7 inches of rainwater in some mountain regions and up to 4 inches in lower lying areas.
A Flood Warning for Los Angeles County in Light of a News Conference Report from the Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass at 6 a.m. Monday
“Our message today remains the same. Stay safe. Stay on top of the news. Stay home,” said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass at a Sunday news conference ahead of the rain’s peak. She said that she spoke with the Vice President, who offered federal support.
The watches for flash flood in Los Angeles County were in effect until 3 a.m. Monday. A flash flood warning for parts of San Bernardino and Inyo Counties — east and north of LA — was in effect until 5 a.m.
The California Department of Transportation said that the section of interstate that goes through the valley was closed because of debris and flooding.