Hurricane Hilary set to bring heavy flooding to the Southwest

AccuWeather

Hilary is expected to weaken into a tropical rainstorm before it hits the southwestern U.S., but it will still bring life-threatening amounts of rain, potentially causing historic floods.

Transcript

00:00 Our top story tonight is taking us to the Pacific, off the coast of Mexico, where Hillary

00:04 remains a major hurricane.

00:07 Tonight concerned, the storm will unleash over a year's worth of rain on parts of the

00:11 Southwest over a period of just a few days.

00:14 And folks, AccuWeather chief meteorologist Jonathan Porter says Hillary is not your average

00:20 tropical system.

00:22 We are talking about a very unusual and a dangerous setup here across the Southwestern

00:27 United States.

00:28 How often is it that we see the track of a tropical storm right up into Southern California

00:35 and to the Northwest?

00:37 Not very often.

00:38 This is an unusual setup.

00:40 That said, I want to point out we are not talking about hurricane conditions in Southern

00:44 California.

00:47 Porter says tropical storm conditions will be possible, along with the risk for catastrophic

00:52 flooding in the Southwest.

00:57 You got it, folks.

00:58 We already have some thunderstorms with flash flooding and severe wind going on well out

01:03 ahead of Hillary, which is well off of Cabo San Lucas on the southern tip of the Baja

01:08 Peninsula.

01:09 But look at what's happening here across Arizona.

01:12 There's a surge of moisture here, folks.

01:14 Boy, we've got flash flood warnings going on across Southeastern California, south of

01:19 Las Vegas.

01:20 A lot of lightning out here.

01:21 This is a dangerous situation.

01:23 South of Phoenix, down near the Mexican border, we do have severe thunderstorms there with

01:28 60 mile an hour winds and even some quarter-sized hail.

01:32 So if you are in the vicinity of these storms here, folks, take it under advisement.

01:37 Now if you do live in Southern California, Arizona, Southern Nevada, you saw Chief Meteorologist

01:44 John Porter showing Hillary's eye path.

01:47 We're going to show it to you again because some of the same areas getting hit now with

01:51 some of the heavy weather, well, you're going to see a lot worse as we head over the next

01:55 several days.

01:56 And if you look at the timing of Hillary's path here, now this is watching the center

02:00 of the storm and also tracking the intensity.

02:02 Right now the water is very warm where Hillary is located.

02:06 It is an El Nino year, and that means the water in this part of the ocean is warmer

02:10 than average.

02:11 So it's a strong storm.

02:12 But as it moves north, it will move into some cooler water.

02:14 Notice the intensity getting a little bit less and less as far as the wind.

02:17 But don't let that fool you, because even though it will make landfall here in Southern

02:21 California into Sunday as most likely a tropical storm, it's not going to be much about the

02:27 wind as so much it is the rain and the flooding.

02:30 This could be a catastrophic flooding situation for portions of Southern California, even

02:35 in L.A. and San Diego.

02:37 You could see a few inches of rain, but in the interior it will be a lot more.

02:40 So this is a look at Hillary now.

02:42 It has winds of 130 miles an hour near its center.

02:45 It is a Category 4 storm.

02:46 If it does become a Category 5, it will be the first one of the season in either ocean.

02:52 And this is a look at tracking Hillary moving forward.

02:55 Watch as the intensity drops off a bit because it moves into the cooler water.

02:59 And eventually in the Sunday to Tuesday time frame, it should transition to a tropical

03:04 storm and tropical rainstorm.

03:06 But flash flooding will be likely in that time period in the desert southwest.

03:10 We actually have a tropical storm watch for Los Angeles County, for San Diego County,

03:14 with a hurricane watch down the coast.

03:16 And also a flood watch for much of that region.

03:19 That's a good picture of where the heaviest of the rain is going to fall.

03:22 And in these mountainous areas, these valleys, hills, we're going to see some mudslides out

03:26 there too and possibly road washouts.

03:28 If you look at the rainfall forecast here, 4 to 8 inches of rain in some of these areas

03:33 of California especially, well that's a year's worth of rain in some of these spots.

03:37 Plus we had all the moisture over the winter and spring.

03:41 So we're going to have some issues here, folks, with some possible life-threatening flash

03:44 flooding.

03:45 We're going to see some moisture content in the future here.

03:47 Into Saturday, the storm is still well to the south of Southern California on Saturday.

03:52 But look at all that moisture being streamed in.

03:54 So the rain starts Saturday, continues into Sunday when that storm makes landfall, most

03:58 likely as a tropical storm somewhere between Los Angeles and San Diego and eventually moves

04:04 north.

04:05 So folks, that's the area with the life-threatening flooding.

04:07 We have to be advised, the next few days are going to be dangerous.

04:10 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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