(Bloomberg) — California and the Southwest are girding for dangerous flooding as Hurricane Hilary churns north along Mexico’s Pacific coastline spreading heavy rain and treacherous tides, while canceling hundreds of flights around the US.
(Bloomberg) — California and the Southwest are girding for dangerous flooding as Hurricane Hilary churns north along Mexico’s Pacific coastline spreading heavy rain and treacherous tides, while canceling hundreds of flights around the US.
Hilary’s top winds eased to 90 miles (150 kilometers) per hour, down from 110 mph earlier, making it a Category 1 hurricane on the five-step, Saffir-Simpson scale. The National Hurricane Center predicts the storm will move toward land on Mexico’s Baja California early Sunday. Winds are expected to weaken as it reaches the coast, but the storm will bring heavy rain to a large area.
“Flash and urban flooding, locally catastrophic, is expected, especially in the northern portions of the” Baja California Peninsula, according to the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center. “Higher gusts are expected well inland and will persist even after the system becomes post-tropical.”
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.
To track the latest path of Hurricane Hilary, click here.
Across California rain will continue through Sunday before ending Monday, said Alyson Hoegg, a meteorologist with commercial forecaster AccuWeather Inc. “Flooding is a major concern with this,” she 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.
Across the US, 715 flights are canceled for Sunday, the majority out of California and Nevada airports, according to FlightAware, an airline tracking company.
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 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.
“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.
In addition to Hilary, the hurricane center is tracking one tropical depression, as well as four other potential storms in the Atlantic Ocean.
–With assistance from Nurin Sofia and Michael Sin.
(Updates with hurricane strength in second paragraph, NHC comment in third paragraph.)
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